HORSESHOEING. 149 



Only those upright hoofs which are the result of the causes 

 mentioned in 3 and 4 are to be dressed as ordinary hoofs, and 

 if the service required is not too exacting they should be shod 

 with tips (Fig. 130), or with shoes with thinned branches. 



3. The Contracted Hoop. 



A hoof which has deviated from its normal form in such a manner 

 that its posterior half, either in part or as a whole, is too narrow, is 

 a contracted hoof. The walls of the quarters assume an abnor- 

 mally oblique direction downward and inward towards the 

 median line of the hoof. 



When contraction affects only one quarter, it is called uni- 

 lateral contraction, or abnormal wryness. 



The buttresses are usually very much prolonged and press 

 upon the frog and cause it to shrink. The bars no longer run in 

 the natural straight direction from the point of the frog backward 

 and outward, but describe a circle passing outward, backward, 

 and inward. 



Contraction affects front feet, especially those of the acute- 

 angled form, more often than hind feet. In order to determine 

 whether or not a hoof is too narrow, we should always examine 

 the frog and its lateral lacunae. If the frog is small and narrow, 

 and the lateral lacunae very narrow and deep, there can be no 

 doubt but that the hoof is too narrow (contracted). 



The causes, aside from too little exercise, are chiefly errors in 

 shoeing, such as weakening the posterior half of the hoof, leav- 

 ing too long a toe, either neglecting to remove the spurs of horn 

 which grow from the buttresses and press upon the frog, or re- 

 moving them^ incompletely, and using shoes whose branches are 

 either too wide apart or are inclined downward and inward, so 

 that under the weight of the body the heels are squeezed together 

 and contraction is favored. 



Prevention and Treatment. — First, it should be borne in mind 

 that whatever exercises moderate pressure upon the sole, frog, and 

 bars tends to expand the hoof. The action and value of the va- 

 rious shoes, frog-, and sole-pads, are measured by this rule. For 



