VARIOUS CAUSES OF LOSING A SHOE. 299 
get loose; and if the mischief is not rectified before another 
gallop is taken, the shoe is thrown, and the foot being bruised 
or broken, the horse becomes lame. Hence the imperative 
necessity that the smith should daily examine each horse. Shoes 
it should be said are thrown from other causes, not infrequently 
arising from errors on the smith’s part. These are easily 
prevented, and it will not be out of place to describe some 
of them. Sometimes the shoe is pulled off by the horse 
itself, the hind toe catching in the heel of the fore foot, and 
drawing or breaking every nail, This is usually done at the 
commencement of the canter or gallop; though it may 
happen whilst pulling up, or in trotting before or after it. A 
mistake is here evidently made by the smith; the heels of 
the fore shoes are too long, or the ends not properly rounded 
off; or, it may be, the toes of the hind feet are unnecessarily 
long; a judicious shortening of either or both will prevent 
its recurrence. Horses that turn their toes out much are apt 
to strike one foot against the other leg, and thus do them- 
selves harm. Boots and bandages are the usual remedy, but 
they are not always effective—the real evil is either with the 
foot, sho¢, or the way in which the latter is put on, and here 
the mischief must be attacked. In this case, the foot should 
be well rasped away in the inside quarter towards the heel, 
and the shoe kept well within the crust; for it is the pro- 
jection of this part of the foot or shoe that causes the harm, 
and it cannot be effectually remedied in any other way. 
Overreach is sometimes caused by long hind shoes or toes, 
and shortening them will avoid or minimise the risk of a 
repetition of the injury. In sucha case the clip at the tce 
may well be done away with, and placed at the side of the 
shoe. With this difference in the position of the clip, the 
hind shoes are the same as the front shoes in every respect 
