XVIII. SCALPING. 



This is a very dangerous fault. When a horse is mak- 

 ing speed and begins scalping, he is unbalanced quite bad, 

 he needs changing before being speeded again for if you 

 don't he or she will get rough gaited, or will begin carrying 

 the hind leg between front ones, hopping, or trying to run 

 with hind action. The first thing to do is to examine the 

 hind feet, you are likely to find the hind feet a lot higher 

 on the inside than on the outside nine times out of ten. 

 Some horses will begin scalping after their feet get too 

 long. In horses with excessive action, carrying too much 

 weight in front will cause scalping at speed. Horses with 

 very little action in front and not carrying weight enough 

 will be liable to scalp at speed. When shoeing for scalping 

 use a square toe shoe, light or heavy, as may be required 

 by the front action. 



Feet all out of proportion and at the wrong angle and 

 not level will cause scalping. Now if the animal has very 

 little hock action and mostly stifle action, I would lower 

 and shorten the toes of the hind feet as much as possible, 

 use a square toe shoe and raise the heels with a side calk, 

 this will shorten the stride and by adding some weight to 

 the hind shoe it will increase hock action. Most all scalp- 

 ing is done with front or outside toe of the front shoe 

 coming in contact with the coronet of hind foot. It hurts 

 the horse so much that he will try to find some way to 

 avoid it ; some trainers use a gaiting pole to prevent the 

 horse from going crooked in the shafts because of this fault. 



XIX. REMEDY FOR SCALPING. 



If the front action is low, long and of a sluggish nature, 

 shorten the toes of feet considerable and add about five 

 ounces more weight to the shoes, or more, if required to 

 create a more lofty knee fold. The action of some horses 



-23- 



