39 



called an "over-reach," and which is erroneously supposed to 

 be caused by the front of the shoe at the toe, whereas it 

 is invariably done by the hach edge of the welj at the 

 toe, which in an old shoe becomes as sharp, as a knife, 

 and often cuts out a piece from the soft parts immediately 

 above the lieel of the fore foot as clean, as any knife 

 could have done it. To avoid this accident, which sometimes 

 produces very great inconvenience, the back edge of the web 

 all around the toe shoidd be filed away, until it presents 

 a blunt, rounded surface, which, if it should fail to prevent 

 the over-reach altogether, will at least preserve the parts 

 from being wounded. 



While treating of the hind shoe, I may perhaps be expected 

 to give some directions for obviating the inconvenient habit, 

 which some horses have of " cutting ; " but, as each individual 

 horse has his own particular mode of doing it, any general 

 rule, as applied to the shoe, must of necessity fail to meet 

 the requirements of the great majority of cases. Our first 

 care shoidd be to acquaint ourselves with the exact part of 

 the shoe, with which the injury is inflicted ; until this is 

 clearly ascertained, we shall be working in the dark, and 

 most probably do a great deal more, than is necessary. The 

 plan, I have always adopted, has been, to apply a boot covered 

 with wet pipe-clay to the injured leg, and then to trot the 

 horse some little distance : the result has been the transfer 

 of a portion of the pipe-clay to the ofiending part of the opposite 

 shoe, thereby indicating the necessity of the removal of that 

 part. The small extent, and little suspected situation of such 

 part is sometimes truly surprising. I once m a case of 



