Chapter III (1)

SHOEING--ITS ORIGIN, ITS USES, AND ITS VARIETIES.

=Shoeing= a horse is understood to signify fastening a piece of iron to the horn which envelops the foot of the animal. Such an operation, at first glance, appears to be so simple an affair as to admit of few remarks; but there is no subject associated with veterinary science on which more research has been expended, about which more bitter discussion has been indulged, or with regard to which proprietors and practitioners are more at variance. Certainly no matter can possibly be more intimately connected with the sufferings and the comforts of the equine race.

The custom of fixing iron to the hoof of the quadruped would seem, at the present moment, to be all but universal. This habit was probably derived from the East. In portions of the Desert of Arabia a primitive looking shoe is still employed, which, like most things in that region, has possibly remained unaltered during the passage of centuries. Such articles retain the impress of a by-gone era, being merely pieces of sheet-iron stamped, not forged, according to a particular pattern. The reader may be puzzled to form an accurate notion of such things; therefore illustrations, representing present and ancient shoes, are appended. Both partake of the same general characteristics, but, among a people so widely scattered as “the children of the Desert,” doubtless numerous variations, as regards particulars, might be selected.

The preceding look like things produced during the childhood of civilization; but to assure the reader that at one period horse shoes resembling the foregoing were almost universal, below is subjoined sketches of those adopted, even at a recent date, by the Moorish, the Persian, and the Portuguese nations. These people are widely distributed; but they all are characterized by the tenacity with which each has clung to the habits of its ancestors. The shape pervading the examples brought forward is too eccentric, the generic likeness is too remarkable, and the peculiarities of feature impressed on each is too conspicuous, to permit of their united evidence being pushed on one side with any commonplace reference to an accidental resemblance.

Succeeding the former engravings is appended an authentic sketch of the old English horse shoe which was in common use at the commencement of the last century. When compared with the plate of the Arab, which doubtless was the original, it assuredly exhibits signs of intention. The calkin, intended to prevent slipping, we here see, as likewise in the foregoing examples, is by no means a modern invention. The position of the nail holes has been materially altered: they have been moved from the center, and have been made to range around the outer margin and to pierce the solid horn of the toe, which previously was scrupulously spared. The fastenings, likewise, have increased in number, having grown from eight to fourteen. The central opening has been enlarged; but the thickness of the iron and the general figure, however, demonstrate the source whence the original was derived.

Thin plates of iron were once nailed as shoes to the hoofs throughout Great Britain. The breadth was not, perhaps, considered a decided disadvantage, when roads were few and much marshy soil had to be crossed in a day’s journey. But if this peculiar form enabled a steed to walk more securely on a soft surface, the suction, inseparable from such land, must also have exposed the animal to the frequent loss of the appendage. When regarding these unavoidable results, we can perceive the reasons which have dictated all the subsequent alterations. The central opening had been enlarged, in the expectation of thereby counteracting the sucking effects attending the movements over a marshy country; while the nails had been increased in number, in the expectation of thus gaining additional security. The fastenings had likewise been ranged round the rim, so that these might be driven directly through the hardest part of, and have longer hold upon, the most resistant portion of the horn.

Such plates were at one time, no doubt, in general use throughout Great Britain; and illustrating whence they were derived, there may be adduced a well-known fact. The race-horse is of almost pure Eastern blood. The trainer’s stable is a very conservative locality, into which changes slowly enter, and where names are retained long after their applicability has ceased. A thorough-bred is spoken of to this day as running in “plates;” although the contest is decided in shoes resembling those worn by other animals, only of lighter make and of the highest possible finish.

The aspect of the old English shoe evidently suggests a resort to the hammer; it also indicates that the introduction of regular roads had began to compel the employment of a closer and harder species of metal than heretofore had been esteemed necessary. No modern Nimrod dare, however, essay to career across the best-drained portion of country on a horse shod with such a shoe as that last represented. Before a second field were entered he would anticipate a steed with bare feet. No cabman, however reckless, would take a quadruped on to the rank shod in such a fashion. Were an article of this form brought out now, no one who knew anything of such matters would patronize the novelty. Nevertheless, though it be deficient in all present requirements, it displays certain features, which have been preserved by the smith and handed down from father to son until the supposed improvements have reached the existing generation.

