or pacer, unless the horse paddles with one or both front legs. A foot
that is left high on the outside and low on the inside will help to
prevent paddling and will increase the winging in to the knees. A foot
that is kept high on the inside and low on the outside will help to
prevent winging in to the knees. There are lots of paddlers who do not
begin to paddle until the foot has left the ground quite some distance,
and to prove this I have seen the shoes worn by some paddlers and the
most of the wear on the shoes of the paddling leg or legs was at the
outside toe of shoe. A paddler that leaves the ground from the inside
toe of shoe can be made to carry the leg straighter in a line at speed
easier than one that leaves the ground from the outside toe.
The reason why a front foot should not be left highest on the outside,
of a trotter or pacer, unless he is a paddler, is this; supposing the
front legs at the chest or where the upper arm joint is connected with
the chest is ten, twelve or fifteen inches apart, I mean the distance
the two front legs are from one another where connected with the body.
Now when this horse is at speed and can go fast at the trot or pace,
like most all fast horses at speed, his foot prints will be straight in
a line one after the other on the track. Now if their upper arms are ten
or twelve inches apart, more or less, and at speed their feet land
nearly on a line, the front legs are not working forward and backward in
a straight up and down line from the body, so this being the case just
try to imagine just how those two front feet land on the ground with the
legs wide apart at the upper arms and the feet landing straight in a
line or nearly so at speed. The question is, should the outside of front
foot be lower than the inside, if so, how much, to distribute and
equalize the concussion on both sides of a front foot at the heels _when
at speed_. What I am trying to explain is, if you have a fast trotter or
pacer and he does not paddle, and you are working to develop speed
intending to race, and if the outside of the front feet are the highest
and the inside of the hind feet are the highest, every time you work
this horse with unbalanced feet you are guilty of one of the greatest
crimes that are committed by trainers and horse-shoers.
In fixing the front feet on all fast horses, trotters or pacers, that do
not paddle, first rasp the outside of a front foot down to where you
want it, toe and heel, then you can rasp the inside of the foot down to
where it will suit the action of the leg the best. The reason for this
is you can always lower the inside of a front foot a lot lower than you
can the outside of same foot and when you rasp the inside of a front
foot down _first_, nine times out of ten you will not be able to rasp
the outside of the same foot down to a level with the inside. Now the
hind foot is just to the reverse. Always rasp to lower the inside of a
hind foot down first to where you want it and then take the outside down
to a level with it. If you do not fix feet by this rule, the sensitive
portion of the foot will often prevent you from lowering it enough to
level up matters with opposite side, and the sensitive parts of the foot
that will prevent you from doing this will be the outside of a front
foot and the inside of a hind foot. This is the main reason why so many
floormen in shops all over the country cut the inside of front feet too
low for the outside, and leave the inside of the hind feet too high for
the outside of same. But if you will fix feet by this rule you will be
right the most of the time.
XLIII. PULLING ON ONE LINE AT SPEED.
I was approached on this subject and had it explained to me that a
certain horse going the right way of the track at speed would go on one
line and keep going into the fence or hugging the pole, and would make
two or three breaks going the length of the stretch on a half-mile
track, and could not be kept away from the fence. After an examination
of the teeth, cheeks, and tongue, and bit, and finding these to be all
O. K., I concluded that it must be from uneven extension of the legs.
The extension and propelling power of the off legs was greater than that
of the nigh ones. A three-ounce toe weight on the feet of the nigh legs
straightened or balanced up the lost action of the nigh side so that the
horse would speed the length of the stretch in any position on the track
without pulling on one line and so the necessity for pulling on one line
to keep the horse straight was stopped.
The feet on this animal were well fixed hind and front, as to length of
toes and angle of feet, the hind shoes weighed alike and the front ones
also. The muscular development of the extension power of the off legs
was stronger than that of the nigh legs, perhaps also the propelling
power of the off hind leg. This is the reason the horse was pulling on
one line. The off legs were reaching farther than the nigh ones, which
kept forcing the horse to go towards the fence. Unbalanced feet will
cause this as well as undeveloped muscles. I have no doubt but there are
lots of horses going on one line and hugging the pole that need a change
in the angle of the feet, or the proper weight at the proper place to
balance up matters. If the strides of this horse had been measured there
would have been found a big difference between the off and nigh strides,
so you see it is not always the teeth, cheeks, or bit that cause this
trouble. The horse in question later stepped miles in 2:09.
