HORSE-SHOEING. 195 



Rasping. — Very different to this treatment is that practised 

 in nearly every forge, where the front of the hoof is rasped most 

 unmercifully as high as the coronet. Indeed, in the majority of 

 books on farriery it is recommended that, though the wall 

 ought not to be rasped above the clenches, this must be done 

 below them; evidently ignorant of the fact that nearly as 

 much, if not more, harm is done by this operation below than 

 than above these rivets. 



Those who study what I have said concerning the structure 

 of the wall of the hoof will readily enough understand the 

 amount of injury inflicted on the hoof by this rasping. 



Over the whole external face of this part there appears to be 

 spread a fine translucent horn, which looks like a varnish, whose 

 office in all probability is to prevent undue drying of the hoof 

 and consequent brittleness. Immediately beneath this are the 

 dense resisting fibres of the wall, which are intended to resist 

 wear, and are best adapted to support a shoe, through the 

 medium of the nails ; in fact, they are the fibres which ought to 

 perform this duty, as beneath them, toward the inside of the 

 wall, the horn rapidly becomes soft and spongy, and more like 

 the pith of a rush. 



In consequence of the farrier having neglected to remove a 

 sufficient amount of horn from the lower margin of the wall, 

 when preparing the foot for the shoe, or having nailed on a plate 

 too small for its natural circumference, a large piece of the solid 

 material projects beyond the shoe, particularly in front and at 

 the sides. This is torn away by the rasp, after the clenches have 

 been laid down ; and when this has been done what do we see ? 

 The wall of the foot, instead of coming down from the coronet to 

 the shoe in all its integrity and evenness of slope, as soon as it 

 reaches the clenches is chopped abruptly downward, giving the 

 foot a stump or club-like appearance, and greatly diminishing 

 the extent of its bearing surface. The greatest evil, however, is 



