FAULTY CONFORMATION 187 
are numerous others, many of which are composed of three- 
hinged portions, the two hindermost of which are gradually 
separated by a toothed arrangement of their inner margins 
and a travelling bar, the disadvantage of which is that it is 
liable to work loose. In the majority of this class of shoe 
the hinges are placed far forward, one on each side of the 
toe. They there become exposed to excessive wear. In 
fact, against the bulk of this form of shoe it may be urged 
that they cannot be worn by the animal at work, that they 
are expensive, difficult to make, and easily put out of 
order. 
3. By Operations on the Horn of the Wall. 
(a) Thinning the Wall in the Region of the (Juarters.—This 
is best done by means of an ordinary farrier’s rasp. The 
thinning should lessen gradually from the heel for 24 to 
3 inches in a forward direction. That portion of the wall 
next to the coronary border, about inch in breadth, should 
not be touched. At this point the thinning should commence, 
should be at its greatest, and lessen gradually downwards 
until at the inferior margin of the wall the normal thickness 
of horn is left. The animal is then shod with a bar shoe 
and the hoof bound with a bandage soaked in a mixture of 
tar and grease, in order to keep the thinned portion of the 
wall from cracking. In this condition the animal may 
remain at light labour. 
When possible, however, it is better to combine the 
thinning process thus described with turning out to grass. 
In this case the ordinary shoe is first removed, and the 
foot poulticed for twenty-four hours to render the horn soft. 
The foot is then prepared by slightly lowering the heels— 
leaving the frog untouched—and thinning the quarters in 
exactly the manner described above. 
After this is done, the animal is shod with an ordinary 
tip, a sharp cantharides blister applied to the coronet, and 
then turned out in a damp pasture. In this case the object 
of the tip is to throw the weight on to the heels and 
quarters. The thinned horn yields to the pressure thus 