XLIV. A GOOD JUDGE OF GAIT.
In all my experience with horsemen and horses I believe William Russell
Allen’s judgment about gait and prospective or ultimate speed is
superior to that of any one I have ever come in contact with. He seems
to have the faculty of knowing at a glance the frictionless gait from a
fairly good gaited one. To prove this I will cite a few instances. On
one occasion he was away on a visit and on his return he said to me that
he saw Uhlan 1:58 as a two-year-old or a three-year-old, I do not
remember exactly, but it was before he came into prominence, and Mr.
Allen told me he was the best gaited colt he ever saw. This colt must
have been just as he said, for it could not have been over a year, or
two at the outside, when this same colt trotted to a world’s record, and
it did not surprise me much after remembering what Mr. Allen told me
about his gait. The same thing happened again when he saw Peter Volo
2:02, early in his two-year-old form. Also the full sister to Peter
Volo, Volga, Mr. Allen told me she was gaited to win all her
engagements.
Here at Allen Farm he picked a yearling out of about thirty early in the
season, that was out of a non-producing dam, to beat all the yearlings
an eighth of a mile at the trot that season at the farm on a small bet.
It was big odds and was taken very quickly by one of the employees, who
was wishing he could get more of that kind of bets. When the brush work
of the season was over the field ticket was never presented to the pool
seller to be cashed. Mr. Allen’s first choice out of a large field won
by a quarter of a second and we had a lot of fast ones, but any how he
had the laugh on me at the finish.
XLV. BAR SHOES.
If you have a horse with toe cracks, quarter cracks or one that is sore
or lame from corns, a bar shoe is the best kind of a shoe. If you have a
horse with a dropped sole, or founder footed horse the bar shoe is the
best kind for such feet. It is also a good shoe to be used on feet where
expanders are used as the bar in the shoe will protect the expander at
times when an open shoe will not, and frog pressure on the bar will also
help to get expansion. The most important thing to guard against is, do
not drive any nails back of the quarters because that will prevent
expansion. Draft horses with wide low heels or thin soles require bar
shoes for the hard roads, as they stay sound longer wearing bar shoes
than in open shoes. For racing purposes the bar shoe is very important
for the front feet, and occasionally for the hind feet, for both trotter
and pacer. Any horse racing or in training that carries a light, or very
light front shoe should by all means wear a bar shoe, it is a great
support to the foot when hitting the ground hard and fast, as the
natural expansion and contraction is at its limit while going at a fast
rate of speed.
For a heel weight shoe you can get more weight in the heels of a bar
shoe than in an open shoe, which heel weight the action of some horses
requires more so than they do toe weight. A trotter or pacer that
spreads his hind shoes or front shoes, should by all means wear bar
shoes. The last time I shod John R. Gentry for Mr. James Ramey, I shod
him with bar shoes all around with heel and toe calks for that memorable
race at Detroit in the 2:13 or 2:14 class, he won his race easily
breaking the track record, under strong restraint. He could have paced a
very fast mile or two that day if he had been asked to do it, he was
sold after this performance.
I have never seen many yearlings or two-year-olds that needed a bar shoe
while in training. It is a very bad shoe for either yearling or
two-year-old unless a hoof expander is kept in the foot to prevent
contraction and help expansion, for the feet will surely get contracted
without something to prevent it, after the heels grow high enough to
lose their frog pressure. I used a pair of heavy heel weight bar shoes,
about ten or eleven ounce, on one yearling’s hind feet to stop forging
and scalping while he was being jogged every day. The shoes he was
brushed or speeded in for about ten days did not suit him for jogging.
This yearling trotted eighths in 17¼ seconds, a 2:18 gait. I tried more
weight in front but it did no good.
XLVI. SLIPPING OR SLIDING TOO MUCH.
Slipping will unbalance a horse when trying to get on his stride at
speed; slipping too much on landing or on leaving the ground creates
lost action that cannot be overcome by muscular development. I will cite
a couple of cases here to prove this. A horse that trotted in his work
miles in 2:27 over a half-mile track, when shipped to Rigley, Portland,
Me., could not trot a mile there in 2:45 without being very unsteady,
and this over a mile track. I examined his foot prints and saw he was
slipping too much. I calked his shoes with toe and heel calks, never
changed his feet, and this horse trotted miles in 2:25 without a break.
