552 



outside walls, instead of being compactly knit together, readily disin- 

 tegrate, and in tlie course of a shoeing or two those very portions in 

 Avhich the nails should obtain firm hold possess little more adhesion 

 than a bundle of broom corn. If the shoe fitted as it ought to do, a 

 touch of the rasp under each clinch would be all that was necessarj'-, 

 and even this much might advantageously be dispensed with. Plate 

 XX XXIV illustrates correct and incorrect fitting, figure 1 being the 

 right and figure 2 the wrong way. 



FITTING. 



In many countries what is called hot-fitting — that is to say, after the 

 foot has been trimmed and leveled, momentarilj^ applying the shoe at 

 a red heat to the foot — is generally ijracticed to the almost entire exclu- 

 sion of any other method, and the system is not only found to answer, 

 but receives the indorsement of the most competent authorities. The 

 climatic conditions which render the practice open to objection in this 

 hemisphere fortunately enable us to dispense with a procedure against 

 which there exists in the minds of many horse-owners a not unrea- 

 sonable prejudice, which, however, is directed at the abuse rather than 

 the intelligent application of a proceeding not necessarily^ hurtful in 

 itself. The advantage conferred by hot-fitting consists in the fact 

 that a more accurate accommodation is by this means more readily 

 obtained than by any other method, and the contact between hoof and 

 shoe can thus be made more intimate and enduring. In moist cli- 

 mates it is only by means of hot-fitting that a set of shoes can be got 

 to remain on for a reasonable length of time; but in no ]3art of this 

 country have I found any difficulty of this nature; indeed, on the con- 

 trary, shoes are usually allowed to remain on too long, especially in 

 the agricultural districts. It has frequently occurred to me, wdien 

 in the discharge of my duties as veterinarian to the Farmers' Institute 

 of Minnesota I have remonstrated with some local blacksmith at the 

 number of gigantic nails he employed in affixing a shoe, that I have 

 been assured that did the shoe not remain on for several months his 

 employer would be dissatisfied and would transfer his custom else- 

 where. Nothing could be more short-sighted nor more unreasonable 

 than such conduct. 



The hoof of the horse is in shape a truncated cone with the base 

 downwards; as it grows the circumference of the base consequently 

 increases, and the shoe fitted when it was newly put on after a time 

 becomes too small. It would bo just as reasonable for a horse-owner 

 to buy his little boy a i)air of shoes which just fitted him when he was 

 six years old, and then expect him to wear them until he was twelve, 

 as it is for him to require his dumb servant, who can not protest 

 against the infliction, to wear his shoes for months in succession with- 

 out resetting. A badly fitting shoe is to a horse as painful as a tight 

 boot is to his owner, and under no circumstances should shoes be 



