Hoof shoe

“ They assist in widening the hoof, and lessen shock when the foot is set to the ground. These are all matters which favor the growing down of unbroken horn.
When the crack gaps widely, and the frog is small and deep in the foot a shoe with bar-clips (Defay’s shoe) , or a Chadwick spring, with bar-shoe and leather sole may be used. It is not impossible, indeed, to obtain a cure by using an ordinary open flat shoe, though much will depend upon the other lesions that may be present, the nature of the hoof, and the service required of the animal. ”

“ If the farriers were careful of their reputation and mindful of their duty, they would make this maxim one of the principal points in their statutes.' Any one who has had much to do with horses, or visited a shoeing forge, will know that it is customary to adjust or try on the new shoe while it is in a hot state, so as to obtain for it a more solid and secure bearing on the hoof, and to fit it better. Before the 18th century, it is probable that the hoof-armature was usually adjusted in a cold state, a practice which has many disadvantages. ”

“ The shoe still hot is held to the foot for which it is intended, and the air is filled with the fumes of burning hoof. Yet the horse does not flinch, for the thick hoof is a perfect protection for the sensitive parts of the foot. If the careful blacksmith is not quite satisfied with the fit, there must be more hammering on the anvil, and another trying on. When the shoe is satisfactory, it is thrust hissing into a barrel of cold water, and, cooled and hardened, is ready to be nailed on. ”

“ After removing the old shoe, whose outer branch is, as a rule, more worn away than the inner, the outer wall will always be found too high, due to the fact that there has been little or no expansion and contraction in this quarter and, therefore, little or no wear of the horn against the shoe. The hoof is therefore wry,—on the outside too high, and on the inside too low. This shows us how the foot should be dressed so as to obtain a proper base of support and a uniform wear of the shoe. The most suitable shoe is a flat shoe, whose outer branch must be wider than the inner. ”

“ This natural bearing surface is what we want to utilize in shoeing. We put on a shoe merely to prevent excessive wear of the hoof. If we can protect the wall the frog can take care of itself, and we have only so to apply our shoe that we do not damage any useful structure or interfere with any natural function. ”

“ If the case is recent, shoe as advised in our paragraph upon "Incipient Unsoundness," being sure to cut the heel well down, putting the bearing fully upon the frog and three-quarters of the foot. If the hoof is weak from long contraction and defective circulation, lower the heels and whole wall, until the frog comes well upon the ground, and shoe with a "slipper," or "tip," made by cutting off a light shoe just before the middle calk, drawing it down and lowering the toe-calk partially. ”

“ The branches must be long, because more of the weight falls in the posterior half of the foot, and long branches extend the surface of support backward, while the surface of support in front is to be diminished by making the toe of the shoe base-narrow, either by turning it up or by bevelling it in under the foot. A shoe for an acute-angled hoof fits when it is otherwise related to the hoof as is described in paragraph a, above. ”

“ Always regarding the shoe as an extension of the natural hoof in a harder and more durable material, it is evident that the most stability will be attained by the use of as wide a bearing-surface of foot and shoe as is compatible with ease and safety to the horse. ”

“ In consequence of its removal, these have nothing to depend upon but the thin, soft horn, and this being exposed to influences it was never intended to meet, quickly desiccates, shrivels, becomes brittle, and breaks away. Then we have a hoof which requires the greatest care in shoeing; the operation of rasping being repeated each time increases the evil, and should a shoe chance to come off on the road, an accident, as we may infer, extremely likely to happen, great damage will be done to the pared sole and the thin, brittle, split-up crust, and in all probability the animal will be lamed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This annoyance is frequently caused by undue use of the toe, when the heel is lame and sore from contraction and corns. When the horse has the frog well on the ground and uses his heel without shrinking he is not apt to stumble.
TO INCREASE COMFORT.
In dry weather, or when a horse with a hard, lifeless hoof is shod with the Goodenough shoe, and shrinks from the unaccustomed pressure of the frog on the ground, nothing is so grateful to his feet as cold water. ”

“ But in the forge, the application of such facts is by most smiths utterly ignored.’ We may add that to most owners its existence is utterly unknown in the beginning, as, when the shoe is on, its first appearance is not to be detected, for of course the iron covers and hides it. It can only be discovered by paring or rasping the bottom of the hoof, when the shoe is off, at the toe or quarter; the toe is where it is most frequently to be found. ”