A mare that was trotting miles in her work over this same half-mile
track in 2:25 easily, quarters in 33 or 33½ seconds, was shipped to
Portland, Me., to a mile track and could not trot a mile there in 2:40
without mixing and acting very unsteady. On examining her foot prints I
found she was slipping too much. I was sure her feet were fixed
properly. As she became very unsteady and inclined to mix, I added two
ounces more to her front shoes and gave her a heel and toe calk on hind
and front shoes and she became very steady the next workout, and the
driver told me she could trot a mile in 2:16 or better.
After the drivers of those two horses found they would get all
unbalanced trying to get on their stride, they did not go to work with
the lines and whip endeavoring to balance up matters, and cruelly abuse
the dumb animals for what they were not responsible, but asked me to
take a look at them. This thing of balancing faulty action with the
lines and whip is a thing of the past, and he who thinks it can be done
has stopped, he may be one of the know-alls and if so is past redemption
and will have to be regenerated to be successful at the profession.
XLVII. SIDEWEIGHT SHOES.
Sideweight shoes are used with good results on horses that wing in to
their knees or knee hitters. Apply the weighty side of shoe on the
inside of foot, fix the outside of the foot from the center of toe to
the outside heel the lowest, it will be good in some cases to have the
outside web of shoe only one-half as thick as that of the inside, the
thinner the outside the better for the winging in. For paddling out the
sideweight shoe is used with the weight on the outside of the foot, be
sure and fix the foot by lowering the inside of foot from center of toe
back to the inside heel, have the inside of foot lower than the outside
for a paddler, and have the outside of foot lower than the inside for a
_front shin_, knee and arm hitter. A hind foot has to be fixed the
lowest on the inside for speedy cutting, shin and hock hitting. A
sideweight shoe is used a lot for speedy cutting, shin and hock hitting,
but if the feet can be properly leveled low enough on the insides, many
horses will go clean, or good gaited without the sideweight shoe, as it
is the extra high inside of hind feet that causes the closing up of the
hind action that makes all the trouble.
In many cases to help matters as to speedy cutting, shin and hock
hitting the front action has to be examined. The horse may have too much
or not enough front action to work in harmony with the hind action. If
he is going too high or lofty I would reduce the lost lofty action and
increase the extension. If he is going too low I would increase his
front action by shortening his toes and adding several ounces more
weight, sometimes it will require from four to six ounces more weight.
To reduce the high or lofty front action and create more extension lower
the quarters and heels of front feet, shoe with an extra light bar shoe
and have the foot at an angle of from 48 to 50 degrees. In making this
change you will get immediate results, and if necessary you can also
experiment with a toe weight to balance up matters more satisfactorily.
XLVIII. TOE WEIGHT SHOES.
A toeweight shoe is used with good results on front feet to increase the
fold of the knee, more height and reach. This shoe can be used with a
square, round, beveled or sharp toe, or with a grab toe calk as the case
calls for. If your horse is inclined to mix and needs weight to go good
gaited, the sharp toe or one with a grab on it is best. To shorten the
stride, shorten the toes of feet and square or bevel the toes of the
shoe but do not lower the heel any. By increasing the weight of this
shoe and raising the heels you can increase the height of the front
action to your liking. To lengthen the stride in using this shoe, lower
quarters and heels of the front feet to an angle of 48 to 50 degrees and
use the plain toeweight shoe or one with a grab on it. This toeweight
shoe is the best to use on a trotter that is hitching, hopping or
running behind, and when carrying one hind leg between the front ones.
Bevel this shoe from a little to the outside center of toe around the
inside to the quarter or near the heel with a small heel calk. This shoe
must be from one to two ounces more than twice the weight of the shoe
carried on the perfect gaited leg. If the good gaited leg is carrying a
six-ounce shoe this faulty gaited leg or foot will have to carry 13
ounces, not less, to change the line of action, 14 ounces will be better
than 12 ounces, but the hind foot will have to be the lowest on the
inside, if anything, as it was a high inside of foot that first started
the trouble. A horse that is hitching should not be speeded until the
action or gait of the faulty leg has been balanced, for it is so easily
done. A driver who will try and drive the hitching out of a horse with
the lines and whip is just as much unbalanced as is the dumb animal.
