Horse shoe

“ When a shoe requires much alteration to bring it into exact correspondence with the foot, even the most expert farrier cannot do justice to his work with cold iron—he gets as near to a fit as he can and when the hoof is strong little harm is done. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A horse shod with shoes unnecessarily heavy is at just that disadvantage; therefore it is of the utmost importance both for his comfort and your safety that he should be shod as lightly as is compatible with the work required of him. In fitting the shoe, great care should be taken that both sides of the hoof are of the same height. If they are not of the same height, the whole foot is thrown out of plumb; this twists the delicate joints of leg and pastern and leads to disease. In the majority of cases that I have noticed, [257] the inside of the foot is left higher than the outside. ”

“ With reference to the observation, made by more than one correspondent, that the horse-shoe has not always proved an infallible charm against the devil, the author, deferentially, begs to hazard an opinion that, in every one of such cases, the supposed failure may have resulted from an adoption of something else than the real shoe, as a protection. ”

“ The shoe rests on the wall, sole, and frog of the foot, the latter being particularly supported by the light metal plate; the nails, rough and clumsy as they are, obtain a short thick hold of the sole and crust, and are badly riveted—though it is extremely rare that a shoe comes off on a journey lasting for weeks together. Years of shoeing in this rude fashion do not alter the shape of the Arab horse's hoofs; the longest day's ride, no matter how fast or fatiguing, whether on burning sand or on sun-baked rocky ground, will seldom, if ever, cause him to have inflamed feet. ”

“ It was advertised as the 'humane horse-shoe;' and these advertisements asserted that it was 'the only horse-shoe which obeys the laws of nature in its construction, and is shaped as nearly in conformity with the natural foot as scientific knowledge and skilful labour can produce!' No pains were spared to make a good speculation of the wonderful new invention ”

“ The choice of the shoe for a given horse is not at all difficult after we have carefully considered his weight, the nature of his work, his standing position, gait, the form of his hoofs, and quality of the horn, bearing in mind the general and peculiar properties of shoes. As a rule, we choose a shoe that is longer than the hoof, because the latter grows and carries the shoe forward with it, and because the quarters gradually become lowered by rubbing and wearing away upon the branches of the shoe. ”

“ When time is not an object, the best test of a workman is to require him to make a fore and hind shoe and put them on the horse. At a one-day show, or at a competition when the entries are large, it is sufficient to require the making of a fore and hind shoe and the fitting and nailing on of the front one. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The shoe recommended to be worn by Mr Clark is that described by Osmer, though he says it was employed by him many years before that veterinarian's treatise was published. 'In shoeing a horse we should in this, as in every other case, study to follow nature; and certainly that shoe which is made of such a form as to resemble as near as possible the natural tread and shape of the foot, must be preferable to any other. ”

“ Words cannot describe the agony a horse must experience when he chances to put his foot on a sharp, or even a blunt stone. And yet the writers who have counselled this mutilation of the foot, have laid this tenderness—the limping gait, and falls with broken knees—to the nails of the shoe preventing expansion! Plates of leather covering the delicate frog and sole, and layers of tar and tow, are brought into requisition to compensate—though such is not confessed—for the loss of the horn ”

“ The ordinary, light hunting-shoe is incomparably superior to the new invention in every respect; indeed, from the presence of toe-calks, the defective position and form of the nail-holes, and its clumsiness, this shoe is a very perilous and unsuitable one for the hunting-field, or even for ordinary road purposes, while the resuscitated method of cold-fitting makes it still less secure. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ From this form of the shoe, and from this method of treating the hoof, the frog is raised to a considerable height above the ground, the heels are deprived of that substance which was provided by nature to keep the crust extended at a proper wideness, and the foot is fixed as it were in a mould.' 'If we attend further to the convex surface of this shoe, and the convexity of the pavement upon which horses walk, it will then be evident that it is impossible for them to keep their feet from slipping, especially upon declivities of streets. ”

“ When the under-surface of a horse's foot resembles in form the outside of a saucer, fitting a shoe becomes a work of art. Very often the wall is brittle and broken away and it is most difficult to find sufficient bearing-surface on the foot for a shoe. Many of these feet may be safely shod with a narrow shoe that rests only on the wall and the intermediate horn between the wall and sole. ”

