Patten (shoe)

“ At a moderate gait, the front feet do not always get out of the way in time for the hind ones, as they are brought forward. Sometimes the heels are cut or badly bruised, and occasionally the shoes are torn from the fore-feet.
Remedy.—Have the front shoes made nearly twice the weight of the hind shoes. Lower the toe-calk on the fore shoe and increase the ordinary length of the calk on the hind shoe, and do not make the fore shoe to project more than half an inch beyond the heel. If the horse should have a good square heel, don’t allow the shoe to project any. ”

“ This is an important fact to remember, as the continual increase in length of the toe is one of the unavoidable evils of shoeing. Every hour the balance of the limb is being altered as the foot grows forward, and more strain is thrown on the back parts of it. In a state of nature, growth and wear would be continually balancing each other. At each shoeing, the abnormal length of the foot is certainly remedied by the skilful farrier, who reduces it to its natural proportions; but he has no sooner applied his shoe than the same process of growth again slowly, but surely, alters the aplomb. ”

“ One very important thing to be attended to, is, that the golashes and toecaps of all boots should come above or below the joint of the great toe. Very frequently the edge of the leather comes at the very worst part of the foot; and, strange enough, sometimes we see a hard seam put exactly on the corn, and running across the bunion. If no leather be put at all, the boot or shoe being made entirely of stuff, frequently a secret enemy lurks between the outside and the lining, in the shape of a leather side-lining ”

“ The pattern that nature has presented us in making the sole concave, cannot be improved [434] upon by the smith, with all his skill. The expansion of the heels, and growth of the foot, require that the shoe should be long enough, and wide enough at the heels, to allow for the natural growth of the foot in the time it is calculated the shoe should be on before being reset; for as the foot enlarges, the shoe is brought forward until it loses its original proportion, and becomes too short and narrow. The shoe may be about a quarter of an inch wider and longer than the extreme bearing of the heels ”

“ It is too often the case that the shoe is made according to the smith’s notions of what the form of the horse’s foot should be, and the foot is pared, burned, and rasped until it fits the shoe. Now, it should always be borne in mind that the shoe is intended for the foot, and not the foot for the shoe, and that it is therefore peculiarly proper to make the shoe fit the natural form of the foot. It is impossible to have the foot of a horse sound and safe, for work and use, after bringing it to an unnatural figure, by the use of the knife and rasp. ”

“ Treatment.—Flat-foot is incurable. All that can be done is to pay careful attention to the shoeing, and so prevent the condition from being aggravated. In trimming the foot the sole should not be touched; the frog, too, should be left alone, and the wall pared only so far as regards broken and jagged pieces.
The most suitable shoe is one moderately seated. If the seating is excessive, and bearing allowed only on the wall, there is a tendency for the wall to be pushed outwards, and for the sole to drop still further. ”

“ The manner of fastening the shoe is what really affects the foot, and what requires the most special attention in shoeing; for the foot, being elastic, expands in the same proportion on the rough as on the nicely-fitted shoe. It is the number and position of the nails that really affect the foot. If they are placed well back in the quarters, four on a side, as is common, the crust is held as firmly to this unyielding shoe as if in a vice, which utterly prevents the free action necessary [435] to its health. ”

“ Having this accomplished, the bearing should be equal; the nails must be driven first toward the toe, [470] then toward the heel, driving them half-way, and using the utmost care and skill; the higher the nails are driven the better. The shoe being fitted so wide, there is no fear of pricking.
The nails toward the heel should be driven by alternate taps on each side, because the foot expands on each side on account of being pared so thin on either side of the frog, the source of the expansion. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In both the shoes I was examining this stitching had parted, and the leather below had given way. The splitting was a tiny affair in each case, not an eighth of an inch long, and the torn edges having come together again on the removal of the strain, there was nothing that a person who was not something of a connoisseur of shoe-leather would have noticed. Even less noticeable, and indeed not to be seen at all unless one were looking for it, was a slight straining of the stitches uniting the upper to the sole. ”

“ 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 the latter are deficient in length, raise them by swelling the branches or by low heel-calks.
Fig. 217.
Toe-crack immobilized by lateral toe-clips: a, bearing-surface left free from pressure; b, heads of the rivets (nails) driven through holes previously drilled.
The shoe may be open, or a bar-shoe, or a short shoe with a rubber frog- and buttress-pad. Whatever expands the quarters closes a toe-crack. The Defay’s shoe (Fig. 206) , or the Chadwick spring beneath a rubber pad, or beneath a bar-shoe with leather sole, if the frog be much shrunken, will be of service. ”

“ And in Antonio the South claimed her own again.
Even the discomfort of my shoes could not seriously dampen my enjoyment. Those trodden-over heels had become nearly unbearable; but when I caught one between two rocks and tore it off, the resulting limp was worse. It was not till the next morning that Frater evolved the brilliant thought of prying off the other heel to match, which was a great relief.
Feet and shoes are always a problem on a long pedestrian trip. A shoe too tight is misery, but one too large, which allows the foot to rub and chafe, is almost as bad. ”