XLIX. POCKET WEIGHTS.
A pocket weight can be used jogging a knee knocker or paddler in the
fall, winter and spring, to develop the muscle required and to prevent
those faulty lines of action, and you can use from five to ten ounces,
as the case may need to the foot of the faulty gaited leg. But be sure
and shoe the foot or feet _very light_, and prepare the feet according
to the chapter in this book on winging in or paddling out. If the feet
are not properly prepared to help the pocket weight to control the
faulty line of action, one will be working against the other, and the
results will be unsatisfactory, but if properly performed as to foot
fixing and weighting, and a little time to bring about the change
results will be good. The hole in foot to receive the spur of the pocket
weight should be about half way between toe and heel to get best
results. The pocket weight should be used on inside of foot for winging
in and on outside of foot for a paddler.
L. ANKLE HITTING OR INTERFERING.
There are so many different causes for this that there is no fixed rule
in shoeing that will apply to all cases. I have seen horses cutting
their hind ankles from the following causes: the foot or feet too high
on the inside, the foot or feet too high on the outside, the foot or
feet too long at the toe, and too low at the heels, all out of
proportion as to the correct angle. Horses that are weak, low in flesh,
and worked beyond their physical capacity, when not able to perform
their daily task without getting leg weary, conformation of some horses
makes them brush, box, or cut their hind ankles.
The conformation that makes a very bad ankle hitter is one where the
horse stands wedge shaped from his hips down to where his feet rest on
the ground. This kind of a horse will stand with his hind feet close
together or against one another when at rest, horses of this
conformation and without much hock action are the very worst in this
respect. The same treatment will not apply to all cases of ankle
hitting. Unbalanced feet are the main cause for all ankle hitting, when
not caused by some deformity. A farrier with a good eye and good
judgment, on examination of the hind feet, will find out the main cause
of the trouble. Keep the toes of all ankle hitters as short as possible
for the shorter the leverage to break over and leave the ground from,
the straighter the line of action of the leg will be; a middling high
heel, and a very short toe is the best. If the foot or feet are too high
on the inside, lower the insides to a level with the outside, and shoe
with a heel calk, hot rasp the inside of shoes to a bevel. If you find
the foot or feet too high on the outside lower the outside to a level
with the inside, if either foot is winged out, wider on one side of the
leg than the other, edge the foot up until you have an equal portion of
the foot on both sides of the frog measuring from the center of the
frog. This rule applies to all feet in foot fixing. Shoe the same as
above stated.
I have seen horses cutting their ankles very bad on account of their
heels being too low, and their toes too long. I have stopped this kind
of ankle cutting by raising their heels with a side heelcalk
seven-eighths of an inch high and no toe calk. An ankle cutter, on
account of the inside of feet being too low, and where I could not cut
the outside of foot low enough to compare with the inside, I have got
good results by welding a calk along the inside of the hind shoe or
shoes between the first and third inside nails to make up the
deficiency. A horse that boxes his ankles jogging sluggishly will go
good in short toes, with a square toe shoe and heel calks.
A horse that cuts his ankles should not be checked too high but should
go in a natural manner without being made to carry his head too high.
The hold-back straps should never be too tight for this hugs their
quarters together and that creates interfering. A horse that is a hard
puller on the lines, when hitched to a light vehicle has a tendency to
box his ankles on account of the hold-back straps hugging his quarters
together.
IN CONCLUSION.
If you have carefully read thus far you may feel conscious that I have
repeated and reiterated again and again certain things in relation to
“fixing feet”. If I have done this more than to you seems necessary, it
is because of the importance of the things repeated, and because of my
desire to impress my readers with their importance.
If you find herein anything that you are specially interested in, that
to you may seem cloudy or involved, and not clear, I will be pleased to
clarify and elucidate any point by correspondence.
My life study and work has been in connection with the thing about which
I have herein written. I have been always, and am now, intensely and
vitally interested in this subject, and my reason for putting my ideas
into print is because of my extreme interest in the trotting and pacing
race horse, and also because of a hope that by widening, and extending
to others, the horizon of my experiences, by the means of a printed
book, I may help many a sore horse, as well as many a discouraged
trainer and driver and owner.
WILLIAM J. MOORE,
Pittsfield,
Berkshire County,
Massachusetts.
June, 1916.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
spelling.
2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.