551 



horses, Avliose shoes must of course he made with reference to the 

 weiglit tliey liave to bear and the inordinate strain to whicli they are 

 subjected when the animal wlneli Avears tliem is at work, I am not 

 prepared to admit that it is l)yauy means necessary to add to the con- 

 cussion to wliich his feet are unavoidably subjected, by several i)ounds 

 of unyielding iron on each foot, when shoes weighing half as much 

 would serve the purpose equally well. The lamentably short career 

 of our city draft horse, which is usually determined by foot lameness 

 of one kind or another, is largely attributable to the aggravated 

 amount of battering on hard pavements which his needless weight of 

 armament entails. 



The upper su rface of the slioe should l:>e perfectly level. If the plane 

 of the web inclines from outside inward, it greatly adds to the una- 

 voidable tendency to contraction which shoeing invariably entails, 

 and there is a wealth of unwisdom in most of the clumsy attempts at 

 meclianically spreading the heels by making the inclination in the 

 contrary direction. It is true that in cases of malformation, or grave 

 alteration of the contour of the foot, good results are obtainable by 

 this or other mechanical means, but all such heroic remedies should 

 be undertaken only at the instance and under the immediate super- 

 vision of the veterinary practitioner; otherwise they are liable to do 

 harm instead of good. 



In France dilatation of the hoof by mechanical means is advocated 

 and practiced more than elsewhere, but the operation is performed 

 with the utmost exactitude, scrupulous care and delicacy, and under 

 the closest professional supervision. Even under these favorable con- 

 ditions the slightest accidental deviation not only defeats the object 

 in vievv^ but occasionally leads to untoward results. When con- 

 tracted feet have to be expanded there is a far more simple, safe and 

 at the same time effective means of attaining that end to be found 

 within the foot itself. By lowering the walls at the heels, so as to 

 restore frog pressure, the latter speedily recovers its lost character- 

 istics, and in a healthy condition gradually and naturally accomplishes 

 one of the very purposes for which the Great Architect placed it there. 

 It would seem to be unnecessary to say that the shoe sliould be so 

 shaped as to conform exactly to the natural tread of the foot, yet a 

 very common practice obtains of using a shoe of a uniform shape, often 

 less in circumference, if such a term is permissible, than the foot on 

 which it is to be nailed, and then rasping down the foot to fit it. It 

 is ol)viously easier to make the foot to fit the shoe than it is to make 

 the shoe to fit the foot; a stroke or two of the rasp effects the former, 

 but it is a far more arduous undertaking to modify the size and shape 

 of the shoe. The outcome of this pernicious practice is disastrous in 

 the last degree, more especially so in a dry climate like ours, as the 

 walls thus robbed of their natural covering permit the moisture of 

 the foot rapidly to evaporate, and the horn fibers, Avhich make up the 



