Sabot (shoe)

“ With the bar removed, the outward movements of the frog under pressure are naturally rendered of no account, and a proper and intermittent expansion of the wall denied it. The same evil follows, though to a less extent, excessive paring of the sole.
The shape of the bearing surface of the shoe is often to be blamed. Where this is concave—'seated'—and the 'seating' is carried back to the heels, it is easy to see that, when weight is on the foot, there is an ever-present tendency for the bearing edge of the wall to slide down towards the inner edge of the shoe. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Mr T. Wills permits me to lay before you a horse-shoe, which there seems good reason to regard as of Saxon origin; it is about three inches and seven-eighths long, exceedingly thin, agreeing in this respect with the previously-mentioned horse-shoe found with Saxon remains in Kent, and the iron of which it is composed is of that peculiar ropy kind, so characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon era. It is sharp at the extremities, has no calkins, and the six large, square nail-holes are cut clean through the substance, and not counter-sunk to receive the nail-heads. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Fig. 3, delineates the most ordinary kind of shoe worn, with the opening to the toes already alluded to, for lacing it. But little variety is observable in the form of this article of dress among the Saxons; it is usually delineated as a solid black mass, just as the last figure has been here engraved, with a white line down the centre, to show the opening, but quite as generally without it, and these two forms of shoe or half-boot, are by far the most commonly met with, and are depicted upon the feet of noble and royal personages as well as upon those of the lower class. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Tremendous vanity, that one man should allow the mouth of another to be applied to his feet that he may have them trimly set out! The shoemaker unfolds the heel, turns round with the shoeing skin in his hand, and begins to fit the second part of the shoe upon the foot. He desires the gallant to put the end of the foot down, and the gallant does as he is desired. He draws the shoe towards him with such force that the person who is thus being shoed is compressed in an unseemly manner between the shoemaker's body and the back of the chair. ”

“ Every nail penetrating the crust may be looked upon as a source of injury to it; and with a shoe bedded in a solid manner on the crust and sole, as I have recommended, and diminished in weight to the utmost degree compatible with endurance for a certain period, it is astonishing what a small number of nails is needed. The ordinary heavy seated-shoe is damaging to the foot, not only because it rests on such a narrow basis, but also because its weight and instability necessitates its being attached by a large number of long thick nails which do great harm to the crust. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A false habit, tending in the same direction, is that of changing the shoes of children to make them wear evenly or prevent their treading over to one side at the heel. It is a practice productive of far more harm than good—a saving of shoe-leather at the foot’s expense. After one foot has shaped a shoe to itself, to put the other into it [Pg 26] forcing the great toe into the curve made by the little toe and outside of the foot, must do much toward bending the toe permanently out of place. ”

“ The necessity is the same in both these styles; there is only a difference in degree, which is greater in the low shoe and slipper than in the high gaiter and boot. The tightness at the ankle which prevents slipping, is supplied, more or less perfectly, in side spring gaiters, and those that are laced. Lacing compels the boot to fit closely, whether it does so easily or not. In men’s boots, where there is no lacing this effect is produced only by having them so small about the heel and ankle that the foot can hardly move at all after it is crowded inside. ”

“ Even with a shoe of correct length, with a flat-bearing surface at the heels, and other conditions favourable to correct application, evil may still result from the shoe itself being made too narrow. As a result of this, the branch of each side is set too far under the foot, with consequent injury to the sole. This is, of course, sheer carelessness on the part of the smith. When practised, however, it is not easy of detection, as in all cases the foot is rasped down to cover what has been done. In other words, the foot is made to fit the shoe and not the shoe the foot. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One thing in favour of toe-pieces must be acknowledged—they, with the calkins, restore the natural position of the foot and preserve the level of the shoe. On the larger draught horses the toe-pieces permit a lighter shoe to be used, as the portion of iron between heels and toe need not be thick to resist wear. It only requires to be strong enough to support weight and much less iron is therefore used. ”

“ The workman, it will be noticed, cuts the leather upon a sloping bench, exactly like that of the shoemaker already engraved.
The warmth and mildness of the East, rendered a close, warm shoe unnecessary; and, indeed, in the present day, they partake there more of the character of slippers; and the foot, thus unconfined by tight shoes, and always free in its motion, retained its full power and pliability: and the custom, still retained in the East, of holding a strap of leather, or other substance, between the toes, is represented in the Theban paintings ”

“ In the fore-shoes, only three nails are driven in each side, through round holes which are close together. The toes remain free, as the Arabs say nails in that part of the foot would interfere with its elasticity, and would cause in the horse, when he sets the hoof on the ground, precisely the same sensation a man experiences from wearing a tight shoe. Many accidents, they assert, thence ensue. ”

“ A good shoemaker would not like to make an Oxford shoe upon a boot last, although it is laced well up toward the ankle. Why should he be willing to make a boot on it, when the boot is confined at the instep no more than the shoe? There is the same danger of slipping in both cases, and why should it not be guarded against in the same way? Every one who has made or sold shoes knows that a slipper, or low shoe of any kind, will fit on the foot much better if made on a shoe last; that it is less liable to be loose at the sides, and to show big wrinkles across the ball ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Thus the shoes generally used in the East, scarcely do more than cover the toes, yet, from constant use, the natives hardly ever allow them to slip from the feet. The learned author of the notes to “Knight’s Pictorial Bible,” speaking from personal observation of these articles, says, “The common shoe in Turkey or Arabia, is like our slipper with quarters, except that it has a sharp and prolonged toe turned up.” No shoes in western Asia have ears, and they are generally of colored leather—red or yellow morocco in Turkey and Arabia, and green shagreen in Persia. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is true a carefully fitted shoe on a foot so treated may do no harm for a time. Too much horn should be left rather than too little. A strong covering of horn is a protection against many mistakes in the fitting or form of a shoe applied to a foot. So long as a hoof is everywhere strong enough to sustain pressure and afford bearing, weight is evenly distributed throughout the whole foot. When the horn is thin it yields to any uneven pressure and damage is done to the foot, even if immediate lameness is not induced.
[Pg 48]
CHAPTER IV.
The Form and Manufacture of Shoes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ While in the majority of horses whose limbs have been stiffened by age and overwork both kinds of wear are most marked at the toe of the shoe, we see relatively fewer cases of “grounding wear” at the ends of the branches (as in laminitis) ; on the contrary, we always notice “swinging-off wear” at the toe of the shoe. It is worthy of notice that length of stride has much to do with the wear. ”

“ Nearly all the coarser and cheaper kinds of men’s shoe goods have the bad quality of general stiffness. Their wearing makes, in a very decided and proper sense, stiff feet. They are all the worse for having pegged soles. Whether the soles are curved or straight makes not much difference, for the stiffness prevents the use of either the upper or lower set of the foot’s muscles. As these goods can not be generally manufactured at the present time without being made stiff by pegs, in addition to the firmness of the leather, there is but little chance for improvement. ”