The arrangement of the nails near to the outer edge, and the fixing of them into the hard outer wall of the crust, are methods still followed, though experience has demonstrated that such numerous bodies, driven almost perpendicularly into a thin and a brittle substance, were better calculated to break the hoof than likely to hold on that which it was their single office to retain. The modern smith, moreover, does not generally puncture the toe of the foot; but the situations of the nail holes and the direction of the nails within such a part must have been originally regarded as a vast improvement upon the prevailing customs.

That which was formerly an innovation is, however, now the custom. No other mode of driving the nails is at present in general practice; though the modern veterinary surgeon recognizes all the evils which attend the habit, yet these evils he contentedly classes as diseases, instead of seeing in them the natural consequences of a faulty system.

THE PRESENT METHOD OF FASTENING THE ENGLISH HORSE SHOE ON TO THE HORSE’S FOOT. ]

In the sandy Desert of Arabia, where a flat and perfectly dry country rendered suction impossible, any degree of tension, however feeble, might serve to keep the horse’s shoe in its situation. On such a soil, eight lateral fastenings--each no stronger than a stout wire--might afford all needful security. The size of the holes assures us of the bulk of the nail heads, the projection of which, probably, served to give security to the tread, as well as to retain the metal; being inserted at one end and driven with the hammer to the other extremity of the opening, they might be an ample provision for such a purpose, when the desert permitted no vast amount of wear, and the nature of the animal assured lightness of motion.

The English reader may feel disposed to sneer at the Asiatic manner of fastening the shoe upon the horse’s hoof; but he will do well to inquire, “whether the modern method of attaining the same object is altogether free from objection?” To enable him to do this, it is necessary that the composition of the outer wall of the equine hoof should be explained.

_a a._ The wall. The outer dark portion is called the crust of the wall, and the light-colored, soft, inner horn is thrown into the laminæ, or thin leaves, whereby it gains extent of attachment to its secreting membrane.

_b._ The light-colored and yielding horn of the sole.

_c._ The tinted but elastic horn of the frog.
]

The =wall= of the foot is so much horn as can be seen when the hoof rests upon the ground, and when it is viewed either immediately from the front or directly from the sides. This wall is supplied from two sources. The coronet, or the prominence to be seen immediately above the hoof, secretes the outer layer of horn, which is the darkest, is very much the hardest, and is the most brittle of all the constituents of the hoof. The laminæ, or the highly sensitive covering of the internal foot, secrete the inward layer of horn, which is soft, tough, and devoid of color.

These two opposite and distinct secretions are, by nature, joined together, forming one body. Now, the intimate union of opposite properties endues the substance, thus compounded, with the characteristics of both. The hard, outward horn was needed to protect the foot against those stones and rocks over which the animal was intended to journey. The internal, white horn, being fastened upon this substance, acted as a corrective to its harsh nature, preventing it from breaking, from splitting, and from chipping, which it else must have done under the weight it was destined to sustain, and when fulfilling the purposes to which the horse’s foot was designed to be subjected.

Pathology has indirectly recognized the intention of this junction, by acknowledging that condition to be a state of disease, wherein the two kinds of horn are separated. Such a division is known as a seedy toe and as false quarter; and the foot is recognized as weakened when such a want of union is discovered. The outer, dark-colored horn becomes more brittle; the white, internal horn grows more soft for the want of that junction by means of which each communicated its attributes to the other. So also when the two descriptions of horn, although united, cease to influence one another, pathology acknowledges this condition as a morbid alteration, known as a changed state of hoof. Thus, when a sandcrack is visible, or the wall divides from the ground surface to the coronet, the foot’s incasement is recognized as unhealthy; but in the forge, the application of such facts is, by most smiths, utterly ignored.

The untutored Arab, however, takes advantage of the united properties of the horn. In warm countries the horse’s hoof grows strong and thick. The uninstructed Asiatic allows the wall to descend half an inch below the sole, and right through the entire of this portion of projecting hoof he drives the nails which secure the shoe. Proceeding thus, he does not injure the foot by the insertion of foreign bodies through its more brittle substance, while he secures the united resistance and tough qualities of the complex covering of the foot.

