FAULTY CONFORMATION 159 



the bar. Leaving these intact gives us two natural and 

 very potent protections against the contraction already 

 mentioned as impending. 



Where, by reason of the thinness of the horn or other 

 causes, sufficient paring to equalize the tread cannot be 

 practised, then the same end may be arrived at by the use 

 of special shoes. That branch of the shoe applied to the 

 half of the foot with the lower wall should be thickened 

 from above downwards. Or, on the same branch, may be 

 turned up a calkin of sufficient height for the purpose. Of 

 the two methods the first is preferable. 



In any case, whether depending upon paring, or upon 

 the use of a special shoe, the animal should be sent to the 

 forge quite often, for it is only by a well-directed, and 

 therefore constant, application of the principles here laid 

 down that improvement may be brought about. 



When marked contraction of one-half of the foot is 

 present, it will be best treated with the expanding shoe o. 

 Hartmann, already described in the section of this chapter 

 dealing with contracted heels (see Fig. 76). 



{b) The Curved Hoof. 



Definition. — The hoof with the wall of one side convex, 

 and that of the opposite side concave. Fig. 85, showing 

 (.he foot in section from side to side, gives an exact idea of 

 this malformation. 



Causes. — As was the case with the condition previously 

 described, this abnormality finds its primary cause in an 

 unequal distribution of weight due to vice of conformation 

 in the limb above, causing one side of the hoof to be higher 

 than the other. As a result of this, the wall that is in- 

 ordinately increasing in height commences to bulge out- 

 wardly (Fig. 85, a), while the opposite (Fig. 85, b) becomes 

 concave. 



The same state of affairs may be occasioned in the 

 forge by leaving one side of the foot too high, and subject- 

 ing the other to excessive paring for several consecutive 

 shoeings. 



