586 



HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



The old shoes must be carefully removed, in order that 

 the crust of the hoof be not broken. Only two shoes 

 to be taken off at once, and these diagonal ones — near 

 hind and off fore, and vice versa; all the old nails and 

 fragments of these, if present, to be extracted. 



' 2. With an ordinary rasp cut away the angle of the 

 lower border of the wall around the whole circumference 

 of the foot, so as to straighten it and form a bevel or 

 slope, which greatly facilitates the employm^ent of the 

 grooving-knife. 



'3. On this bevelled edge form the groove to receive 

 the shoe, but do not cut it so deep or so wide as the 

 thickness of the sole and width of the wall, the limit of 

 the latter being the zone or white-line that marks the 

 separation of these two portions, just within the track of 

 the old nails (fig. 196). 



'4. Mould the hot shoe on 

 the beak of the anvil by gentle 

 blows, so as to give it, either 

 from memory or by measure- 

 ment on an old shoe, the shape 

 of the foot, heating and reheat- 

 ing it until it is perfectly adapted, 

 border to border, to the wall. If 

 the horse wears its shoes quickly, 

 the outer branch may be left thicker than the inner one. 



'5. Make the shoe hot, and fit it into the groove by 

 holding it there, but ivithout pushing it tojvards the su/e, 

 taking great care not to leave it so long as to burn, or 

 even heat, the living tissues which are very near this 

 cavity. A few seconds are sufficient for this operation. 



/ '^''''^''i^ii'i'/iiM 



fig. 196 



