HOW TO SHOE SOUND FEET.
If a foot came to the farrier in a perfectly normal condition, never
having been subjected to the destructive process of common shoeing, the
directions for putting on the Goodenough shoe would be simply, to dress
the foot by paring or rasping the wall until a shoe of proper size laid
upon the prepared crust would give an even bearing with the frog all
over the foot; then, as the calk wore away, the pressure would come more
and more upon the frog and the foot would retain its natural state
during the life-time of the horse.
A colt thus shod could not have a corn, for a corn is an ulcer caused by
the wings of the coffin-bone pressing upon a hard, unelastic substance.
When the horse raises his foot the coffin-bone is lifted upward by the
action of the flexor tendon; when his foot touches the earth the weight
of the animal is thrown upon the same bone, and, if unsupported by the
natural cushion of the foot, the action of the bone pressing the
sensitive sole upon iron causes the bruise which, for lack of another
name, is called a corn. The horse thus shod would never have a quarter
crack, for that is the immediate effect of contraction caused by the
absence of the expanding action of the frog and the consequent dead
condition of the hoof from want of circulation and proper secretions.
The horse would be equally free from "drop" and "pumiced" sole, seedy
toe, thrush, and kindred complaints.
INCIPIENT UNSOUNDNESS.
[Illustration: FOOT, SHOWING SHOE AND FROG.]
It is almost impossible to find a horse perfectly sound in his feet,
unless one looks (strange as it may seem) into the stables of the Third
Avenue Railroad Company, or those of Adams' Express, or Dodd's Transfer
Company, or into some of the other stables where our shoe and system are
in faithful use; we will therefore call attention to such a case as will
be generally presented at the forge: A good young horse, shod for
several years upon the common plan, and in the early stages of
contraction. We find he has on wide-web shoes, weighing about twenty
ounces each; these may be smooth in front and calked behind; they bear
upon the sole and heel. In place of a frog, we discover a point of hard,
shrunken, cracked substance, neither frog nor sole. We cut the clenches
and take off the relic of ignorance and barbarism, throwing it with
hearty good-will into the only place fit to receive it--the pile of
scrap-iron. 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_; this must give us a bearing upon the frog and the sound part of
the foot. We use the lightest shoe, truly fitted with the rasp, not
burned on. The horse should then be worked regularly, and he will
experience at once the benefit of a return to "first principles" and
natural action.
[Illustration: FOOT, WITH SHELL REMOVED.]