48 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
hard and press upon the sole. Cow-dung is the best stopping to pre- 
serve the feet cool and elastic ; but before the stopping is applied, the 
picker should be run round the whole of the foot, between the shoe and 
the sole, in order to detect any stone that may have insinuated itself 
there, or a wound on any other part of the sole. 
SHOEING, etc. — Far more than is generally imagined, do the comfort 
and health of the horse, and the safety of his rider, depend upon shoeing. 
In taking off the old shoe, the clenches of the nails should always be 
carefully raised or filed off ; and, where the foot is tender, or the horse 
is to be examined for lameness, each nail should be partly punched out. 
The edges of the crust are then to be rasped to detect whether any 
stubs remain in the nail-holes, and to remove the crust, into which dust 
and gravel have insinuated themselves. 
Next comes the important process of paring out, with regard to which 
it is almost impossible to lay down any specific rules. This, however, 
is undoubted, that far more injury has been done by the neglect of 
paring, than by carrying it to too great an extent. The act of paring is 
a work of much more labor than the proprietor of the horse often 
imagines. The smith, except he is overlooked, will frequently give him- 
self as little trouble about it as he can ; and that portion of horn 
which, in the unshod foot, would be worn away by contact with the 
ground, is suffered to accumulate month after month, until the elasticity 
of the sole is destroyed, and it can no longer descend, and its other 
functions are impeded, and foundation is laid for corn, and contraction, 
and navicular disease, and inflammation. That portion of horn should 
be left on the foot which will defend the internal parts from being 
bruised, and yet suffer the external sole to descend. IIow is this to be 
ascertained ? The strong pressure of the thumb of the smith will be 
the best guide. The buttress, that most destructive of all instruments, 
being, except on very particular occasions, banished from every respect- 
able forge, the smith sets to work with his drawing knife, and removes 
the growth of horn, until the sole will yield, although in the slightest 
possible degree, to the strong pressure of his thumb. The proper thick- 
ness of horn will then remain. 
The quantity of horn to be removed, in order to leave the proper 
degree of thickness, will vary with different feet. From the strong foot 
a great deal must be taken. From the concave foot the horn may be 
removed until the sole will yield to a moderate pressure. From the fiat 
foot little needs be pared ; while the pumiced foot should be deprived 
of nothing but the ragged parts. 
The crust should be reduced to a perfect level all round, but left a 
little higher than the sole, or the sole will be bruised by its pressure on 
the edge of the seating. 
The heels will require considerable attention. From the stress which 
is thrown on the inner heel, and from the weakness of the quarter there, 
the horn usually wears away considerably faster than it would ou the 
outer one, and if an equal portion of horn were pared from it, it would 
be left lower than the outer heel. The smith should therefore accom- 
modate his paring to the comparative wear of the heels, and be exceed- 
ingly careful to leave them precisely level. 
