thp: perc heron review 
15 
done properl\'. Shoes in front should be perfectly round 
whereas those behind should be slightly oval shaped. There 
should be no toes either on the front shoes or the hind ones. 
The heels should be blunt and hammered down so that they 
are very low. A heel on a shoe has no particular value to 
a show horse except it may save him from slipping. The 
outer edge of the shoe should be made to fit the foot neatly, 
with the heel extending only a very little beyond the back 
edge on the front foot. The hind feet will stand more of 
a heel to the shoe than the front ones. In fact, I usually 
make the outside heel on the shoe for the hind feet quite a 
little longer than on the inside. That shaped shoe in the heel 
will help to throw a horse's hocks together. A similar shoe 
at the heel in front will, of course, help a horse to toe out. 
It is particularly advantageous to shoe a horse so that his 
hocks will stay together a bit. It gives him better stifle move- 
ment and makes him stouter to keep his heels together mili- 
tary fashion. Try yourself and see whether you can lift 
a heavier load with your feet standing apart or when your 
heels are close together and your toes out a bit. The same 
rule applies to the pulling power of a draft horse. The 
shoes should always be creased in the line of the nail holes, 
as that helps a horse to grip the ground. The toe clip should 
not be over an inch wide and an inch and a quarter high. 
It should be hammered out very thin, so that if a horse pulls 
a shoe and steps on it the clip will bend over and not run 
into the foot. I have seen some very bad cases develop from 
a horse stepping on a shoe with a big stiff clip on it. Fur- 
thermore, a wide clip doesn't look well, as it gives the appear- 
ance of too much metal on the feet. If I want to do a fancy 
job, I weld this clip on, but more frequently I turn it up 
from the shoe. A very important feature about a shoe which 
many blacksmiths forget is to have the inside edge next to 
the foot lower than the outside. Most shoes one sees are 
made higher on the inside than on the outside. The reason 
for having the outside of the shoe higher is that the weight 
of the animal should come on the wall and not on the sole 
of the foot. If the sole must bear the jars, the horse will 
soon go lame, and particularly when he has to stand on a 
hard floor or be trotted on hard pavements. Frequently, if 
there isn't any toe to spare, I take a paring knife and remove 
just enough of the sole before putting the shoe on so that I 
am sure the shoe will not touch the sole. If a horse goes 
sore in front after he has been on the fair circuit for a while, 
it is likely due to his feet drying out, or else to a slight touch 
of founder from a draft. To pack clay in the bottom of the 
feet will help, but the best remedy I ever found was to stand 
the horse in a tub of hot water. Heat will take down inflam- 
mation and there is no other way of keeping the water so 
uniformly hot. To stand a horse in a tub of hot water 
several hours per day will usually remove the soreness in a 
short time. If the foot is contracting and causing inflamma- 
tion inside the hoof walls, the hot water will soak up the 
hoofs faster than anything else. There should only be four 
Brood Mares on a Manure Wagon 
nails on a side and they should be driven high up. The last 
nail toward the rear side of the foot should not be driven 
farther back than the quarter which is about the middle of 
the side from front to back. Both the holes and the crease 
in the shoe should be set at an angle so that the nail can be 
driven parallel with the slope of the hoof wall. Then, by 
punching the holes slightly to the inside of the center of the 
shoe, the nails can be driven high up on the hoof with no 
danger of pricking. They hold better if nailed on this way. 
If set near the outer edge and at right angles to the shoe, 
it is impossible to drive nails high enough to hold well. If 
a shoe is nailed tightly in the heel, it will likely cause lame- 
ness. The reason is evident, for anyone knows that if a 
shoe is nailed on when the foot is dry and a horse goes out 
into the mud and soaks up his feet, the shoes are bound to 
draw very tightly because the foot has expanded with the 
moisture. Pressure for any length of time will cause inflam- 
mation of the sensitive tissues inside the foot wall. 
How to Correct Faults in Gait 
by Shoeing 
To shoe a draft horse to improve his gait requires a good 
deal of skill. One can shift the weight in a light horse and 
in that way alter his method of going considerably. No one 
cares whether a race horse goes square or not, if he has the 
speed. On the other hand, we require that a draft horse 
move true. 7"he front foot should be picked up and set 
down straight ahead without any side motion one way or 
the other. Besides, the hind feet must be brought forward 
and set down in the same track made by the front ones. The 
appearance of the set of a foot can be changed wonderfully 
by shifting the clip a little to one side or the other. That 
does not, however, improve the action at the trot. A paddler 
can only be helped by shortening the toe on the outside and 
growing it slightly longer on the inside. The shoe should 
not be nailed on exactly with the set of the foot, but should 
be shifted slightly with the toe a bit toward the inside. An 
attempt should be made to grow the foot so that it stands 
directly in line with the body, so that when the horse picks 
up his foot he will carry it forward in as nearly a straight 
line as possible. 
Percheron breeders! there is nothing that will pay you 
better than to take the right care of your horses' feet begin- 
ning with them as foals. 
