2i8 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



76). The African shoes, it will be observed, are somewhat 



fig- 75 



fig. 76 



square at the toe and approaching the little V in shape. 

 The central opening is somewhat triangular, and in the 

 Moorish shoe the heels are welded and bent up towards 

 the frog. As the horse can only suffer in the part that is 

 most sensitive, they think, and not in the part that is hard, 

 it is, of course, the frog that should be shielded from 

 accident. The shoes should therefore cover the frogs. 

 But this practice, and the undue curvature they give to 

 the heels of the metal plate, is productive of great injury 

 to the parts they were intended to protect ; pebbles and 

 gravel insinuate themselves between the shoe and the 

 frog, and seriously damage the latter ; while the point of 

 the shoe, pressing unduly on the heels, produces such pain 

 that the poor horse is often compelled to walk on his toes. 

 The sole pressure exercised by the shoe is decidedly bene- 

 ficial, and explains in a great measure the almost total 

 absence of contracted hoofs and various lamenesses which 

 are the bane of our horses. They give to the nail-heads 

 the form of a grasshopper's head, the only shape, they 

 allege, that allows the nails to be worn down to the last 



