DISEASES OF THE FOOT AND SHOEING 201 



hoof only at the heels. It is very effective to prevent nails from 

 being picked up, and has the further advantage of cheapness. 



The leather pad is useful for flat-footed horses and prevents 

 bruising of the sole and evaporation of moisture. It is also service- 

 able in preventing the horse from picking up nails. 



Rubber pads would be used more, especially in the cities, if 

 they were less expensive. As a device to prevent slipping, nothing 

 is so effective. No calks are needed if rubber pads are used, which 

 does away with danger from calk wounds. They are the only 

 device that satisfactorily prevents snow-balling and allows the 

 horse to do full work on snow-covered pavements. 



Horseshoe nails have one side of the shank flat, the other con- 

 cave. The point is beveled so as to draw it in the direction of the 

 outer or flat side where it enters the horn. It is, therefore, impera- 

 tive that the nail be held with its flat surface toward the outside of 

 the shoe. Nails should always enter the white line. They are 

 driven deep enough so that their heads are flush with the ground 

 surface of the shoe. There are a number of different sizes. Num- 

 bers six to nine are the ones commonly used, but longer nails than 

 necessary should be avoided. 



Shoeing for special gaits and to correct faulty gaits can be no 

 more than mentioned in this brief section. It is possible to make 

 a pacer trot by applying a special shoe. A horse that stumbles 

 will be given relief with a roller-motion shoe; that is, one well 

 rounded at the toe so as to cause the animal to break over quicker. 

 Lameness from sore flexor tendons, as a result of undue exertion 

 or knee-sprung conformation, may be successfully treated with 

 the roller-motion shoe. Curby and spavined horses are shod 

 with high heel calks. Weighting the shoe on the inside or outside 

 branch is an artificial aid to straighten wide and narrow ways of 

 going. 



Overreaching is that condition where the fore shoe is struck 

 by the toe of the hind foot before it is lifted to be taken forward. 

 It is commonly called forging, from the sound like pounding a 

 forge. At times the toe wall may be quite seriously bruised. In 

 colts forging is often due to fatigue, and in all animals to shoeing 

 with too long a toe which breaks the foot's axis backward and de- 

 lays picking up the foot. A short body, with long legs set too far 

 back in front and too far forward behind, is a faulty conformation 

 especially conducive to forging. 



