REDUCING THE HOOF. 649 



Then the shoe is removed. This is a very simple 

 operation, and yet it requires tact and care : tact, that the 

 horse's limb and foot be not twisted by violently wrenching 

 off the shoe ; and care, that no nails or clenches are allowed 

 to remain in the crust, and that the latter be not broken. 

 It is better, after cutting the clenches clean off, to spring 

 the shoe gently at the inner or outer heel by means of the 

 pincers, prizing them softly forward, and then across the 

 foot — never outward — and withdrawing the nails one by 

 one. A glance is sufficient to show the state of the sole 

 and frog. The next step is to reduce the hoof to its 

 proper dimensions — and this is no trifling matter. On 

 this operation depends the true or false direction of the 

 limbs, and it is in this respect that grave errors are often 

 committed. It may be accepted as a truth, that the 

 ground-surface of the foot ought to be directly trans- 

 verse to the direction of the pastern, no matter how 

 defective the limb may be ; and it is in maintaining or 

 restoring this relation, and keeping the length of the toe 

 in harmony with that of the heels, that care and skill are 

 required. 



This is accomplished by reducing the crust. If the 

 pastern is perpendicular to the shank-bone, and the two 

 sides of the lower margin of the foot are directly trans- 

 verse to the line passing down from these, the crust has 

 only to be lowered equally on each side ; but if the 

 pastern deviates to the outside or inside, then more horn 

 must be taken away from one margin than the other, to 

 regulate this deviation. This operation, says M. Guy on, 

 ought to be accomplished with mathematical exactitude, 

 as a diflference in height between the sides of the foot of 



