THE PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. 313 



While the horse is travelhng, dirt and gravel are apt to insinuate them- 

 selves between the web of the shoe and the sole. If the shoe were flat 

 they would be easily retained there, and would bruise the sole and be pro- 

 ductive of injury ; but when the shoe is thus bevelled off, it is scarcely pos- 

 sible for them to remain. They must be shaken out every time the foot 

 comes in contact with the ground. 



The web of the shoe is likewise of that thickness, that when the foot is 

 properly pared, the prominent part of the frog shall lie just within and above 

 its ground surface, so that in the descent of the sole the frog shall come 

 sufficiently on the ground, to enable it io act as a wedge, and to expand 

 the quarters, while it is defended from the wear and injury it would receive 

 if it came on the ground with the first and full shock of the weight. 



The nail holes are, on the ground side, placed as near the outer edge of 

 the shoe as they can safely be, and brought out near the inner edge of the 

 seating. The nails thus take a direction inward, resembling the direction 

 of the crust itself, and take firmer hold ; while the strain upon them in the 

 common shoe is altogether prevented ; and, the weight of the horse being 

 thrown on a flat surface, contraction is not so likely to be produced. 



The smith sometimes objects to the use of this shoe on account of its 

 not being so easily formed as one composed of a bar of iron, either flat or 

 a little bevelled. It likewise occupies more time in the forming ; but these 

 objections would vanish, when the owner of the horse declared that he 

 would have him shod elsewhere ; or when he consented, as in justice he 

 should, to pay somewhat more for a shoe that required better workman- 

 ship and longer time in the construction. 



THE PREPARATION OF THE FOOT. 



We will suppose that the horse is sent to the forge to be shod. If the 

 master would occasionally accompany him there, he would find it much to 

 his advantage. The old shoe must be first taken off. We have something 

 to observe even on this. It was retained on the foot by the ends of the 

 nails being twisted off, turned down, and clenched. These clenches 

 should be first raised, which the smith seldom takes the trouble thoroughly 

 to do : but after going carelessly round the crust and raising one or tv/o 

 of the clenches, he takes hold first of one heel of the shoe, and then of the 

 other, and by a violent wrench separates them from the foot, and by a 

 third wrench, applied to the middle of the shoe, he tears it off. By this 

 means he must enlarge every nail hole, and weaken the future hold, and 

 sometimes tear off portions of the crust, and otherwise injure the foot. 

 The horse generally shews by his flinching that he suffers by the violence 

 with which this preliminary operation is performed. The clenches should 

 always be raised or filed off; and where the foot is tender, or the horse is 

 to be examined for lameness, each nail should be partly punched out. 

 Many a stub is left in the crust, the source of future annoyance, when this 

 unnecessary violence is used. 



The shoe having been removed, the smith proceeds to rasp the edges of 

 the crust. Let not the stander-by object to the apparent violence which he 

 uses, or fear that the foot will suffer. It is the only means he has, with 

 safety to his instruments, to detect whether any stubs remain in the nail- 

 holes ; and it is the most convenient method of removing that portion of 

 the crust into which dirt and gravel have insinuated themselves. 

 \. Next comes the important process of paring out, with regard to which 

 it is almost impossible to lay down any specific rules. This, how- 

 ever, we can say with confidence, that more injury has been done by the 



