642 



SHOEING. 



easy to prepare for the shoe, we will consider first. For colts 

 requiring to be driven around in harness, tips or thin plates only 

 would be sufficient. In such a case, simply trim off the wall in 

 front down to a level with the sole, and adjust to, and nail on 

 with about four small nails, a small thin strip of steel or iron a 



little broader than the 

 thickness of the wall. Steel 

 would be best, because it 

 admits of being made light- 

 er, and wears longer. The 

 heels and frog should not 

 be interfered with unless 

 one heel is much higher 

 than the other, when it 

 should be lowered suffi- 

 ciently to restore the proper 

 adjustment. The objection 

 to tips is that, as the toe is 

 growing, the heels are 

 wearing, which in time 

 would be likely to increase 



the strain upon the flexor 

 58,-Tip about as it should be adjusted. ^^ ^ -^ appendages . 



This disproportion of wear would be more rapid and noticeable 

 should the roads be wet and gravelly, as moisture and grit soften 

 the horn and cause it to break and wear away more rapidly, but 

 not so much as may be supposed on paved streets and mud roads. 

 The writer saw several horses in New York City that had been 

 shod with tips with decided benefit to the health of the feet and 

 without any apparent disproportion or wearing down of the frog 

 and quarters, though the iron was worn down fully a quarter of 

 an inch. The parts became, as it were, hardened and polished, 

 thereby resisting the wear almost as much as the iron. If the colt 

 or horse is used but moderately, and the roads not very stony, 

 tips, if properly fitted and put on, will be found of decided ad- 

 vantage. They are necessary in cases where there is a lack of 

 nutrition, and an unhealthy and slow growth of horn usually fol- 

 lowing laminitis. 



AS there has been much discussion among writers in relation 



