SOME OBSERVATIONS ON SHOEING. 
581 
to get a firm and sufficient hold ; and the lower part of the crust 
should be allowed to grow as strong and thick as possible, which, 
it may be observed, it is never likely to do under a system that 
is continually splitting and breaking it. 
Rasping the hoof, with a view to give it a neat appearance on 
new shoeing, is, I am convinced, productive of much mischief to 
the crust, tending to weaken it, to make it thin and shelly, and 
consequently more easily split and broken by the nails. 
Shoeing smiths, with the idea of making their work look well 
to the eye, are in the habit of using not only the rasp, but also 
the drawing knife, a great deal too much. The frog is so easy 
to cut, that they cannot resist the temptation, and, when left to 
themselves, they generally pare it unmercifully; but what is 
still worse, is the practice of what they call opening the heels, 
that is, of removing at once both the horny bars and inner comers 
of the hoof with the drawing knife ; and this, for the time being , 
certainly does make the heels look a little more open, but it is 
like taking away the corner stone of a building, or a buttress 
placed as a prop of support. It only makes room for the heels 
to fall in, or contract still more and more : and when, in addition 
to this, we see a shoe applied, presenting an uniformly concave 
surface on the foot side , which consequently must have a ten¬ 
dency to bear the heels inwards at every step the animal takes 
upon the ground, how can we be surprised at contraction of the 
foot taking place? or that, in some instances, it should go on so 
rapidly ? 
In conclusion I may observe, with regard to the particular 
form of shoe of which I have been speaking in terms of commen¬ 
dation, viz. one made with a flat surface on its foot side, but pre¬ 
senting a bearing towards its lateral extremities, calculated to 
throw the heels of the hoof outward, that it is a shoe only 
fit for a certain class of feet—strong hoofs, with high heels, and 
a concave sole. Its application to weak feet, with low heels and 
flat soles, would be highly improper, because such a formed shoe 
would inevitably rest upon the sole, and thus outrage the first 
principle of shoeing. For such feet the seated shoe is un¬ 
questionably the best form for general use; and this brings me 
back to my first position, the position with which I set out, viz. 
that there is no one single form of horseshoe ever yet invented, 
or perhaps that ever will be invented, equally suited to all kinds 
of feet. And the necessary induction—“ that the art of shoeing 
will always be found to consist more in the judicious application 
of all, than in the most dexterous execution of any one particular 
plan.” 
4 1 
VOL. V. 
