CHAPTER III. 



Preparation of the Foot. 



The clieap wisdom of the amateur is often expressed 

 in the remark " the shoe should be fitted to the foot, not 

 the foot to the shoe.'"' Like many other dogmatic state- 

 ments, this is only the unqualified assertion of half a 

 truth. Foot and shoe have to be fitted to each otiier. 

 There are very few horses whose feet do not require con- 

 sidorable alteration before a shoe can be properly fitted 

 to them. As a rule, when a. horse arrives at the forge^ 

 the feet are overgrown and quite out of proportion. In 

 a few cases — as when a shoo has been lost on a journey — 

 the foot is worn or broken and irregularly deficient in 

 horn. In either instance, the farrier has to make alter- 

 ations in the lioof to obtain the best bearing surface 

 before he fits a new shoe. The claim often made for 

 some novel inventions in horse shoes, " that they may be 

 fitted and applied in the stable by a groom or stableman," 

 is evidence of a sad misunderstanding of the art of horse- 

 shoeing. If shod feet always remained of the same 

 shape, replacement of shoes would be a very easy matter, 

 but they never do. The livdug foot is cous'antly chang-- 

 ing, and therefore the man entrusted with fitting shoes. 

 to it must know what its proper form should be. When, 

 he finds it disproportionately overgrown, he must know- 

 how much horn to remove — where to take awaj'' and 

 where to leave alone. He must not carry in his head a 

 theoretical standard of a perfect foot, and attempt to 

 reduce all feet to that shape. He must make allowance 

 for varieties of feet, and ftn- many little differences of 

 form that present themselves in practice. He has, in 

 fact, to prepare the foot for a shoe, and it is just as- 

 important to do this properly as it is to prepare a shoe- 

 for the foot. To fit a shoe to a foot which has not been 

 properly prepared, may be even more injurious to tile- 

 horse than *'to fit the foot to the shoe." 

 so 



