102 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 



months. All that is necessary is care in fitting and 

 abstention from removal of too much horn at the part. 

 Of course, when the degree of lameness is such as to 

 suggest that matter is formed, the horn must be cut 

 -away, so as to afford an exit for it, but the majority of 

 corns are detected long before the stage of suppuration 

 has resulted from a bruise. 



A Burnt Sole. — In fitting a hot shoe to a foot it 

 sometimes hajjpens that the sensitive parts under the 

 sole at the toe are injured by heat. This is most likely 

 to occur with a foot on which the horn is thin, especially 

 if it also be flat or convex. Burning the sole is an injury 

 which must be put down to negligence. It does not 

 ■occur from the shoe being too hot, but from its being too 

 long retained, and maj^ be expected when the fireman is 

 seen holding a dull-red hot shoe on to a foot, with a 

 doormaii assisting to "bed it in" by pressing it to the 

 foot with a rasp. When the heat of a shoe penetrates 

 through the horn with sufficient intensity to blister the 

 sensitive parts of the foot, great pain and lameness 

 result. In many cases, separation of the sole from the 

 '"quick " takes place, and some weeks pass before the 

 horse can resume work. 



Treads are injuries to the coronet caused by the 

 shoe of the opposite foot, and are usually found on the 

 front or inside of the hind feet. The injury may take 

 the form of a bruise and the skin remain unbroken, it 

 may appear as a superficial jagged wound, or it rnay take 

 the form of a tolerably clean cut, in which case, although 

 at first bleeding is very free, ultimate recovery is rapid. 

 Bruises on the coronet — just where hair and hoof meet — 

 are always to be looked upon as serious. The slighter 

 cases, after a few days' pain and lameness, j)ass away, 

 leaving only a little line showing where the hoof has 

 separated from the skin. This separation is not serious 

 unless a good deal of swelling has accompanied it, and 

 oven then only time is required to effect a cure. In more 

 serious cases, an extensive slough takes place, and the 

 coronary band, which secretes the wall, may be damaged. 





