THE SHOEING OF THE HORSE 199 



round, and very seldom can he lie upon his side, and stretch 

 out his limbs. He stands here generally for twenty hours 

 out of the twenty-four, with iron upon his feet, resting 

 upon wet stones or damp bricks. No wonder if the feet 

 should become cold ; and those who are accustomed to 

 bleed horses from the foot can tell how cold the first drop 

 or two of blood flows from the part, owing to muscular 

 action being suspended, which is necessary to circulation 

 and to vital warmth. 



As we address ourselves specially to those who love the 

 horse, it will not be too much to ask the horse-owner to 

 spare an hour a month to see his horse or horses shod. 

 Many a valuable horse may thus be saved some suffering, 

 if not injury. Do not have your horses shod at an ill- 

 lighted place, but one with side-lights as w^ell as sky-lights. 

 Cast your eyes about for signs of drinking, and see that 

 there is no screaming or bawling at the horses, rough 

 tossing of the hammers and tools, and a prevalence of cant 

 and self-sufficiency — all these we have seen, but never in 

 conjunction with good shoeing and trustworthiness. See, 

 too, that in tying up, the halter or rope does not annoy the 

 horse's ears or fore top, rub his eye, or constrict his throaty 

 as a " vicious '' resistance, as it is called, is often thus 

 established. 



With these preliminary remarks, we shall proceed to the 

 Practice of Shoeing. 



Preparation of the Foot. — The horse is standing in the 

 forge with his old shoes on, and these have to be taken off". 

 We have gathered much of the character of the smith by 

 watching the way he has gone about this seemingly trival 

 preliminary. See that he handles his '' buffer " ^ properly, 

 and does not cut pieces out of the hoof in raising each 

 clench separately. The clenches of the nails should be 

 raised, which few do ; but, after turning one or two of 

 them, he seizes first one heel, and then the other, and 

 wrenches them loose, then seizing the toe with his 

 pincers, tears off" the iron. By this the hold of the new 

 shoe is weakened, the nail-holes enlarged, and sometimes a 

 portion of the hoof splintered or torn off". The horse often 

 shows that he suffers by a sudden shrinking or trembling 

 when the pincers are thus used. Stubs, too, are sometimes 

 left in the crust of the foot by this off'-handed violence, and 

 ^ The buffer is a square, short iron knife. 



