A SURPRISING EFFECT. 37 



the man who had them in charge, like a majority of others, was ob- 

 stinate in sticking to the old system^. It was not long until he 

 " sprang " one of the tendons between the ankle and foot, and he 

 had to be thrown out of training. The shoe had evidently been piit 

 on without proper care having been taken in giving a true bearing, 

 the greater pressure being on the inside quarter and heel, and the 

 horn, on that side, was forced up until there was quite an elevation 

 at the coronet. "When I got him home the tendon was considerably 

 enlarged, but the inflammation had subsided. I treated the enlarge- 

 ment with the biniodide of mercury preparation, and one application 

 reduced the enlargement so that it could not be detected that there 

 had been an injury. I poulticed the coronet with boiled tia-nips, 

 and, until I commenced to drive him again, allowed him to run bare" 

 foot in a small enclosure. The foot, below the injury, showed the 

 effects of the wrong set of the shoe, and, the result of the inflamma- 

 tory action, the frog was shrunken and hard. Before turning him 

 out I pared the foot down at tlie toe, and shortened the wall at the 

 heel i;ntil the frog and bars touched the ground fii'st. 



A few weeks of this treatment had a siirprising efiect. The hard 

 elevation at the coronet became soft, and ere long it returned to its 

 normal condition ; the frog resumed its elasticity, and there was a 

 pei-ce]»tible widening of the heel above. I shod him with a tip which 

 would weish six ounces, and fixed so as to attach the Eureka toe- 

 weight, my object being to give a further test of track and road work 

 on a trot, before he was put in training to run again. Like a majority 

 of horses, he wore the hind shoes much faster than those in front, the 

 outside of both being most worn. The usual shoe was put on his 

 hind feet, with slots to fasten a toe-boot on. His woi'k was varied, 

 pai-tly on the ti-ack, at which time he was hitched to a sulky, and 

 when on the road a wagon with two persons in it was the vehicle 

 used. The streets of Oakland are noted for the rapid attrition of the 

 iron, but even daily driving of this horse on them did not wear away 

 the horn as fast as it was produced. This result on the fore feet did 

 not lead me to the belief that tips would answer on the hind, there 

 beinjj so much difference in the action. The front feet strike the 

 groimd nearly perpendicular to the plane of the foot, wliile the hind 



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