FAULTY CONFORMATION =} 159 
the bar. Leaving these intact gives us two natural and 
very potent protections against the contraction already 
mentioned as impending. 
Where, by reason of the thinness of the horn or other 
causes, sufficient paring to equalize the tread cannot be 
practised, then the same end may be arrived atSby the use 
of special shoes. That branch of the shoe applied to the 
half of the foot with the lower wall should be thickened 
from above downwards. Or, on the same branch, may be 
turned up a calkin of sufficient height for the purpose. Of 
the two methods the first is preferable. 
In any case, whether depending upon paring, or upon 
the use of a special shoe, the animal should be seut-to the 
forge quite often, for it is only by a well-directed, and 
therefore constant, application of the principles here laid 
down that improvement may be brought about. 
When marked contraction of one-half of the foot is 
present, it will be best treated with the expanding shoe of 
Hartmann, already described in the section of this chapter 
dealing with contracted heels (see Fig. 76). 
(b) Tue Curvep Hoor. 
Definition.—The hoof with the wall of one side convex, 
and that of the opposite side concave. Fig. 85, showing 
the foot in section from side to side, gives an exact idea of 
this malformation. 
Causes.—As was the case with the condition previously 
described, this abnormality finds its primary cause in an 
unequal distribution of weight due to vice of conformation 
in the limb above, causing one side of the hoof to be higher 
than the other. As a result of this, the wall that is in- 
ordinately increasing in height commences to bulge out- 
wardly (Fig. 85, a), while the opposite (Fig. 85, b) becomes 
concave. 
The same state of affairs may be occasioned in the 
forge by leaving one side of the foot too high, and subject- 
ing the other to excessive paring for several consecutive 
shoeings. 