THE MODE OF FASTENING THE ARABIAN SHOE TO THE HOOF OF THE HORSE.]

FRACTURED CONDITION OF THE HORN, CONSEQUENT UPON DRIVING NAILS THROUGH THE BRITTLE OUTER CRUST OF THE WALL. ]

The English smith, on the contrary, by ranging the holes for the fastenings round the edge of the shoe, drives the nails only into the harder kind of horn, and transfixes the crust for a considerable distance. The English shoeing nail is meant to pierce only the black or outward substance of the wall. This may, seemingly, afford the better hold; but it also offers the more dangerous dependence. There is, likewise, the peril to be braved of pricking the sensitive foot, should the nail turn a little to one side--an accident which not unfrequently happens. There is, moreover, another danger, namely, that which the forge calls driving a nail “too fine;” that is, forcing it near the white horn rather than sending it directly through the center of the narrow dark crust. There remains to be enumerated a third peril. Horses, with thin walls, present difficulties to the shoeing smith. He is afraid of either pricking the foot or driving the nail “too fine;” should the last accident ensue, the nail will, upon the animal being worked, bulge inward, will provoke acute lameness, often causing pus to be generated. To avoid these evils, he points his nails outward; and, by so doing, not unseldom induces the harsh outer crust to crack, to split up, or to chip off. To such an extent does this sometimes happen, that the smith is occasionally puzzled to find the place where a nail will hold.

It is a common thing to hear veterinary surgeons, throughout the length and breadth of the land, attribute to the operation of shoeing all the evils by which the hoof is affected. They generally assert that a colt invariably has an open, healthy foot, until it is shod; but, from the day upon which the animal enters the forge, the horn begins to be irregularly secreted, and the hoof to grow misshapen; while horsemen have a well-known saying, that “one horse could wear out four pair of feet.”

Every rider knows how vexatious it is for a horse to fling a shoe. Every horseman appreciates the consequence of walking his steed, even one mile, along the common road, to gain the nearest forge, where the loss may be made good. Such an accident were an impossibility, if the nails were firm. There is always danger, as they are at present fixed, of these fastenings breaking away from the substance of the hoof; yet no one has hitherto ventured to question the existing method of shoeing prevalent throughout Europe.

THE SHOE PARTIALLY BREAKS FROM THE INSECURE FASTENINGS, AND ONE OF THE NAILS, STICKING UP, PIERCES THE SOLE OF THE FOOT. ]

But the worst evil which results from a shoe becoming partially released, is neither the inconvenience it occasions the rider, nor fracture, often produced, on the hoof of the animal. Some portion of the horn first yields. This mishap throws greater stress upon the remaining fastenings. The shoe becomes loose. The majority of the nails give way, but one may continue firm. This is the greatest peril. The shoe is fastened as by a pivot, and with every step swings from side to side. The released nails stick upward--the earth or roadway, as well as the clinches, preventing these from leaving their places. When the foot is in the air, the shoe hangs pendulous. When the foot is placed upon the ground, it may be impaled upon the nails that protrude upward. Many steps are seldom taken without such a result. The shoe gets under the foot. The blunt and jagged points are, by the huge weight of the quadruped, forced through the soft sole or frog at the bottom of the hoof; a dangerous wound is inflicted, the uneven metal being often driven for some distance into the body of the coffin-bone.

Against the Arabian method of driving the nails, it may be advanced that if the equine hoof is permitted to grow, the elongation of the horn at the toe and its non-removal by the knife would occasion this portion of the foot to protrude, and ultimately curl upward like a Turkish slipper--such being the result of long-continued neglect, as is exemplified in the feet of too many donkeys.

It is not proposed to subject the horse’s foot to anything like the usage to which the hoof of the ass is habitually exposed. All the writer contemplates is moderating the smith’s employment of the drawing-knife and of the rasp, enforcing some caution in the application of the red-hot iron, when burning a seat for the shoe. Why need the wall be always cut away till it is level with the horny sole? Why bring this last portion of the pedal covering, which is naturally soft and yielding, on a line with that part of the crust which is imbued with a power of resistance? Nay, the harder wall is protected by the shoe on which it rests; while the softer sole is brought near to the ground, being left exposed to an injury, which the lesion known as bruise of the sole proves not unfrequently to happen.

