SHOEING

The shoeing of horses was not known to the earliest users of horses. It is true the Romans used a sort of leather sock, with an iron plate beneath, and the extravagant PoppÆa, the wife of Nero, had gold plates on her favorite horses, as wives of similar traditions to-day, have silver bath-tubs and satin sheets.

When the monument to Childeric, the father of Clovis, the founder of the French monarchy, was discovered in 1653, a horseshoe was found therein. It was the custom then, as at one time among our own Indians, to bury the horse and his owner together.

Polydore Vergil writes, "Hos quoque Pelethronios Thessaliae primos equorum ungulas munire ferreis soleis coepisse ferunt."

As we have related in another chapter, William the Conqueror shod his horses.

The horse's foot is so apparently the most important part of him to his owner, that every horse owner should at least know the elementary first principles of the formation and shoeing of the foot and should always bear in mind, "no foot no horse." The foot is a sensitive structure, with two bones and part of the third, viz. the coffin-bone, navicular or shuttle bone, and the lower or smaller pastern bone enclosed in a horny case. This case is deepest in front where it is called the toe, and shallower at the sides which are called the quarters, and narrowest behind where it is called the heel. This outer case is fibrous, the fibres running from above to below as they grow from where the skin terminates, and consists of the outer case or wall and the bars, which are the continuation of the crust under the foot, and between the triangle of which lies the frog. (Plate XIX.)

The horse, as a wild animal left to care for himself, had a beautiful cushion, the frog, to run on, protected by the horny, tough case and bars, which renew themselves as do the nails of a man.

Hard roads, heavy weights to carry and to pull, and confinement in stables developed shoeing as a necessity.

Very few men own their horses; the horses are generally, except for a legal right which is a formality, the property of the coachmen and the blacksmith. They dictate when, and how, and how far they shall go, and the owner for lack of a little study of the subject accepts their say-so.

401a

EXTERNAL PARTS OF THE HORSE

401b

FOOT OF THE HORSE

The feet of a horse do not wear out, as do his teeth, for instance. An old horse may have, barring accident, just as good feet as a young one. Nature has provided amply for the renewal of the frog and the sole and the crust of the horse's hoof. But in order that this renewal should not be interfered with, the foot should be kept clean, moist, and well shod. As the foot is kept on hard substances in and out of the stable, and not as nature intended in contact with the moist ground, this moisture should be supplied artificially by stopping the feet once or twice a week. If the foot is not cleaned each time the horse comes in, the tender frog and sole become diseased; if the frog and sole are not moistened, but kept dry, the frog and sole crack, chip, and fail to renew themselves properly; if shoes too big or too small, or shoes that do not fit the crust and bars are put on, or if nails are put in carelessly or pulled out roughly, the foot contracts, corns appear, and you have a lame, an unnecessarily lame, horse on your hands. The fore feet are nearly circular in a healthy horse, the hind feet more oval in form.

It is no economy not to shoe horses at least every three or four weeks, whether the shoes are worn out or not; for the simple reason that the shoes are nailed to a substance which is always growing, and after that interval of time the shoe no longer fits the foot. The shoe should be made and put on to fit the foot, and no blacksmith should be allowed to rasp the foot down to fit the shoe. The crust or wall of the foot is about three-quarters of an inch wide in most horses, and this is the proper width for the shoe, and the shoe to be flat toward the foot. If the shoe is wider, as is often the case,—go over your horse's feet and see,—it leaves a little shelf for stones and dirt, and a horse going in wet, heavy ground may even have his shoes pulled wholly off by suction. The shoes should be as wide as this crust to the heels, but where the crust narrows at the juncture with the bars, the shoe should narrow too.

For the ordinary horse for riding or driving, neither a racer nor a hunter, a shoe may weigh from nine to fourteen ounces. It is to be remembered in this connection, that shoes grow rapidly lighter as they get thinner from wear. This should be considered in deciding upon the weight of a horse's shoes. Big work horses are sometimes shod with shoes weighing five, six, and seven pounds. As few nails as possible to make the shoe secure is best—five to seven is enough. As the inside of the crust of the hoof is always thinner and more elastic than the outside on account of the greater weight it bears, contraction is generally found on the inside; use two nails inside and three outside, or three inside and four outside, if seven are necessary. The outside crust is thicker and stronger than the inside crust of the heel and affords more nailhold. No matter what the blacksmith or the coachman—who is often only his echo—says, insist that the bars of the horse's feet shall on no account be cut away. The wall of the hoof is not only much weakened by this operation, but the hoof must, in consequence of it, contract toward the heel. The reason advanced for doing this is that it allows room for expansion, when as a matter of fact, with the bars cut away, there is nothing to keep the foot open, and there follow contraction and corns. Corns mean lameness, a timid way of putting the feet down, and hence stumbling, and corns are very difficult to get rid of. Look at the healthy foot of a horse and see for yourself that this must be so, and then have your horses shod as though they really belonged to you. Remember that most blacksmiths shoe the horse to look well on the outside. It should be your business to insist that he be so shod that the hoof shall keep well on the inside!

To discuss different styles of shoes, questions of balancing horses for speed or action, would require a treatise by itself.

It is fair to condense advice on the subject by saying that the lightest and closest-fitting shoe that will suit the work and the peculiarities of moving of the horse will be the best for him. Do not allow paring of the sole and frog; have light shoes properly fitted; use as few nails as possible; make the shoe to fit the foot, and permit no rasping, burning, and paring to fit the foot to the shoe; do not allow the front of the hoof to be rasped.

It must not be forgotten in this matter of shoeing that there are no muscles below the knee and the hock, and the muscles used to move the legs are high up. What weighs little at the shoulder or stifle weighs very much more at the end of the leg. Take a stick three feet long and put a pound-weight on it next your hand, then transfer the pound-weight to the end of the stick next the ground, and you see for yourself the difference. Or suppose in fencing you put a weight equal to the handle, where the button is, and the difference in using the weapon is enormous. 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, the inside of the foot is left higher than the outside.

The horse left without shoes does not suffer from corns, thrush, "speedy-cut," sand-cracks, quittor, and the like. On the contrary, he develops and keeps in condition a foot wonderfully well adapted to carry him and hold him. He has a wonderful cushion to run on and take the jar off, enclosed in a fibrous case of horn. The care of the foot and the shoeing thereof should leave as much to nature and as little to the blacksmith as possible. Artificial conditions make iron shoes necessary, but except for the heaviest kind of work on the roughest and hardest roads the less shoe, the fewer nails, and the less paring and rasping of the foot, the better. The cavalry in this country do not shoe the horses on the hind feet unless special service requires it.

Where a horse interferes or forges, certain changes in his shoeing may help matters. In interfering, unless it arises from bad malformation, the height of the shoe may be increased on the inside, or a three-quarter shoe used on the outside; or, if this fails, the exact opposite may be tried. The so-called Charlier shoe, which fits into a bevelled hollow around the crust, suits some horses.

Clicking or forging arises from the striking of the toe of the hind shoe against the under edge of the toe of the fore shoe. It results usually from the quicker action of the hind quarters than the fore quarters. A remedy is to shorten the toes of the hind feet and level off the edges of the toe of the fore shoe. Shortening the toes of the fore feet enables the horse to raise his fore feet more quickly and thus to get them away before the hind quarters reach his fore feet. In hilly country, or where horses are overworked or weakened by illness, this overreaching is most common, and often disappears when horses get accustomed to the country, or get stronger and better able to lift, and to carry their feet properly.