230 HOW TO SHOE A HORSE. 



From the concave foot the horn may be removed, "antil 

 the sole will yield to a moderate pressure. From the flat 

 foot, little need be pared : while the pumiced foot should 

 be deprived of nothing but the ragged parts. 



The crust should be reduced to a perfect level all round, 

 but left a little higher than the sole, or the sole will be 

 bruised by its pressure on the edge of the seating. 



The heels will require considerable attention. From 

 the stress which is thrown on the inner heel, and from the 

 weakness of the quarter there, the horn usually wears 

 away considerably faster than it would on the outer one ; 

 and if an equal portion of horn were pared from it, it 

 would be left low^er than the outer heel. The smith should 

 therefore accommodate his paring to the comparative wear 

 of the heels, and be exceedingly careful to leave them pre- 

 cisely level. 



Miles, after forcibly recommending that the frog (ex- 

 cept in very rai-e cases, of horses with unusually fast-grow- 

 ing frogs), should never be cut or pared; and giving 

 instances which have come under his own observation, and 

 which have demonstrated the truth of liis theory, says : 



The first stroke of the knife removes this thin horny 

 covering altogether, and lays bare an under surface, totally 

 unfitted, from its moist, soft texture, for exposure either to 

 the hard ground or the action of the air ; and in conse- 

 quence of such unnatural exposure it soon becomes dry 

 and shiinks: then follow cracks, — the edges of which 

 turning outwards form rags ; these rags are removed by 

 the smith at the next shoeing, whereby another such sur- 

 face is exposed, and another foundation laid for other 

 rags ; and so on, until at last the protruding, plump, elastic 

 cushion, interposed by nature between the navicular joint 

 and the ground, and so essential to its preservation from 

 injury, is converted by the mischievous interference of art 



