PREPARING THE FOOT. 7 



PREPAKING THE FOOT. 



You must begin by taking off one of the old 

 sboes^ and I say one, because the other should 

 always be left on, for the horse to stand upon : 

 he is sure to stand quieter upon a shod foot than 

 he can upon a bare one; and it will prevent his 

 breaking the crust. Raise every one of the clenches 

 with the buffer, and, if the shoe will not then 

 come off easily, loosen some of the nails with the 

 punch; but never tear the shoe off by main force: 

 it splits the crust, and widens the nail-holes. . The 

 shoe being off, you should rasp the edge of the 

 hoof all round, and take out any stubs that may 

 be left in the crust. Then you must pare out the 

 foot; and this requires both care and thought. If 

 the horse has a strong, upright foot, with plenty 

 of horn, you should shorten the toe, lower the 

 heels and crust, and cut out the dead horn from 

 the sole, and also from the corners between the 

 heels and the bars; the best way of doing this 

 is to pare the bars down nearly even with the 



