BAK SHOKS. 499 



dent, and there will not be, as is too often the case, the cutting, 

 paring, and injuring of the foot, in order to make it fit the shoe. 

 More injury than would be readily believed is done to the foot 

 by contriving to get on it too small a shoe. 



Clips are often necessary, in order more securely to fasten 

 the shoe. They are little portions of the upper edge of the 

 shoe hammered out, and turned up on the crust, and fitted in a 

 little depression made in the crust. They prevent the shoe from 

 being loosened or torn off, both in rapid action and heavy 

 draught, and are therefore used on all heav}^, and on many light 

 horses. They are sometimes placed on the side of the shoe, and 

 at the beginning of the quarters, and on all horses that are ac- 

 customed to paw violently with their feet. Necessity alone, 

 however, will justify their use. 



The calkin is a prolongation and turning down of the shoe 

 at the heel, enabling the animal to dig his foot more firmly into 

 the ground, and with more advantage throw his weight into the 

 collar ; but it is an abominable and most injudicious practice to 

 place the calkin on one side alone, as is too often done ; an un- 

 equal direction and distribution of the weight and bearing of 

 the foot is often given, which is necessarily productive of mis- 

 chief. Few are the cases which will justify the use of calkins 

 on the fore feet, or even on the hind feet, except they are of 

 equal height on each foot ; and few things are more injurious to 

 the foot of the horse than wearing the same shoe more than 

 three weeks or a month, let the work be heavy or light. The 

 shoe never should be heavier than the work absolutely requires. 

 This is acknowledged in the shoe of the hunter and the racer, 

 and will tell in the case of every horse after a hard day's work. 

 The calkin is required on the outside of the hind shoes of hunt- 

 ers, to prevent them from slipping at their leaps ; but the in- 

 side of the shoe must be made of a compensating thickness, to 

 afford an even bearing for the foot. 



The bar shoe is indispensable in most large stables. It is a 

 very simple contrivance, being nothing more than the contin- 

 uation of the common shoe over the heels. The bearing of the 

 shoe may thus be taken off from every weak and tender part 

 of the foot, and be either thrown on some other point which is 

 better able to bear the pressure, or diffused over the foot. It is 



