ERROR IN PARING THE SOLE. 125 



director of public opinion about horses, and not knowing that the 

 sole never attains more than a certain thickness, whether it be on 

 the gi'ound or not ! When thick enough it scales away, leaving a 

 new sole ready for any emergency below it. The sole, being pared, 

 required protection, and could not even be touched by the shoe. 

 Hence the necessity for the foot surface being beveled off, and hence 

 contracting corns and navicular disease. 



I do not say (because I don't know it) that a horse shod with tips, 

 and having: his frog as Natui^e made it, would never have navicular 

 disease, but it stands to reason that he has the best chance possible 

 of escaping it. Firstly, he minds where he is putting liis feet, and 

 does not bang them recklessly about; secondly, the thick horny frog 

 shields the navicular bone and perforans tendon. 



Otterbourne asks how Charlier shoes, in front only, answer 1 I 

 reply, very well ; but I prefer the nearest approach to nature all 

 round, excepting for hoi'ses drawing heavy loads, and they have been 

 discussed above. With the old-fashioned way of shoeing, only feet 

 of medium quality, neither too strong nor too weak, had any chance 

 of standing sound. Without shoes, sooner or later, all horses really 

 worked on the hard will be lame. With tips, all horses can do all 

 reasonable work, excepting those suffering from navicular disease. 

 Tips will not make lame horses sound at once ; but they give many 

 diseases of the foot the best possible chance of righting themselves, 

 especially if the owner of the horse possesses the quality of patience. 

 Last season I owned a mare who had such thin feet that she could do 

 nothing at all barefooted on the road. With short tips, however, 

 she had, if anything, rather too much action for a hunter. At 

 present I have a horse whose heels are quite on the ground ; yet he 

 goes better like this than he did with full shoes. Tips are no new 

 notion. The " lunette " shoe of Lafosse was a tip. I do not think 

 tips need be veiy narrow, unless they are let in a la Charlier. The 

 heels, however, should always be beaten down quite thin. Clips are 

 most useful in keeping light shoes or tips in their place ; but they 

 should on no account have a place cut out for them in the horn. Let 

 them just be hammei-ed on the outside of the crust. Also let the 

 clinches be cut off and knocked down, but not rasped, as the crust is 



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