420 PUTTING ON THE SHOE. 



few shoes, except they press upon the sole, or are made outrageously bad, will 

 lame the horse; but that he may be very easily lamed from ignorant and 

 improper paring out of the foot. 



THE PUTTING ON OF THE SHOE. 



The foot being thus prepared, the smith looks about for a shoe. He should 

 select one that as nearly as possible fits the foot, or may be easily altered to the 

 foot. He will sometimes, and especially if he is an idle and reckless fellow, 

 care little about this, for he can easily alter the foot to the shoe. The toe-knife 

 is a very convenient instrument for him, and plenty of horn can be struck off 

 with it, or removed by the rasp, in order to make the foot as small as the shoe ; 

 while he cares little, although by this destructive method the crust is mate- 

 rially thinned where it should receive the nail, and the danger of puncture 

 and of pressure upon the sole is increased ; and a foot so artificially diminished 

 in size will soon grow over the shoe, to the hazard of considerable or permanent 

 lameness. 



While the horse is travelling, dirt and gravel are apt to insinuate themselves 

 between the web of the shoe and the sole. If the shoe were flat, they would 

 he permanently retained there, and would bruise the sole, and be productive of 

 inj ury ; but when the shoe is properly bevelled off, it is scarcely possible for them 

 to remain. They must be shaken out almost every time that the foot comes in 

 contact with the ground. 



The web of the shoe is likewise of that thickness that when the foot is pro- 

 perly pared, the prominent part of the frog shall lie just within and above its 

 ground surface, so that in the descent of the sole the frog shall come sufficiently 

 on the ground to enable it to act as a wedge and to expand the quarters, while 

 it is defended from the wear and injury it would receive if it came on the 

 ground with the first and full shock of the weight. 



The nail-holes are, on the ground side, placed as near the outer edge of the 

 shoe as they can safely be, and brought out near the inner edge of the seating. 

 The nails thus take a direction inward, resembling that of the crust itself, and 

 have firmer hold, while the strain upon them in the common shoe is altogether 

 prevented, and the weight of the horse being thrown on a flat surface, contraction 

 is not so likely to be produced. 



The smith sometimes objects to the use of this shoe on account of its not being 

 so easily formed as one composed of a bar of iron, either flat or a little bevelled. 

 It likewise occupies more time in the forging; but these objections would 

 vanish when the owner of the horse declared that he would have him shod 

 elsewhere, or when he consented — as, in justice, he should — to pay somewhat 

 more for a shoe that required better workmanship, and longer time in the 

 construction. 



It is expedient not only that the foot and ground surface of the shoe should 

 be most accurately level, but that the crust should be exactly smoothed and 

 fitted to the shoe. Much skill and time are necessary to do this perfectly with 

 the drawing-knife. The smith has adopted a method of more quickly and 

 more accurately adapting the shoe to the foot. He pares the crust as level as 

 he can, and then he brings the shoe to a heat somewhat below a red heat, and 

 applies it to the foot, and detects any little elevations by the deeper colour of 

 the burned horn. This practice has been much inveighed against ; but it is the 

 abuse, and not the use of the thing which is to be condemned. If the shoe is 

 not too hot, nor held too long on the foot, an accuracy of adjustment is thus 

 obtained which the knife would be long in producing, or would not produce at 

 all. If, however, the shoe is made to burn its way to its seat, with little or no 



