126 STRUCTURE OF THE FOOT. 



away the horn - grown more or less, according to the 

 length of time the shoes have been on and the quantity 

 of horn grown. If the foot is in a healthy condition, 

 it is seldom necessary to interfere with the sole and frog. 

 The sole and frog throw off horn by a natural process of 

 expoliation; but sometimes the shoe extends so close and 

 so far over the sole as to prevent this old horn from either 

 wearing or scaling off. When this is the case, it should be 

 dressed out, particularly at the heels, at the angles formed 

 between the bars and crust. The buttress is usually so large 

 and square edged as to make it unsuitable for doing this. 

 Even with the greatest care,*it is difficult, with such an in- 

 strument, to prevent cutting away too 

 much at some points, while there 

 cannot be enough cut away at others. 

 An English shave, with the end turned 

 back, like that of an instrument with 

 which to mark boards, is just the thing 

 for this purpose. While the object, 

 in the first place, ^should be to reduce 

 the hoof to its natural size, care should 

 be used not to cut away too much of 

 the wall; for, bear in mind, cutting 

 away too much must bring the shoe 

 against the sole, and forces driving the A Sound Fore-foot, prepared 

 nails too deep into the wall of the for the shoe, 



hoof, if not into the vascular part in- The heel of the crust. 

 side, which would not only cause 

 lameness, but be liable to induce the 

 secretion of matter, and very serious frog between them, e e The 

 consequences would follow. (See &*$ 



Causes Of Lameness.) And besides, The concave surface of the 



forcing so many nails into this thin i T Wdeft he bulb us heels< 



horn weakens it so much that by a few 



repetitions of such shoeing it becomes difficult to nail on 



shoes with any certainty of being held to the foot very long, 



and, of course, the more re-nailing the more the mischief is 



increased. 



The bearing surface should be leveled down carefully and 

 left a little higher than the sole, so that there can be no 

 bearing of the sole upon the shoe. If the foot is flat and 

 will not bear this, then the shoe must be lowered inside of 



