William Hunting

“ A good workman requires no directions as to how he should work, and it is doubtful if a bad one would be benefitted by any [Pg 49] written rules, but it should be noted that a well-made shoe may be bad for a horse's foot, whilst a very rough, badly-made one may, when properly fitted, be a useful article. To make and apply horse-shoes a man must be more than a clever worker in iron—he must be a farrier, and that necessitates a knowledge of the horse's foot and the form of shoe best adapted to its wants. ”

“ The lighter a shoe can be made the better. Weight is a disadvantage we are obliged to put up with to obtain wear, for the frequent removal of shoes is only a little less injurious to the hoof than working with none at all. It is not to be understood that the heaviest shoe gives the most wear; on the contrary, a heavy shoe may have the iron so distributed as to increase the rapidity of wear, and a shoe of half the weight properly formed may last longer. It is no uncommon thing to find worn-out shoes still weighing more than a new shoe which will, on the same horse, give a longer period of wear. ”

“ When a farrier fits shoes made by another man he may overlook this, as we are all slaves to habit. The man who in his daily practice combines "close" fitting with "fine" nailing has to alter his routine when fitting a shoe with coarse nail holes.
The length of a shoe at the heels is a matter of more importance than is generally recognised. As a rule hunters are all shod too short, while most cart horses are shod too long. The objections to a long front shoe are that it is liable to be trodden off by the hind shoe, and that it may injure the elbow when the horse lies down. ”

“ Machinery has lightened the labour of shoe-making in two ways—by supplying various patterns of grooved and bevelled iron in bars, which only require cutting into lengths and turning round to form a shoe, and also by making shoes all ready to be fitted to the foot. Machinery has not yet turned out a shoe as good and durable and well finished as the best workman can produce by hand, but it can produce many forms of shoes as good for all practical purposes, and it has this advantage—all are alike. ”

“ Thus to prevent accidents of one kind methods are adopted which, being a little overdone, lead to injury of another. A not uncommon error in the preparation of the foot for shoeing may also lead to the production of the so-called corn. If the wall on the inside heel be lowered more than it should be the horn of the sole is left higher than the wall, and then a level shoe presses unevenly upon the higher part.
A corn, be it remembered, is not a tumour or a growth, it is merely a bruise of the sensitive foot under the horn of the sole. ”

“ The best work is that which includes the greatest exactness of fit, and uneven pressure or loose shoes result from inferior work. A badly fitted shoe requires more nails to retain it in place, and experience has shown that hot-fitted shoes give a smaller average of loose or lost shoes than those cold-fitted. The slight charring of the end of the horn fibres which results from proper hot-fitting has never been found to do injury, and it apparently has some advantages. One is that the surface of the hoof less readily absorbs moisture than when not charred. ”

“ The seated shoe is not advisable on a hunter. The concave shoe used for hunters has many distinct advantages and only one disadvantage for a flat foot, viz, that it has a wide flat foot-surface. It may cause an uneven pressure at the toe on a flat sole, but this is easily avoided by not making it too wide; perhaps the very worst thing to do with a flat foot is to try and make it look less flat by paring it down. The thinner the horn the greater the chance of injury to the sensitive parts under it, and every injury tends to make the sole weaker. ”

“ The ground surface of a foot or a shoe always tends to remain at right angles to the direction of the limb, and when the sides of a hoof are allowed to remain of unequal height, the higher side presses the soft tissues of the coronet upwards. As the hoof grows from the coronet the side thus increased in height is not so noticeably uneven at the lower border of the wall as at its upper, and it cannot be restored to its proper form, except by months of careful attention and slight over-lowering at each shoeing. ”

“ The cheap wisdom of the amateur is often expressed in the remark "the shoe should be fitted to the foot, not the foot to the shoe." Like many other dogmatic statements this is only the unqualified assertion of half a truth. ”

“ When the horn on the lower surface of a foot is thin any uneven pressure—i.e., pressure applied directly to one spot—soon causes injury, pain, and lameness. When a good thick layer of horn exists, uneven pressures are less injurious, because the horn distributes them over a wide surface. Good workmanship is displayed by leaving no uneven pressure, and by so fitting a shoe that it shall do no harm. With a narrow shoe—one only the width of the wall—no uneven pressure can be applied to the sensitive foot, but such a shoe is seldom used as it is too light to afford sufficient wear. ”

“ We turn such animals out into a soft field or stable them on sand or saw-dust. Any system of shoeing founded upon the true form and action of the foot must recognise the arch, and not endeavour to force the sole to take a bearing for which it is not adapted. There is only one part of the sole which should act as a bearing surface, viz., that outer border which is firmly joined to the wall. This part—the abutment of the arch—is destined by nature to take a bearing and through it the whole of the sole supports its share of weight. ”

“ What is called "close" fitting, i.e., bringing the shoe rather within the circumference of the wall, is injurious, as it loses the best and strongest bearing of the wall, and permits the farrier to give an appearance of neatness by rasping away any horn which protrudes beyond the shoe. On a well-shaped foot the shoe should follow the outer line of the hoof from toe to heel, but where the heels of a foot are turned inwards there is an advantage in fitting the shoe wider at the heels, as by so doing the base of the foot is not constricted and a wider resting surface is afforded to the limb. ”

“ If the foot of the horse were not a living object perhaps the training obtained in the forge would be all that was necessary for efficient workmanship. As, however, the hoof is constantly growing it is constantly changing its form. The duty of a farrier therefore is not merely to fix a shoe upon the hoof but to reduce the hoof to proper proportions before doing so. Now as hoof is only the outer covering of a complex and sensitive foot, damage to the exterior surface may injure the structures within. Injury does frequently result, and not always from carelessness. ”

