30 TIPS AND TOE-WEIGHTS. 



coin"' outside and some inside of the center of the front foot. When 

 the knee is fully bent, the fore foot is raised higher, and the hind foot 

 strikes the ground much in advance, and at nearly the same time as 

 the opposite fore foot touches the earth — so near that it is difficult for 

 the eye or ear to distinguish any difference. It is about the middle 

 of the stride when the feet come together, and further along the foot 

 is raised until, in some horses, the shin is struck, not unfrequently 

 as high up as the hock. When the shin is struck, it is generally done 

 with the lower, outside edge of the shoe, and there is less danger of 

 this injury when tips are worn. Any intelligent, close-observing 

 trainer of trotters will have noticed how colts endeavor to avoid the 

 injury. Some will twist themselves sideways and trot like a dog, 

 one hind foot going inside of the front ones, the other to the outside; 

 others make a soi-t of a jump behind, both being detrimental to speed. 

 Boots are applied, and there is little doubt that the improvement 

 in the trotters of the present day is greatly owing to the more intel- 

 ligent use of these adjuncts. Still, it is manifest that boots on the 

 hoofs of the hind feet, extending above the coronet, on the pasterns, 

 ankles and shins must, more or less, hamper the animal wearing them, 

 and if the difficulty can be obviated by a change of shoeing, it will 

 be a superior method of overcoming it. But if this change in the 

 shoeing gives a wrong bearing, an imnatin-al set of the feet or limbs, 

 the remedy would eventually be worse than the disease. The use of 

 tips present a better opportvmity to modulate the action than is pos- 

 sible to accomplish with shoes without endangering the feet and 

 limbs. An illustration, and one which has struck me with the 

 gi'eatest force, is the change in the action of the colt when first shod. 

 He has been broken and driven some, before anything is placed upon 

 his feet, and his trainer will tell you that there will be a favorable 

 change whenever he has the iron fastened to his hoofs. In ninety- 

 nine cases in a hundred, the result will be as predicted, and the 

 shoes, weighing in the neighborhood of a pound each, will increase 

 his speed by several seconds. I haye found a tip of not more than 

 six ounces to have the same effect. Again, a tendency to pace is 

 overcome by a heavier shoe or the resort to something else which has 

 been found to have an analagous effect. 



