HORSESHOEING. 



99 



heating is absolutely indispensable in shaping the shoe, because 

 an irregularly heated shoe twists or becomes distorted at the 

 warm places. Every shoe should be straight, and when held 

 before the eye one branch should exactly cover the other. A 

 flat shoe laid upon a level surface should touch at all parts of its 

 ground-surface ; the only exception to this is the shoe with a 

 rolled toe (rolling motion), in which the toe is turned upward. 



Fig. 87. 



Shod fore-hoof viewed in profile to show the "roll" at the toe. 



A shoe is termed " trough-shaped^'' when only the inner edge of 

 the web rests upon the flat surface. It is faulty, disturbs the 

 stability of the foot, and shifts the weight of the body too much 

 upon the quarters. 



To front shoes we give a rolled toe (Fig. 87, rolling motion), 

 by which we mean a more or less pronounced upward turn of 

 the toe of the shoe. Ordinarily, the toe begins to turn up at the 

 middle of the web, and should be elevated about one-half the 

 thickness of the iron. The rolled toe corresponds to the natural 

 wear of front hoofs, facilitates the " breaking over" of the feet, 

 and insures a uniform wear of the shoe. The shoe is made mod- 

 erately hot and placed on the foot with the toe-clip against the 

 wall exactly in front of the point of the frog. The scorched 

 horn should be repeatedly removed with the rasp until a perfect- 