“ A contracted hoof, pain from corns, or any inflammation causes a horse to seek a new bearing. In doing this he strikes himself. Blacksmiths make "interfering shoes," welding side-pieces and superfluous calks upon their clumsy contrivances, and sometimes succeed in preventing the [Pg 35] symptom, but they never remove the cause. Few horses with natural feet, good circulation, and shod with a light shoe, will ever interfere. In all such cases, take off the heavy shoe, cure the contraction, get an even bearing, and let nature have at least a momentary chance. ”

“ It must therefore be much easier for the horse in his way of going, and be a means of making him surer-footed. It is likewise evident that from this shoe the hoof cannot acquire any bad form, when at the same time it receives every advantage that possibly could be expected from shoeing. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Besides, not one of those I have examined, though many appear to have been subjected to wear in other respects, show any marks of hoof wear; that is, still granting that they could be fastened to the extremity of the limb. It is well known that a horse's shoes, after being a short time subjected to use on hard ground, become rounded over at the toe, where the greatest amount of wear occurs; also that the foot-surface, even with the shoe firmly nailed to the wall, becomes worn and channeled where any play or friction takes place. ”

“ In very pronounced contraction, where the hoof is not acute-angled, an expansive shoe with clips raised at the ends of the branches to press against the buttresses may prove very advantageous; but under no conditions should violence be used in expanding the heels with the expanding-screw. ”

“ They should also follow the outline of the hoof, a little more to the outside than the inside. When fitting, the shoe should not be kept too long a time on the hoof, for fear of heating it. With this shoeing we may travel on slippery ground or grass land, in using for each shoe two nails with long heads, which will prevent the horse from slipping. ”

“ The position and form of the shoe have a marked influence upon its wear; at the place where the shoe is too far under the hoof either as a result of shifting or of having been nailed on crooked, or where the outer branch has not the necessary width, or does not form a sufficiently large curve, the wear will be increased. ”

“ If you examine a shoe, so applied to a foot that an inch or more of its extremity has no contact with the hoof, you will find that when weight is rested on that foot the horn yields downwards and comes in contact with the shoe. This simply demonstrates that when there is nothing to support it the horn at the heels may be forced downwards. It is not a normal action, and in an unshod foot cannot occur on a level surface. ”

“ It is alleged that shoes cannot be fitted so rapidly nor as closely by any means other than that of hot fitting; and this is generally true, for, by this means, the hoof is burned to correspond with the inequalities which occur on the surface of the shoe, until the latter is thoroughly imbedded in the horn. ”

“ It was always a favourite theme with people who did not understand much about shoeing, or the nature of the horse's foot, to dwell upon the injury done to the hoof by fitting a hot shoe to it, in order to adapt the armature more accurately to the surface on which it was afterwards to be nailed ”

“ The farrier, obeying those whom he has reason to believe know better than himself, respects, it may be, the upper part of the crust, but certainly is not required to do as much for the lower. Owing to his having neglected to rasp away a sufficient amount from its ground border, when preparing the foot for the shoe, or having nailed on one which is too small, a large piece of hoof projects beyond the edge of the shoe, particularly in the front part. ”

“ When the crack is in the quarters of the foot, it is not the tendency to expansion of the hoof that has to be guarded against. It is the downward motion of the heels that forces open a crack in this position. The farrier provides against this by taking care to have a firm bearing of the shoe on the hoof behind the crack as shown in A figure 82. ”

“ Country blacksmiths, as well as many in cities, are very fond of paring and rasping the horse's hoof, as they think they can make a neater fit of the shoe by such a course. An eminent writer on the subject of shoeing states that, except in case of disease, undue paring and rasping are never indulged in by persons who understand how to fit a shoe to the horse's feet properly ”

“ Elsewhere, at a later period, he remarks: 'The question regarding the employment of horse-shoes by the Teutonic tribes of Britain has received some slight elucidation. I feel confident that the Anglo-Saxons shod their steeds, and that they called the metal shoe calc-rond, i.e. rim-shoe; though Bosworth says the name signifies a round hoof; and my confidence is supported by the fact of the discovery of some horse-shoes in a Saxon burial-place in Berkshire. ”

“ He always recommends free paring, and for rough and brittle hoofs 'plenty of rasping on the outside to make them smooth, and the shoe put on with nine nails—four inside and five out.'
For the contracted or hoof-bound foot, he recommends paring the sole thin and opening the heels well, and putting on a shoe like a half moon. ”