208 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



shall be as small, and as few, and as far from the heels as 

 may be consistent with the security of the shoe ; and that, 

 for light work at least, the shoe shall not be driven on so 

 closely and firmly as is often done, nor the points of the 

 nails be brought out so high up as is generally practised. 



The Hinder Shoe. — As the hinder limbs are the chief 

 instruments of progression in the animal, except while 

 walking, the whole stress of the frame rests upon them. In 

 consequence of this, the shoes of the hind feet are always 

 made broader than those of the fore feet, and the toe is 

 widened still more by rasping. When there is the slightest 

 tendency to overreaching, the toes of the hind feet should 

 be shortened by sloping in the surface, and rendering the 

 shoe somewhat less projecting than the toe. TJie hinder 

 differs a little from the fore foot, in being straighter in the 

 quarters. The nails in the hinder shoe should be situated 

 nearer to the heel than in the fore shoe. 



Calkins. — It is scarcely possible that a shoe thinner at 

 the heel than at the toe can ever be serviceable; on the 

 contrary, it will generally occasion lameness by throwing 

 undue stress on the flexor tendon. It will be a fruitful 

 source of sprain of the back sinews, also of navicular disease. 

 On the other hand, a shoe a little elevated at the heel may 

 favour a leg weak in the back sinews. In the hinder foot, 

 and particularly in draught horses, custom has sanctioned 

 the use of a shoe raised at the heel by calkins. This certainly 

 gives the horse a better purchase ; enables him to descend 

 a hill more securely, as well as to draw a heavier load. A 

 draught horse always digs his toe into the ground when he 

 has a heavy weight to move ; and be can do this more 

 effectually when the heel is raised. But this practice is 

 carried to an absurd and ruinous length. In many horses 

 of heavy draught, the only bearing points — the only parts 

 of the shoe which touch the ground — are the tip of the toe 

 and the end of the calkin. There must be inequality of 

 pressure here, and by it the ossification of the cartilages, 

 enlargement of the pasterns ; and other diseases with which 

 the draught-horse is often afflicted, are too well accounted 

 for by shoes too high in the heel. 



Clij^s are portions of the upper edge of the shoe, hammered 

 out and turned up in such a way as to lap over the outer 

 surface of the crust, which is also pared awaj^ a little, to 

 bed the clip. Their use is to give better security in attaching 



