Shoe (animal)

“ The efficacy of this shoe is specially noticeable with “foundered” horses—those which have inflamed feet. An animal, thus suffering, tends to tread more on the heel than the toe, and the convexity allows a better grip to be obtained. Indeed, the ordinary form of shoe is sometimes slightly bent for the same reason. ”

“ 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 all likelihood, as he remarks, the animal to which they belonged had been buried with them, since the nails were present in them, as in many of the Gallic specimens, with the clenches quite perfect and in their flexed state, which would not have been possible had the shoe been torn off while the horse was alive. This veterinarian acknowledges the shoes as truly exhibiting an early period in the history of the art. 'Their mould or general form is neither broad nor heavy, as in the oldest French shoes we have ever seen, but they are rather what would be called a light shoe. ”

“ A good shoemaker could average two pairs of shoes, welted, turned, or stitched in a twelve-hour working day. In any shoe the sole would be heaviest cow or ox hide, cut from that part of the hide over the animal’s hind quarters called the “bend.” Uppers would usually be of calfskin, sometimes of goat, sheep, or dogskin. Women’s shoes with leather soles very often had uppers of fabric, such as calimanco, ticking, silk, damask, satin, or poplin. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is impossible to suppose that certain rudimentary pads are devised by selective processes prior to the altered habits of walking of the animal that acquires them. From the shoemaking point of view the fashion is rough and generalised, and the changing habits of the animal adapt the shoe by degrees to the function employed, much as many a private soldier knows to his cost that he has had to adapt slowly and painfully his army boot to his particular foot. ”

“ In the majority of this class of shoe the hinges are placed far forward, one on each side of the toe. They there become exposed to excessive wear. In fact, against the bulk of this form of shoe it may be urged that they cannot be worn by the animal at work, that they are expensive, difficult to make, and easily put out of order.
3. By Operations on the Horn of the Wall.
(a) Thinning the Wall in the Region of the Quarters.—This is best done by means of an ordinary farrier's rasp. The thinning should lessen gradually from the heel for 2-1/2 to 3 inches in a forward direction. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On the fore-feet of a hunter it does not afford, one would think, a sufficient grip of the ground, and appears to offer no advantages beyond its being, perhaps, a trifle lighter than the shoe I have proposed. The hunter's sole and frog, if left unpared, receive their full share of pressure with the ordinary huntingshoe. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We examine carefully to see that no stub of nail is left in. The heels will be found long and hard. Our object being frog-pressure, to get the vivifying action of this tactile organ upon the ground, we pare down the whole wall; we soon come to signs of a corn—perhaps a drop of blood starts; but as we do not intend to put the weight upon the heels, we are not alarmed. Having cut all we can from the heels and still finding that the frog, when the shoe is laid on, can not touch the ground, we knock down the last two calks and draw the heel of the shoe thin ”

“ The shoes for hunters do not differ materially from those suitable for Park Hacks. The hunter’s shoes are somewhat lighter, and to guard against injury to the feet by over-reaching and interfering, and against the shoes being pulled by stiff mire and by treading, the shoes must represent merely a prolongation of the hoofs, i.e., must be no longer and no wider than the hoofs themselves. The front shoe of narrow, convex iron is rolled at the toe and has a central toe-clip. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Experience has taught me, that common sense is one of the most essential things in the treatment of a horse's foot. You must remember that horses' feet differ as well as men's, and require different treatment, especially in shoeing. You must shoe the foot according to its peculiarity and demands, not according to any specific "system of shoe." Give the ground surface a level bearing, let the frog come to the ground, and the weight of the mule rest on the frog as much as any other part of the foot. If it project beyond the shoe, so much the better. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Hunting shoes should be light, very secure, and of a form to give good foot hold. The best are flat on the foot-surface, and fullered and concave on the ground-surface. The hind shoe should also be concave on the ground-surface, but to avoid the injury of over-reaching the inner circumference at the toe should be rounded and smooth. ”

“ In such a shoe the frog is admitted to touch the ground, the necessity of which has been already shown; add to this, the horse stands more firmly on the ground, having the same points of support as in a natural state. ”

“ They are dependent upon the structure, direction, and position of the leg and hoof, as well as upon the horse’s service and the nature of the ground. Since the shoe is an artificial base of support, and since a proper surface of support is of the greatest importance in preserving the soundness of the feet and legs, careful attention must be given to this matter. Naturally shoes designed for the various forms of hoofs must present equally great and equally numerous differences of form, as well as other peculiarities. ”

“ Inasmuch as the form of every foot determines the peculiarities of the shoe that is best adapted to it, no one who is ignorant of, or who disregards the natural form of, a hoof can hope to understand physiological shoeing. ”

“ When the shoe thus described is set so as to secure frog-pressure, as hereinafter directed, a horse may be shod without violation of nature's laws; foot disease, under fair conditions, will become almost impossible, and the useless refuse-stock, broken down by the old method, may be restored to usefulness. ”

“ So long as nails and iron are employed to protect the hoof, the crust is the part that should receive the nails and the pressure of the shoe; and the sole of every horse employed for every purpose is a part that should not be in contact with the shoe. All other rules for the practice of shoeing are subordinate and conditional.' Artificial frogs were invented and patented to make due pressure on that part of the foot, and everything was done to cause the expansion of the heels ”

“ 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. ”

“ To restore the natural action of the foot by putting the bearing on the frog, is the chief object of the system we advocate, and the Goodenough shoe is designed especially to provide for that first and last necessity. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Seeing further, however, that it only appears when shoeing is commenced, we may in a greater degree also regard it as acquired. The lesson, therefore, that this and other forms of contraction should teach us is the carefulness with which the shoeing should be superintended in a large stud, or in any case where the animal is of more than ordinary value. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The African shoes, it will be observed, are somewhat square at the toe and approaching the little V in shape.
The central opening is somewhat triangular, and in the Moorish shoe the heels are welded and bent up towards the frog. As the horse can only suffer in the part that is most sensitive, they think, and not in the part that is hard, it is, of course, the frog that should be shielded from accident. The shoes should therefore cover the frogs. ”

“ The hoofs of the Arab Horses are never shod, their owners thinking that that act is not likely to improve nature, and even among the burning sands and hard rocks the Horse treads with unbroken hoof. In such a climate, indeed, an iron shoe would be worse than useless, as it would only scorch the hoof by day, and in consequence of the rapid change of temperature by day or night, the continual expansion and contraction of the metal would soon work the nails loose, and cause the shoe to fall off. ”