248 



THB HORSB. 



attributable, to the aggravated amount of battering on hard pavements 

 which his needless weight of shoes causes. 



The upper surface of the shoe should be perfectly level. If the plane of 

 the web inclines from outward inward, it greatly adds to the unavoidable 

 tendency to contraction which shoeing invariably entails, and there is a 

 wealth of unwisdom in most of the clumsy attempts at mechanically 

 spreading the heels by making the inclination in the contrary direction. 



It would seem to be unnecessary to say that the shoe should be so 

 shaped as to conform exactly to the natural tread of the foot, yet there 

 is a very common practice of using a shoe of uniform shape, often less 

 in circumference, if such a term is permissible, than the foot on which 



HIND-FOOT AND FORE-FOOT WITH SHOE PROPERLY ADJUSTED. 



it is to be nailed, and then rasping down the foot to fit it. It is easier 

 to make the foot to fit the shoe than it is to make the shoe to fit the 

 foot; a stroke or two of the rasp effects the former, but it is a far more 

 arduous undertaking to modify the size and shape of the shoe. The 

 outcome of this pernicious practice is disastrous in the last degree, more 

 especially so in a dry climate like ours, as the walls thus robbed of their 

 natural covering permit the moisture of the foot rapidly to evaporate, 

 and the horn fibers, which make up the outside walls, instead of being 

 compactly knit together, readily disintegrate, and in the course of a 

 shoeing or two those very portions in which the nails should take firm 

 hold possess little more adhesion than a bundle of broom corn. If the 

 shoe fitted as it should, a touch of the rasp under each clinch would be 



