688 



SHOEING. 



FIG. 517. Concave bearing surface of shoe at heel. 



the skill and ingenuity brought to bear in the treatment. In fact, 

 herein lies most of the success in the management of all conditions 

 of contraction. In my experience I never have found a smith 

 who could catch the points of properly preparing the foot and fitting 

 the shoes for such cases. In every instance I have been compelled 

 to stand over the sheer, and dictate every movement, or do part 

 of the work myself. First, the want of judgment in preparing 



the foot ; second, 

 A ^ 



in adapting the 

 weight of the shoe 

 to the foot, and fit- 

 ting the clips so as 

 to enable opening 

 the quarters easily 

 and surely as de- 

 sired. 



Since writing 

 the foregoing, my 

 attention has been 

 called to a very 

 simple and practi- 

 cal method of opening the quarters for the cure of contraction, il- 

 lustrated in Fig. 522, and devised by Mr. David Roburg, a prac- 

 tical horse-shoer of great ingenuity and skill, who is located in 

 No. 106 West Thirtieth street, New York City * 



This spring he patented fourteen years ago, and has since used 

 it with marked success. Various methods of opening the heels on 

 this plan have been familiar to me for many years. Fig. 520 

 is a specimen of form which I copied from an old French work. 

 I also saw a spring almost the same in form and principle of ad- 



FIG. 518. Concave bearing surface of shoe between 

 heel and turn of foot. 



FIG. 519. Concave bearing surface of shoe 

 at turn of foot. 



* My attention has been particularly attracted to this gentleman's method of 

 treatment by two incidents : First, in a conversation, some years ago, with Mr. 

 Bonner, who is himself undoubtedly one of the closest and best living students of 

 the principles of shoeing in this or any other country, by his stating that Mr. 

 Roburg was probably the most profound student in the art of shoeing in the coun- 

 try; second, by learning at the Columbia Veterinary College of his remarkable 

 success in the cure of a case of lameness that was pronounced by one of the highest 

 authorities in the city as an incurable case of navicular-joint lameness. Special 

 reference will be made to his method of treatment for this difficulty under the head 

 of Navicular-Joint Lameness. 



