86 ARTISTIC HORSE-SHOEING. 



to cripple our horses in their front feet by short shoes in 

 order to keep the hind feet from striking ? Let us try to 

 find out wliat forging- is anyhow. It is simply that the 

 horse has more action behind than in front. The hind feet 

 are thrown forward and strike the front feet before they 

 can get out of the way. Obviously the only way to over- 

 come this trouble is to increase the action of the horse in 

 front and retard it behind. To do this I use a heavy toe- 

 weight shoe on the front foot to make the horse reach 

 farther. After the front shoe has been nailed on, take a 

 rule and measure the distance from the coronet to the 

 bottom part of the toe. Also observe the slant of the front 

 foot. Then measure the hind foot the same way and it will 

 be found in most cases that the hind foot is from ^ to 1 

 inch the shortest. The shorter the foot the quicker it can 

 be raised of course. Now I place my shoe on the hind foot 

 so that the toe will project enough to make the distance 

 from the coronet to the bottom of the shoe the same as tlie 

 distance from the coronet to the bottom of the shoe on the 

 front foot. The longer the hind foot is the longer time it 

 takes for the horse to raise it in traveling. To set the 

 shoe back on the hind foot onl^^ makes the horse forge 

 all the moi'e, for he is able to get his hind foot up much 

 quicker than his front foot. Then if you let the shoe 

 extend out pretty well behind and make the projecting 

 portion pretty heavy it will tend to delay the action of the 

 feet behind and prevent the horse raising his feet so higli, 

 and if he does not raise his feet so lugli he will not of 

 course throw them so far forward and your object is 

 accomplished. 



