ies an inequa .y of 

 ... destroys the crust. — 

 A the shoe, and extended 

 u on the lower surface, a 

 .rough which pass the nails 

 •g of the shoe. At first they 

 jject, but they are soon worn down 

 A of the shoe, which in the healthy 

 Lid not vary from the heel to the toe. 

 width of the shoe will depend on that of 

 iOOt. The general rule is that it should 

 .tect the sole from injury, and be as wide at 

 (he heel as the frog will permit. 



The upper surface of the shoe should be dif- 

 ferently formed. It should be flat along the 

 upper end, outer supporting the crust, or, in other 

 words, the weight of the horse, and widest at 

 the heel, so as to meet and withstand the shock 

 of the bars and the crust. The inner portion of 

 the shoe should be beveled off, in order that, in 

 the descent of the sole, that part of the foot may 

 not be bruised. The owner of the horse should 

 occasionally be present when the shoes are re- 

 moved and he will be too often surprised to see 

 how far the smith, almost wilfully, deviates from 

 the right construction of this apparently simple 

 apparatus. The bevelled shoe is a little more 

 troublesome to make and to apply than that 

 which is often used by the village smith, but it 

 will be the owner's fault if his directions are not 

 implicitly obeyed. 



Even at the commencement of the operation 

 ot rhoeing, the eye of the master or the trust- 

 worthy groom will be requisite. The shoe is 

 often torn from the foot in a most violent and 

 cruel way. Scarcely half the clenches are 

 raised when the smith seizes the shoe with his 

 pincers and forcibly wrenches it off. The shrink- 

 ing of the horse will tell how much he suffers, 

 and the fragments of the crust will also offer 

 sufficient proofs of the mischief that has been 

 done, especially when it is recollected that every 

 nail hole is enlarged by this brutal force, and 

 the future safety of the shoe to a greater or a 

 less degree weakened, and pieces of the nail are 

 sometimes left in the substance of the crust, 

 which become the cause of future disease. 



In the paring out of the foot, also there is fre- 

 quently great mischief done. The formidable 



..orse 

 -lis much 

 ^ved, and the 

 u, but the draicing- 

 iion of sole sufficient 

 of the foot and to lay 

 .uiitraction, corns and perma- 

 One object, then, of the looker- 

 j ascertain the actual state of the foot, 

 the descent of the crust, when the foot is 

 r^aced on the ground, depends the elasticity and 

 healthy state of the foot, and that may be satis- 

 factorily detexmined by the yielding of the sole, 

 although to a very slight degree, when it is 

 strongly pressed upon with the thumb. The 

 sole being pared out, the crust on each side may 

 be lowered, but never reduced to a level with 

 the sole, otherwise, this portion will be exposed 

 to continual injury. 



The heels often suffer considerably from the 

 carelessness or ignorance of the smith. The 

 weight of the horse is not thrown equally on 

 them, but considerably more on the inner than 

 the outer quarter. The consequence of this is 

 that the inner heel is worn down more than the 

 outer, and the foundation is laid for tenderness 

 and ulceration. The smith is too often inatten- 

 tive to this, and pares away an equal quantity 

 of horn from the inner and outer heel, leaving 

 the former weaker and lower, and less able to 

 support the weight thrown upon it. 



Mention has already been made of the use of 

 the bars in admitting and yet limiting to its pro- 

 per extent the expansion of the foot. The smith 

 in the majority of country forges and in loo 

 many of those that disgrace the metropolis, 

 seems to have waged interminable w T ar with 

 these portions of the foot, and avail himself of 

 every opportunity to pare them down, or per- 

 fectly destroy them, forgetting, or never having 

 learned, that the destruction of the bars necessa- 

 rily leads to contraction by removing the chief 

 impediment to it. 



The horn between the crust and the bar 

 should be well pared out. Every one accus- 

 tomed to horses must have observed the great 

 relief that is given to the horse with corns when 

 this angle is pared out, and yet from some fatali- 

 ty the smith rarely leaves it where nature placed 

 it, but cuts away every portion of it. 



The true function of the frog is easily under- 

 stood. It gives security to the tread, and con- 

 tributes expansion to the heels ; but the smith 

 although these cases come before him every day 

 seems to be quite unaware of the course which 

 he should pursue, and either leaves the frog al- 

 most untouched and then it becomes bruised and 

 injured, or he pares it away so that it cannot 

 come into contact with the ground, and conse- 

 quently is not enabled to do its duty. 