The sole, being exposed thus close to the earth, is the fruitful source of several “accidents.” The soft horn of this region being brought so low, is rendered constantly wet. The consequence is a harshness of texture, perfectly opposed to the evident intent of nature. This harshness is one of the most common sources of corns. The edge of the sole rests upon the web of the shoe--the descent of the coffin-bone, being unable to play upon a yielding sole, squeezes the flesh between the inferior surface of the bone and the upper surface of the shoe. This is acknowledged as the principal source of corns. Stones and other rubbish often become impacted between the horny sole and the shoe. In this situation, the foreign substances are retained so firmly and provoke such acute lameness that it is common for all stable-men to keep by them, as well as it is general for most horsemen to carry, a curved tool denominated “a picker.” Such annoyances, with many others, might be easily avoided, could the English smith only be prevailed upon not to pare the sole so thin that blood bedews its surface, and then to make the level of the diminished part the point whereto the crust is to be lowered.

Another probable consequence, attending the customary cutting away of the horse’s sole, has not been sufficiently considered.

The shape of this part, its yielding character, and its position immediately under the coffin-bone, all should be accepted as proofs that it is of service in supporting the weight of the body. It proves nothing to assert that if the sole is removed, the pedal bone will not fall down. The burden may repose upon the numerous laminæ and upon the bulging rim of the coronet, as well as drag upon the lateral cartilages. Here is sufficient material to uphold even a greater load; but can such a force be arbitrarily imposed by human authority without provoking nature’s resentment? The parts here named are the very regions which are the common seats of foot disease. Ossified cartilages--irregular secretion of coronary horn and laminitis, in the acute or in the chronic form--are very common to stables; so also is navicular disease, which the trimming of the frog is also likely to induce. Horse proprietors, therefore, would do well to reflect upon the above possibility, when their property is again submitted to the unchecked abuses of the forge.

Humanity is not pleaded in this case. Human interest alone is urged in favor of the plan proposed. Every horse owner knows how common it is for the animal to return tender-footed from the forge. Every person can appreciate the unpleasant sensation experienced when a nail has been pared to the quick.

Immediate lameness, or violent exhibition of acute disease, is required to convince some people that dumb animals feel anything; but a peculiarity displayed in the manner of placing the foot on the earth is, to the author’s mind, sufficient proof of some painful sensation. In two or three days, the newly-exposed horn may resume its protective function, and the mode of progressing, by such a time, is generally restored to its accustomed soundness. But such is not invariably the case, and, when it does happen, the seeds of future disaster may, nevertheless, have been sown. Indeed, so conscious are dealers of the injury done to the horse’s foot by the rasp and the drawing-knife, that, as a rule, they avoid having their new stock reshod while these animals remain in their possession.

To rectify the foregoing evils, the author would humbly propose that half an inch of crust should be allowed to protrude below a sole of moderate thickness. That all idea of breadth of shoe affording the slightest protection be at once abolished; because the broad web has been proved, by the general employment of the picker, rather to afford harbor to hurtful particles than to protect the sole from injury. That the shoe be made only just wide enough to afford bearing to the wall of the hoof, and to allow sufficient room for the nail holes to pierce the substance of the iron. The crust was designed to sustain the weight of the animal’s body, and the most ignorant smith would not think of permitting the entire burden to bear upon the sole. A space large enough to give room for the nails and to provide an ample rest for the wall of the hoof is all that can be of use; and, being so, all additional width only renders the shoe of an unnecessary weight.

The use of the sole is well known to be distinct from directly supporting any portion of the body; but it may be of all service in upholding occasional weight. That other parts receive the primary burden, is illustrated in the forge every day--it being an ordinary custom with the smith to pare the sole of the foot till it yields readily to pressure from the man’s thumb, or until blood oozes through every pore of the structure. A further proof of this is the custom of removing a portion of sole when the animal chances to be bled from the foot; also, by the veterinary surgeon, without hesitation or fear of consequence, taking away large pieces of the horn whenever the sole happens to be bruised and under-run. The function of the sole is to endue the tread with spring and elasticity; that it may perform its proper office, the removal of it from all possibility of hinderance to its freedom of motion becomes a necessity. This requirement is best complied with by allowing the part to remain so high as anticipates all possibility of its coming in contact with either the web of the shoe or the ground.

