DISEASES OF THE FOOT AND SHOEING 285 



number of different sizes. Numbers six to nine are the ones 

 commonly used, but longer nails than necessary should be 

 avoided. 



Shoeing for special gaits and to correct faulty gaits can be no 

 more than mentioned. It is possible to make a pacer trot by 

 applying a special shoe. A horse that stumbles will be given 

 relief with a roller-motion shoe; that is, one well rounded at the 

 toe so as to cause the animal to break over quicker. Lameness 

 from sore flexor tendons, as a result of undue exertion or knee- 

 sprung conformation, may be successfully treated with the 

 roller-motion shoe. Curby and spavined horses are shod with 

 high heel calks. Weighting the shoe on the inside or outside 

 branch is an artificial aid to straighten wide and narrow ways of 

 going. 



Overreaching is that condition where the fore shoe is struck 

 by the toe of the hind foot before it is lifted to be taken forward. 

 It is commonly called forging, from the sound like pounding a 

 forge. At times the toe wall may be quite seriously bruised. In 

 colts forging is often due to fatigue, and in all animals to shoeing 

 with too long a toe which breaks the foot's axis backward and de- 

 lays picking up the foot. A short body, with long legs set too far 

 back in front and too far forward behind, is a faulty conformation 

 especially conducive to forging. To correct this defect, shoes 

 are applied to increase and quicken the action in the fore limb 

 and retard it behind. The front shoe is made with short heel 

 calks which slant forward, and no toe calk. The hind shoe has 

 two lateral toe calks or clips and is set back a little from the toe 

 wall. 



Interfering is a striking of the supporting leg by the opposite 

 foot. The hair is rubbed off and in some cases a severe wound is 

 produced. The causes of interfering are fatigue from unaccus- 

 tomed or overwork; bad conformation, more especially the base- 

 wide and toe-narrow standing position; faulty or neglected 

 shoeing. Each case must be studied and treated on its merits. 

 A shoe with a thick, heavy outer heel calk helps to correct the 

 improper gait. 



Stumbling may be denned as inability to place the foot on the 



ground in the normal way, that is, heel first. It is often seen in 



horses with low withers, and those with relatively little slope to 



their shoulders and pasterns, which causes the center of gravity 



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