HORSESHOEING. 



135 



Fig. 145. 



L. Rubber Pads. 



The increasing use of asphalt, tarvia and other hard, smooth 

 and slippery materials for surfacing citj streets and country- 

 highways has not only made travelling in flat and even in 

 calked 'shoes precarious, but has aggravated all those injuries 

 produced by concussion. 



To prevent slipping and the injurious effects of concussion 

 a great many shoes have been devised, in which are incor- 

 porated such materials 

 as hemp rope, linen fibre, 

 papier mache, cork, wood, 

 bast, felt and rubber, but 

 all fail in greater or les- 

 ser degree to meet prac- 

 tical requirements. 



Rubber, though the 

 most expensive of these 

 materials, is the most 

 resilient and takes the 

 best grip on smooth pave- 

 ment. A pad of rubber, 

 wide enough to cover the 



branches of the frog a light driving pad, gummed and stitched to a 



alone, or the branches of leather sole; seen from the ground surface and in pro- 



" file. Used with a seven- to ten-ounce short shoe, a, 



■the frog' and the but- stitching; b, rubber bar under buttress and frog; c, 



tresses of the hoof, firmly 



cemented to a leather sole, constitutes the modem rubber pad 



(Figs. 145, 146, 147). 



The frog-and-buttress pad used with a short shoe is to be 

 preferred to the earlier frog pad which takes a full shoe. 



The advantages of rubber pads are: 



1. They prevent slipping upon asphalt and other smooth, 

 dry surfaces. 



2. They diminish concussaon, and are valuable in the 



