82 SHOEING. 



that are tough enough to stand hunting, or battering 

 on a hard road, when the shoe does not come well 

 home. They seldom have much beneficial effect on 

 contraction, because the heels are never sufficiently 

 lowered when a three-quarter shoe is worn ; and if the 

 heels, when the pasterns are long, were to be suffici- 

 ently lowered, too great stress would be thrown on 

 the back sinews, unless more horn at the toe is pared 

 away, as I am about to explain, under Tips. 



Tips are equally objectionable on this principle, 

 and more so if the horse is to be worked (though not 

 quite so liable to get imbedded in the foot). But 

 when a brittle hoof is laid up from contraction, a tip 

 with two nails on each side, close to the toe, will 

 save the crust without any impediment to the heels 

 opening ; yet there are two errors universally com- 

 mitted in India in putting on a tip. The heel of the 

 tip is always too thick ; it should slope down to as 

 fine an edge as a dinner-knife blade, and the horn to- 

 wards the toe should have as much extra pared away, 

 after the foot is finished cutting, as directed under 

 " CUTTING THE HOOF," as the tip is thick ; then the 

 horse is not thrown in the slightest degree more than 

 natural on the heel, which is of great consequence 

 with an oblique pastern. Secondly, a tip should al- 

 ways be narrow. A horse on soft turf, or Bombay 

 sands, may be trotted, or gently cantered, or put in 

 the lounge, with benefit to contraction, and no fear 

 of strain, when tips are made strictly in this way : 

 and if put on good strong black feet, with open heels, 

 they will prevent contraction taking place, and answer 

 very well for ordinary riding, or even for hunting, in 

 some of the sandy soils of India. 