“ This adjusted shoe is designed to imitate the shape of the worn surface of an old shoe or to some extent the worn surface of an unshod foot. Every farrier knows how many horses go better after a level shoe has been worn a few days than when first applied, and it is argued, with reason, that the greater ease is due to the shoe being worn to the form offering least resistance to the movement of the foot in locomotion. ”

“ The shoe is rolled without a heel calk, so that the frog-pressure may be readily secured without heating and drawing the iron:—the nail holes are punched so that the nail furnished by us with the shoe may be driven, without the use of the pritchel to punch out the holes. The shoe, being made of the best quality of iron, may be bent cold to adapt it to the shape of the hoof. ”

“ We have often been compelled to reset the shoe, cutting down the wall, in ten days after shoeing. Many horses that have been used upon pavements and [Pg 40] horse-railroads, have acquired a habit of slipping and sliding along, catching with heel-calks in the space between the stones; such horses do not at once relinquish the habit, and wear their first set of our shoes much more rapidly than the subsequent set, after they have assumed the natural action of their feet. But, economical as a light shoe that will long outlast a heavy one may be, the great saving is in the item of horse-flesh. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The first application of the Goodenough shoe is almost invariably to the feet of horses suffering from some one of the forms of foot disease, induced by the unnatural method of shoeing. Our system is intended for sound horses, to supply the necessary protection to the feet, and to keep them in a healthy condition. Our rules for shoeing, embodied in our circular of instructions, are applicable to sound horses, and disease must be provided for as exceptional.
Men are careless and, as a rule, unobservant ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The shoe, being well tempered, will allow the bars to spring with the horse’s weight, and will be found one of the best devices possible to soften and relieve the effects of concussion when the horse is tender of foot, as well as to quicken the action in trotting, leaving the frog free and unimpeded to perform its important functions of cushioning the foot and shielding the sensitive parts from injury.’
It is, perhaps, scarcely fair to condemn by theory a shoe which one has not experimented upon ”

“ So that in England the practice of shoeing horses with iron shoes attached to the hoofs by nails, was, after the settlement of the Normans, completely established and general. The form of shoe introduced by them was, perhaps, more artistic than that of the earlier periods, and the same as that in use in France; being usually furnished with calkins, heavy, larger in size than those found before their arrival, and having three, or more rarely four, nailholes on each side. ”

“ Such is the treatment of the hoofs of the horses under my care; and so strong are they—such massive solid blocks of horn do they appear, that should a shoe by some rare chance be lost on a journey, there is no danger whatever in marching a horse for ten, twenty, or even thirty miles without another. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It has been said that at least they might be employed for horses' feet in a bad condition; but besides the impossibility of using many of them for any such purpose, and which is obvious enough, we have discovered in our excavations a shoe intended for a diseased foot, one of the branches of which has been enlarged to an extraordinary degree, so as to cover one-half of the sole.'
Veterinary surgeon Duplessis, of the French artillery, likewise announces his disapproval of the name and the use given to these contrivances. ”

“ If used on the inside heel of a shoe they constitute a danger to the opposite leg should they bend and protrude from under the shoe. As a temporary provision against a sudden frost or fall of snow they are useful—but they are only a make-shift. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Some horses are born with flat feet, others acquire them as the result of disease. Too often the flat sole has another defect accompanying it—low weak heels. Such feet are best shod with a seated shoe so as to avoid any uneven pressure on the sole, and the shoes should always be fitted a little longer than the bearing-surface of the foot, so as to avoid any risk of producing a bruise at the heel—in other words, of causing a corn. ”

“ This is a point to which we call attention as of great importance. In shoeing a horse for light or rapid work with a common flat shoe, seven or eight nail-heads protrude, and take the force of his blow on the ground. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When a shoe is seated from one side to the other so as to produce a saucer shaped surface harm is done to the foot. Such a shoe presents no level bearing-surface, and the weight of the horse pressing the wall on an inclined plane causes the foot to be pinched or compressed in a manner which soon causes lameness. ”