“ On the outer side of this boot should run a metallic splint, jointed at the ankle and extending to a leather band surrounding the leg just below the knee. A broad leather band, attached to the outer edge of the sole anterior to the talo-tarsal articulation, also passes up on [p. 1160] the outside of the foot, gradually narrowing until, opposite the ankle, it passes through a slit in the side of the shoe, to be attached to the leg-splint. ”

“ It consists of a simple oblong piece of thick leather, perforated at the sides and ends to allow of straps being drawn through, crosswise over the instep and round the ankle, and half way up the leg, to the knee, either in circular bands or crosswise, the foot and leg being encased in a more or less loose stocking or hose, in many instances the whole of the leg being cross gartered.
SANDALS OF THE ITALIAN PEASANTRY.
The early Britons wore a shoe which was almost as simple in construction as the last mentioned. ”

“ Flat-foot is occasioned by the loosening of the ligaments that knit the foot firmly together, and, by the consequent sinking of the arch, the inner aspect of the foot no longer presents the natural hollow in the sole. The causes of such loosening of the ligaments are numerous, but by far the most frequent, and one readily induced by the ordinary shoe, is weight improperly directed on the arch. ”

“ Many mules are clubfooted, especially behind, where it seems to cause little or no inconvenience. Severe cases of clubfoot may be cured by cutting the tendons, but as a rule special shoeing is the only measure of relief that can be adopted. The toe should not be pared, but the heels are to be lowered as much as [Pg 399] possible and a shoe put on with a long, projecting toe piece, slightly turned up, while the heels of the shoe are to be made thin. ”

“ Raising the toe by means of a tip, a full shoe with thinned branches or a toe-calk, or paring away the quarters will tilt the os pedis backward, break the foot-axis backward in the pedal joint and to a less extent in the coronary joint, and increase the tension of the perforans tendon considerably and of the perforatus slightly. These tendons tightening behind the fetlock-joint force it forward, causing the long pastern to stand steeper, and taking some strain from the suspensory ligament. ”

“ No ordinary shoe, except a few devised for the purpose, such as the Charlier or the tip, allows the frog to come in contact with the ground. This we take to be the main factor in the causation of contracted heels, especially with a predisposition already present in the foot itself. In the words of Lungwitz: 'Regarded from this point of view, there is no greater evil than shoeing. It abolishes the necessary counter-pressure, and thus interferes with expansion. ”

“ This is more than doubtful, and I hold a very firm opinion that a plate of leather between the shoe and the foot has no such effect, whilst it interferes with the exactness of fit of the shoe. "Leathers" are useful on weak feet to protect a thin or defective sole from injury. When the under surface of a foot has been bruised, cut through, or when it is diseased, leather offers a useful protection, but when the sole is firm and sound it is quite unnecessary. ”

“ The great advantage in elasticity and firmness which would come at once in the manner of walking, would, even as to stylishness, more than compensate for the absence of the fashionable Shanghai heels.
SHOULD THE SHOE SUPPORT THE ANKLE? Shoes of a peculiar structure have been employed to support the ankle. Medical men have even advised the introduction of brass, or other metallic straps, to be laced in the shoe about the ankle, to give support in walking. The ordinary shoe is made so as to fit the ankle very closely, under the impression that thereby the ankle is supported. ”

“ A long toe is worn down and high heels are reduced to their proper level by friction. Not so a foot protected by an iron shoe. Wear is stopped, and a disproportionate hoof becomes more and more disproportionate. Temporary alterations of the position of the foot do little harm because they are permitted, within a margin, by the movement of joints and by the elasticity of muscles. ”

“ When shut off from the joint it may suffer independently, and when distended with fluid forms a horse-shoe swelling above the patella.
In front of the patella and its ligament is the _prepatellar bursa_, which may have one, two, or three compartments, usually communicating with one another. It is the seat of the affection known as "housemaid's knee," which is very common and is sometimes bilateral, and, less frequently, of tuberculous disease which usually originates in the patella. ”

“ Luxation of the Patella, or Stifle.—Under the influence of a severe blow, a sudden leap or strain, the patella, or knee-pan is sometimes displaced. The animal holds his leg stiff and extended, cannot rest on it, and when obliged to walk, draws it along. This displacement of the patella is called being STIFLED. The displacement can be reduced by the aid of sufficient help, and placing a side-line with a hopple on the pastern of the affected limb, and drawing the hind leg forward, the surgeon will then, with both hands, bring the bone to its place. ”

“ A few of the evils connected with the shoe may, however, be justly described as unavoidable. We must shoe; we cannot shoe and leave a normal foot!
A shoe excessively seated, especially from the last nail-hole backwards, may be regarded as dangerous. In this case, with every application of the body-weight, there is given to the foot a tendency to contract, especially at its lower margin. Result: undue pressure upon the tissues around and the production of corn. ”

“ Stockings, if in a minor degree than boots, are still to a great extent responsible for deformities of the toes.
The woollen shoe or sock for the baby is too often narrowed to a point at the toes, or at best rounded to the shape of a blunt wedge, so that the tiny sprawling, out-spreading toes are not only cramped in the movements that are necessary for their healthy development, but are wedged together with the great and little toes approached to one another, and thus the foundation is laid for deformity, afterwards to be perfected by the narrow-toed boot of later life. ”