SHOEING. 75 



leg from side to side. This cMefly arises from the bad 

 form of the shoe. It is quite clear that in going up 

 steep hills the toe of the hind foot takes the first bearing 

 on the ground; indeed some horses on these occasion! 

 hardly press the ground with their heel at all. It must 

 be quite evident that the greater expanse of bearing we 

 give a foot on the earth the firmer must be the tread, 

 and as the hind foot is the great fulcrum by which a 

 horse gets uphill with a load, too much attention cannot 

 be given to effect the fii-mest hold for it. The toes of 

 shoes are very naturally made round or nearly so, the 

 consequence of this is that the horse's toe comes to the 

 ground on a very small segment of a circle; in fact on a 

 pivot, the effect of which is that the foot turns to the 

 right and left and the legs and hocks naturally turn with 

 the turn of the foot. This of course jjroduces the twist- 

 ing of the hocks I allude to, and the leg not being able 

 to keep straight the horse loses a large portion of his 

 power. Spavins, curbs, thoropins and strained liga- 

 ments are the future and fatigue the immediate conse- 

 quence of such neglect. The shoe should be made square 

 at the toe, to the very extreme verge of the foot. Sure- 

 ly it is worth the trouble to see that a horse is properly 

 shod when we can increase his powers and comfort so 

 much by doing so. 



