30 THE EOESS'S FOOTy 



dispensed with, excepting, perhaps, for very heavy draft, 

 where their ends, by entering the ground, may prevent the 

 foot from slipping backwards, and may thus enable the toe to 

 obtain a firmer hold. For carriage and riding horses I much 

 prefer to have the shoe, for the last two inches, made gradu- 

 ally thicker towards the ground surface, the last inch being 

 plane with the ground ; and I believe that such a form often 

 prevents strains of the back sinews, when a horse is suddenly 

 stopped with his hind feet far under him, or when he has to 

 hold back a carriage against a steep hill. 



The toe being the part of the hind shoe which is exposed 

 to the greatest wear, requires to have considerable substance 

 given to it, and should always be accompanied by a strong 

 narrow clip turned up in front of the hoof, to obviate the dan- 

 ger of the shoe being forced back upon the foot, a circum- 

 stance very likely to happen where a clip is not employed^ 

 Clips on the side of the foot are of very doubtful advantage in 

 retaining the shoe, and are decidedly objectionable, as occu- 

 pying the place of nails, which would perform the duty much 

 more efficiently, and inflict less injury upon the horn. The 

 common objection urged against a clip at the toe, viz. that it 

 causes the unpleasant noise called " forging," arises from the 

 abuse rather than the use of it ; for if we consider for a mo- 

 ment how " forging" is occasioned, we shall see that a stout 

 narrow clip, properly let into the horn at the toe, is not at all 

 likely to produce it, although a broad clumsy one, extending 

 from side to side of the toe, occasionally may. 



Before a horse can advance his fore foot, he must disen- 

 gage it from the ground ; — to effect this he is obliged to raise 

 it in a direction inclining upwards and backwards, and, if he 

 happen to dwell in the performance of this preliminary move- 

 ment, the hind foot, which is propelled forwards and down- 

 wards, to be deposited beyond the spot that was the moment 

 before occupied by the fore foot, comes into collision with 

 it, and forces the toe, clip and all, into the hollow of the 

 fore foot turned up ready to receive it. Now in doing this 

 the clip is not brought into immediate contact with iron, but 

 is struck against either sole or frog, as the case may be, and 

 cannot produce any very audible sound : the truth is, that the 

 offensive noise is caused by the meeting of the edges of the 

 two shoes at the points, where the hind shoe is stopped from 

 entering further into the opening of the fore shoe. 



These points of contact are almost always indicated by a 

 bright spot on each side of the rim of the hind shoe, and ar® 



