Hoof shoeing

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Valuable horses with weak feet should not be submitted to any such risk. They should be shod with removable sharps. The mere fact of removing a horse's shoes perhaps five or six times in a month must injure the hoof. Add to this the shortening of the shoe, the raising of the heel by the roughing, and the irregular bearing due to hurried fitting and we have conditions which only the very strongest feet can endure without serious injury. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Any long continued lameness which prevents the horse placing the usual weight on the foot may be accompanied by contraction. Constant cutting away of the bars and paring the frog so that it takes no contact with the ground also leads to shrinking in of the heels. By lowering the heels and letting the frog alone many feet will in time widen out to their proper size, but no system of shoeing is so good for contracted feet as the use of tips, which leave the whole back part of the hoof to take direct bearing on the ground. ”

“ On soft ground it may, for a time, become overgrown, but this is rectified by the soft horn becoming fractured and broken off. In enclosed cultivated grounds the movements of the horse, even on grass land, are too limited to ensure a proportionate form of hoof. When horses are turned out without shoes the feet should not be left to take care of themselves, unless the pasture is of large area and the time at grass extends for several months. ”

“ The causes, aside from too little exercise, are chiefly errors in shoeing, such as weakening the posterior half of the hoof, leaving too long a toe, either neglecting to remove the spurs of horn which grow from the buttresses and press upon the frog, or removing them incompletely, and using shoes whose branches are either too wide apart or are inclined downward and inward, so that under the weight of the body the heels are squeezed together and contraction is favored. ”

“ The limb and hoof of the unshod horse should be attentively studied, as both are beautifully adapted for their functions, and our care should be to interfere as little as possible with these; in fact, we ought, in shoeing, to adapt to the feet shoes which will preserve the regularity and just direction of the limbs, maintain the integrity of the hoof in form and texture, allow freedom to those movements of which it is capable, while shielding the horn from the effects of undue wear. ”

“ Shod hoofs are exposed to many more injuries than are unshod hoofs, because shoeing itself, although absolutely necessary to render horses continuously serviceable upon hard streets, is injurious to the hoof, since it to a greater or less extent prevents the physiological movements of the different parts of the foot, interferes with the circulation of the blood in the foot, slows the growth of the horn, and brings about a gradual shrinking of the entire hoof. ”

“ A horse set upon heavy shoes, and those armed with calks at toe and heel, such as are usually inflicted upon large draft-horses, has his whole weight placed upon the unsupported sole. The frog never comes in contact with the earth in any way, inflammation of the sensitive frog and sole takes place, and the arch of the sole bends down under the pressure until the ground surface of the hoof becomes flat or convex, bulging down even lower than the cruel iron that clamps its edge. ”

“ First, let us remember what our learned colleague, Professor Bouley, has said in his admirable works on shoeing: "The art of the farrier ought to be to preserve to the hoof the integrity of its form, essentially allied to that of its functions; and this result can only be obtained in leaving to the bars, the buttresses (arcs-boutants—the angle formed by the bar and crust) , and the frog and sole all their power of resistance; in protecting them without interfering with their action, their contact with the ground, their suppleness, or their natural flexibility." ”

“ 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 art of shoeing is unknown, and no attention is paid to the care of the hoof, which, being extremely hard, for a time bids defiance to the stony ground; but many of our hunters were already beginning to suffer from the want of a farrier. ”

“ The more exactly the shoe fits the foot-surface the more easily it is retained in position by the nails, and the less likelihood there is of any part of it pressing distinctly on a limited portion of horn. Exact fitting allows all bearings and pressures to be distributed equally over the surface of the hoof, and thus permits the shoe most nearly to resemble a mere continuation of the hoof in iron—an arrangement to prevent wear, but not to interfere with natural functions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I refer to the art of shoeing, by which, in arming that portion of the horse's hoof coming in contact with the ground, and sustaining the whole weight, while it receives the full force of the propelling power, would (in our northern climate, at least) under the strain of loadbearing or draught, soon be destroyed, and the animal rendered useless, injury is not only averted, but the utility and power of the horse are largely increased. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A little study and a little experience should teach a man much regarding the shoeing of his horse. If the animal has true and level action, it should have light irons all round. If it shambles, or if the stride is too confined, the weight of the shoes should be increased. The upper surface of the iron, which comes next to the hoof, should be flat; the lower surface may be bevelled from the outside, or have a groove in which the holes for the nails are punched. The hind shoes should have very small calks, the toes being correspondingly thickened to give a level bearing. ”

“ 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 ”

“ In a short time the hoof, unbraced by the sole and bars, begins to contract, the action of the frog upon the ground, which in the natural foot is threefold—acting as a cushion to receive the force of the blow and thus relieve the nerves and joints of the leg from concussion, opening and expanding the hoof by its upward pressure, quickening the circulation and thereby stimulating the natural secretions,—this all important part of the organization, without which there is no foot and no horse, becomes hard, dry, and useless. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 Fig. 52 a shoe with an inclined surface is applied to a foot with a bearing-surface as wide as the wall but the only contact is at the edges. The horn at the edge will yield, and the hoof be pressed inwards as the weight of the animal forces the foot into the saucer-shaped shoe. When the bearing-surface of the foot, instead of being as wide as the wall, is only a ridge, the horn yields more rapidly, the clinches rise and the shoe becomes loose. ”

“ Experimentalists in Germany and in this country have recently used an apparatus by which the slightest variations are detected by electrical contact, and the results are very interesting. These experiments show that in a well-formed, healthy foot the hoof throughout its posterior two-thirds does expand to pressure, and perhaps that the arch of the sole is slightly flattened. ”

“ The preparation of the foot, previous to shoeing, consisted in the removal of all the superfluous growth: 'When hoofs are protected by shoes, the consumption of horn by wear and tear is nearly prevented; but as the growth of the hoof is constantly going on, it is evident that all the superfluous parts will require to be removed at every period of shoeing, otherwise it would run into a state of exuberance similar to the human nails if they were not cut. ”