“ An ill-fitting hot shoe may be held on the hoof until it beds itself into the horn and thus a complete correspondence between the surface of the foot and the surface of the shoe be effected. Such a proceeding is well described as "fitting the foot to the shoe" and is not only destructive to the horn but damaging to the foot by permitting an uneven shoe to look as though it were properly fitting. When hot-fitting is used and not abused—when it is adopted merely to indicate how and where the shoe fits, and not to make it appear to fit—I consider it has many advantages over cold-fitting. ”

“ In studying the dead foot with a view to understand its mechanism we must not lose sight of the difference which results from having in one case the blood-vessels empty, and in the other—the living animal—the blood-vessels full. ”

“ At the back part of the foot we have the wall thinner than elsewhere, we have the moveable and elastic frog, the lateral cartilages, and the frog-pad. We have in fact a whole series of soft and elastic structures so arranged as to provide a mechanism best adapted to meet shock and to avoid concussion. Whilst drawing heavy loads, or ascending or descending hills, the horse may vary his action [Pg 29] to suit the circumstances, and then we have the exception which proves the rule—then we have sometimes the heel, sometimes the toe brought first to the ground. ”

“ There are feet which from disease or accident or bad shoeing have become, more or less, permanently damaged. Some are seriously altered in shape. Some are protected only by an unhealthy horn, and some show definite changes which cause weakness at a special part. These are the feet which really test the art of the farrier, for he must know just what to do and what not to do, and must possess the skill to practice what he knows. ”

“ Like every other part of an animal body, the hoof is constantly changing. Wear and tear cause waste of the horn, which is replenished by growth. When wear exceeds growth the foot becomes denuded of horn, and lameness [Pg 20] results. When growth exceeds wear the hoof becomes disproportionately long, and some parts suffer by the overgrowth of others—for instance, whenever the heels are unduly high the frog becomes small and weak. In a state of nature the horse's foot keeps itself of proportionate form. On hard ground the hoof is worn away as quickly as it grows. ”

“ The object at all times should be to follow nature as closely as possible, but it often happens that we may, with benefit, depart from the exact indications given and still fulfil all essential requirements. If we examine the unshod foot which has been worn down to proper proportions we find the bearing surface is not level—it is worn more at the toe and heels than elsewhere. If we examine the ground surface of an old shoe the same thing is noticed—the surface is not level, the toe and heel show most wear. ”

“ Foot and shoe have to be fitted to each other. There are very few horses whose feet do not require considerable alteration before a shoe can be properly fitted to them. As a rule, when a horse arrives at the forge, the feet are overgrown and quite out of proportion. In a few cases—as when a shoe has been lost on a journey—the foot is worn or broken and irregularly deficient in horn. In either instance the farrier has to make alterations in the hoof to obtain the best bearing surface before he fits a new shoe. ”

“ A Rodway shoe has two longitudinal grooves and three ridges on its ground-surface. The outer groove carries the nails, [Pg 56] and the inner groove lightens the shoe and increases the foot-hold. It is not the number of grooves or ridges that prevents slipping; it is the absence of a continuous flat surface of iron, and the existence of irregularities which become filled up with sand and grit. A four-grooved shoe has no more anti-slipping properties than a three-grooved, and a one-grooved shoe is as good as either, although it cannot stand the same amount of wear. ”

“ The width of a shoe may beneficially vary. It should be widest at the toe to afford increased surface of iron where wear is greatest. It should be narrowest at the heels so as not to infringe upon the frog, nor yet to protrude greatly beyond the level of the wall. The thickness of a shoe should not vary unless, perhaps, it be reduced in the quarters. Heel and toe should be of the same thickness so as to preserve a level bearing. Excess of thickness at the toe puts a strain on the back tendons, whilst excess at the heels tends to straighten the pastern. ”

“ In some countries horses are regularly ridden with no addition to their natural hoof, but in such places the surface over which the animals travel is grass land. In all civilised countries where good roads exist shoeing is practised. The gentleman with a fad who occasionally appears in England with unshod horses at work is an unconscious impostor. He sets his little experience against the common sense and universal practice of others. No man of business would pay for shoeing if he could do without it. ”

“ When the horn is very thin the heat of a shoe retained too long in contact with it does serious mischief, and the injury known as a burnt sole has often resulted from careless work. If a shoe, whilst being altered to fit a foot, were cooled each time it was laid on the hoof, it would have to be re-heated before the necessary alterations could be made and this would cause great waste of time. The abuse of hot-fitting may do harm without any direct burning of the sole. ”

“ A high clip is a most serious danger when shoes get loose and are trodden on by the horse. The usual position for a clip is at the toe, but there are occasions when two clips—one at each side of the toe—are used. On some shoes a clip is placed at the outer quarter to prevent the shoe being displaced inwards; this is more often required on hind shoes. A clip at the toe affords some assistance in fitting a shoe exactly, and it also affords steadiness to the shoe during the driving of the first nails. ”

“ Corns in horses are due to bruising of the angle of the sole by the heel of the shoe. A wide open foot with low heels is most likely to suffer, but any foot may be injured. The most common seat of injury is the inner heel of a fore-foot. Even a properly fitted shoe may cause a corn if retained too long upon a foot, as then, owing to the growth of the hoof, its extremity is carried forward from beneath the wall so as to press upon the sole. A short shoe, fitted too close on the inside, is the most common cause of corn. ”

“ When a horse is shod with an iron shoe the wall cannot wear, and therefore it has to be artificially reduced at each shoeing. But the shoe does not interfere with the wear of a frog, and the farrier may safely leave that organ entirely to take care of itself. To some extent the shoe does interfere with the natural wear of the sole, and, therefore, any flakes of horn which have been prevented by the shoe from detaching themselves from the sole may be removed. ”