THIS HOKSE. 
55 
bis duty with more ease and pleasure to himself, and greater security to 
his rider. 
The Bar-Shoe. — A bar-shoe is often exceedingly useful. It is the con- 
tinuation of the common shoe round the heels, and by means of it the 
pressure may be taken off from some tender part of the foot, and thrown 
on another which is better able to bear it, or more widely and equally 
diffused over the whole foot. It is principally resorted to iu cases of 
corn, the seat of which it perfectly covers — in pumiced feet, the soles 
of which may be thus elevated above the ground and secured from 
pressure — in sand-crack, when the pressure may be removed from the 
fissure, and thrown on either side of it, and in thrushes, when the frog 
is tender, or is become cankered, and requires to be frequently dressed^ 
and the dressing can by this means alone be retained. In these cases 
the bar-shoe is an excellent contrivance, if worn only for one or two 
shoeings, or as long as the disease requires it to be worn ; but it must 
be left off as soon as it can be dispensed with. If it is used for the pro- 
tection of a diseased foot, however it may be chambered and laid off 
the frog, it will soon become flattened upon it; or if the pressure of it 
is thrown on the frog in order to relieve the sand-crack or the corn, 
that frog must be very strong and healthy which can long bear the 
great and continued pressure. More mischief is often produced in the 
frog than previously existed in the part that was relieved. It will be 
plain that in- the use of the bar-shoe for corn or sand-crack, the crust 
and the frog should be precisely on a level ; the bar also should be the 
widest part of the shoe, in order to afford as extended bearing as pos- 
sible on the frog, and therefore less likely to be injurious. Bar-shoes 
are evidently not sate in frosty weather. They are never safe when 
much speed is required from the horse, and they are apt to be wrenched 
off in a heavy, clayey country. 
Tips. — Tips are short shoes reaching only half round the foot, and 
worn while the horse is at grass, in order to prevent the crust 
being torn by the occasional hardness of the ground or the pawing of 
the animal. The quarters at the same time being free, the foot dis- 
posed to contract has a chance of expanding and regaining its natural 
shape. 
The Expanding shoe. — Our subject would not be complete if we did 
not describe the supposed expanding shoe, although it is now almost en- 
tirely out of use. It is either seated or concave like the common shoe, 
with a joint at the toe, by which the natural expansion of the foot is 
said to be permitted, and the injurious consequences of shoeing pre- 
vented. There is, however, this radical defect in the jointed shoe, that 
the nails occupy the same situation as in the common shoe, and prevent 
as they do the gradual expansion of the sides and quarters, and allow 
only of the hinge-like motion at the toe. It is a most imperfect accom- 
modation of the expansion of the foot to the action of its internal parts, 
and even this accommodation is afforded in the slightest possible decree, 
if it is afforded at all. Either the nails fix the sides and quarters as in 
the common shoe, and then the joint at the toe is useless; or if that 
joint merely opens like a hinge, the nail-holes near the toe can no 
longer correspond with those in the quarters, which are unequally ex- 
