600 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



A shoe for cm acute-angled hoof should be long in the branches, 

 because most, of the weight falls in the posterior half of the foot. 

 The support in front should be diminished either by turning the shoe 

 up at the toe or by beveling it under the toe (fig. 5a) . 



A shoe for a stumpy hoof should be short in the branches, and 

 for pronounced cases should increase the support of the toe, where 

 the most of the weight falls, by being beveled downward and forward. 



In many cases, especially in draft horses, where the hoofs stand 

 very close together, the coronet of the outer quarter is found to stand 

 out beyond the lower border of the quarter. In such cases the outer 

 branch of the shoe from the last nail back must be fitted so full that 

 an imaginary perpendicular dropped from the coronet will just meet 

 the outer border of the shoe. The inner branch, on the other hand, 

 must be fitted as " close " as possible. The principal thought should 

 be to set the new shoe farther toward the more strongly worn side. 

 Such a practice will render unnecessary the widespread and popular 

 fad of giving the outer quarter and heel calk of hind shoes an extreme 

 outward bend. Care should be taken, however, that in fitting the 

 shoe " full " at the quarter the bearing surface of the hoof at the 

 quarter be not left unsupported or incompletely covered, to be 

 pinched and squeezed inward against the frog. This will be obviated 

 by making the outer branch of the shoe sufficiently wide and punch- 

 ing it so coarse that the nails will fall upon the white line. 



Hot fitting. — Few farriers have either the time or the skill neces^ 

 sary to adjust a cold shoe to the hoof so that it will fit, as we say, 

 " air-tight." Though the opponents of hot fitting draw a lurid pic- 

 ture of the direful consequences of applying a hot shoe to the hoof, it 

 is only the abuse of the practice that is to be condemned. If a heavy 

 shoe at a yellow heat be held tightly pressed against a hoof which 

 has been pared too thin, till it embeds itself, serious damage may be 

 done. But a shoe at a dark heat may be pressed against a properly 

 dressed hoof long enough to scorch, and thus indicate to the farrier 

 the portions of horn that should be lowered without appreciable in- 

 jury to the hoof and to the ultimate benefit of the animal. 



Nailing. — The horse owner should insist on the nails being driven 

 low. They should pierce the wall not above an inch and five-eighths 

 above the shoe. A nail penetrating the white line and emerging low 

 on the wall destroys the least possible amount of horn, has a wide 

 and strong clinch, rather than a narrow one, which would be formed 

 near the point of the nail, and, furthermore, has the strongest pos- 

 sible hold on the wall, because its clinch is pulling more nearly at a 

 right angle to the grain (horn tubes) of the wall than if driven 

 high. Finally, do not allow the rasp to touch the wall above the 

 clinches. 



