716 SHOEING. 



English Veterinary Profession in England, in his work on Shoes 

 and Horse-shoeing, says: 



" By dint of knife and rasp, the dimensions of the organ, the 

 foundation of the edifice, have been greatly reduced, and the animal 

 rests on a narrower basis. The sole has been carefully denuded of 

 its protecting horn, until the thin pellicle of newly secreted material 



is exposed and readily yields to the 

 thumb. The frog is scientifically reduced 

 on every side, the heels or commissures 

 are well opened up, the bars are reduced 

 in size, and fantastically delineated, and 

 the portion of the crust between them and 

 the seat of the corn as carefully carved 

 out a la Miles. The plantar surface of 

 the foot altogether is much more concave 

 than it was previously, and it looks like a 

 master-piece of workmanship. It may 

 present something like the shape, when 

 prepared for the shoe, seen in Fig. 562. 

 " A shoe is then fitted to the foot. In 

 all probability it is then too small ; it has 



FIG. 5^lFoo7^Tessively J wi ^ e ' flat , ground surface the foot sur- 

 tace has a plane border on which the crust 

 rests, and the remainder is beveled to 



avoid contact with the abnormally thin sole. When this metallic- 

 plate is fastened on the hoof, and the horse once more rests on the 

 limb, the foot has no longer its natural bearing. The whole weight 

 of the horse, as well as any other weight he may have to sustain 

 on his back, is borne by the crust of the foot alone. The frog is 

 elevated above the ground, and the sole dare not come near it. In 

 fact, the shoe has a very wide surface or web to protect the sole of 

 the poor mutilated foot from the injury likely to be inflicted by 

 stones on -the road, injury that before shoeing could have been 

 resisted far better by nature's protection. 



" The shoe, as we have seen, was too small ; or rather the farrier 

 imagined the plantar surface which supported the weight and 

 strain so admirably in a natural condition, to be too large ; so 

 when the metal plate has been securely attached, a large portion of 

 the hoof hangs over it the best and strongest portion ; and this 

 has to be removed with the rasp or toe-knife. The nails have been 

 driven to a certain height in the wall, and as their extremities must 

 be riveted or clinched, these clinches must not be disturbed. The 

 over-hanging crust between them and the shoe, however, is rasped 

 away, and the face of the foot presents a rounded or knobbed ap- 

 pearance, very unlike its natural outline. In all probability the 

 whole external surface up to the coronet is tastefully rasped and 

 polished, the varnish-like covering nature had spread over it is 

 carefully removed, and the fibres beneath are more or less damaged, 

 exposed to desiccation, and shrink; while below the clinches they 



