FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 75 



111 fitting the heels of front shoes, in all but gallop- 

 ing horses, the iron should generally extend slightly 

 behind the extremity of the horn. (Fig. 48.) Horses used 

 for galloping should have the end of the shoe just within 

 the termination of the horn, and it should finish with an 

 oblique extremity. (Fig. 50.) There is nothing gained by 



J 



Fig. 50.— Shoe fitted short at the heels. 



greater shortening, if the iron be fitted exactly to the 

 horn. Why shoes are often pulled off, when only just 

 the length of the hoof, is because they are not fitted close 

 enough, and very often because they are wilfully and 

 ignorantly designed to leave a space between hoof and 

 iron. This so-called "eased" heel is an unmitigated 

 evil. 



Surface-Fitting. — It is simple to direct that the 

 bearing-surface of a shoe should be exactly adapted to 

 the bearing-surface of a foot. It is not so simple to carry 

 out. When the horn of the lower surface of a foot is 

 thin, any uneven pressure — i.e.. pressure applied directly 

 to one spot — soon causes injury, pain and lameness. 

 When a good thick layer of horn exists, uneven pres- 

 sures are less injurious, because the horn distributes 

 them over a wide surface. Good workmanship is dis- 

 played by leaving no uneven pressure, and by so fitting 

 a shoe that it shall do no harm. With a narrow shoe — 

 one only the width of the wall — no uneven pressure can 

 be applied to the sensitive foot, but such a shoe is seldom 

 used, as it is too light to afTord sufficient wear. A wide 

 shoe with a fiat foot surface is easily fitted on all concave 

 feet— 1.6., on all hind and most fore feet. To make use of 

 the whole bearing-surface, a shoe must rest evenly from 

 toe to heel— the flat surface of the shoe must take a level 

 bearing on the whole flat bearing-surface of the foot. 



