150 HOESE-SHOEING. 



or contention ought to be dispensed with — at any rate until gentle- 

 ness and patience have been diligently employed and have failed. 

 If accustomed to companions, it should have one or two horses- 

 beside it in the forge. 



In describing the construction of the foot, we referred to the 

 shape of a well-formed hoof. We will presume the animal be- 

 fore us — like nearly every unshod horse — has hoofs of this de- 

 scription. 



The first step, usually, in the preparation of this part for the 

 shoe, is to level and shorten the lower margin of the wall, pare 

 the sole and frog, and open up the heels. These details may 

 not be carried out so fully in the first shoeing as subsequently, 

 but we will note them as they are commonly practised during the 

 horse's lifetime. 



Leveling the Wall is an important operation, which but few 

 artisans rightly understand or care to do properly. It has been 

 stated that unequal pressure on one side of the foot — one side of 

 the wall being lower than the other — is not only injurious to the 

 whole limb by the undue strain it imposes on the joints and liga- 

 ments, but that it tends to deform the hoof and modify the growth 

 of the horn. 



It is, therefore, most essential that both sides of the hoof be 

 of equal depth, in addition to the whole lower margin of the wall 

 being level ; and to make them so, the rasp should be applied to 

 this border in an oblique manner, across the ends of its fibres, to 

 bring them to the same length. 



A good idea of the necessary redaction to be effected on either 

 side will be derived from an inspection of the limb from the knee 

 or hock downward whenjplaced firmly and straight upon the ground. 

 Any deviation of the hoof to the inside or outside — most frequently 

 it is the former— can be readily detected by looking at the leg and 

 hoof in front. 