Nature makes nothing in vain; or, in other words, every part which she creates has its destined uses. To recognize such a maxim, and then to employ a smith to destroy the horny sole which nature provided, is to acknowledge wisdom, but to follow ignorance. At all events, putting every appeal to higher principles of action on one side, let mere cunning or let worldly prudence decide the point. The present method has been tried, and has lamentably failed; consequently it is proved an annoyance which countenances any feasible change.

ILLUSTRATING HOW LARGE AND SMALL STONES BECOME IMPACTED BETWEEN THE SOLE AND THE WEB OF THE SHOE. ]

But those who are prejudiced in favor of the usual proceedings may exclaim against the annihilation of the web, and talk about the need of protecting the sole. The old English shoe (in which the web was so broad the horse’s foot rested on a flat metallic surface) did not defend the sole, else the web would not have been sacrificed. But what kind of protection does the present form actually afford? Why, its only use really appears to be that of affording a place of lodgment for gravel and for pebbles, or of a medium for the generation of corns.

Were half an inch of crust allowed to remain, the web and all its dangers might be abolished. The weight would thereby be lightened, while the tenacity of wet clay would be deprived of any leverage on which to act. Two primary requisites toward a good hunting shoe would then be obtained. The nail openings also being brought close to the inner margin, and the fastenings being driven in a direction slanting outward, a hold would be taken of both species of horn which unites to form the wall of the foot; and the nails, being firmly clinched upon a tough body in lieu of a brittle substance, would be retained with greater certainty. The weight of metal required for such a shoe would be decreased, thereby materially lessening the labor of the horse; while if the nails pierced the toe of the crust, a firmer hold would be obtained, and the quarters would be left free instead of being fettered, as is unavoidable so long as the present system of nailing is continued. Corns, bruise of the sole, brittle hoof, etc. would be avoided, and the dangers of the forge no longer perpetuated. Lastly, the comfort of the animal being more tenderly considered, the motions of the quadruped would be so much the easier, and the more pleasant--man’s real interest being best consulted by strict attention to the happiness of all the lives which serve him, as every form of existence succumbs to protracted suffering.

The reader, however, may have experienced the deception which commonly attends every novelty in horse shoes. Therefore he may think, when the author proposes a return to an old, a barbarous, and an exploded form of fastening on the horse’s shoe, he simply aims at trying an experiment with the living property of other people. The writer does not propose to contend against suspicions; but he produces the plan which he advocates, and contrasts it with the ordinary method of nailing; when, having placed the evidence before his judges, he leaves them to decide on the merits of the adverse modes, as regards their likelihood to perform the offices of retaining a ring of iron with safety and with advantage upon the foot of a horse.

According to the above plan, the hold would be much firmer; it would embrace the two kinds of horn which nature ordained should unite to form the wall of the hoof. The nail would pierce those tough and resistant substances which were designed in their unity to support the animal’s body, instead of being driven perpendicularly into the more brittle covering of the foot, thereby dividing the fibers and frequently injuring the hoof, by causing large flakes to chip off its protecting envelope.

The present practice of the forge chiefly consists in removing as much horn as possible: as if the covering of the foot were not a natural growth, sent for a healthful purpose; or it was the sprouting of disease, which it became imperative should be excised. The shoe is dragged off, and afterward the punch, the pliers, and the drawing-knife are employed.

The author does not object to the legitimate use of the last-named instrument; but to its abuse he dissents. As the shoe alone rests upon the earth, of course the hoof lacks needful attrition. Therefore, were no cutting resorted to, the horn would be prolonged, and the shoe ultimately afford no protection to the foot, being carried forward by the growth of the toe. It is not unusual to see the iron, which originally was nailed to and encircled the hoof, borne onward by the continued development of the horny secretion, in consequence of neglect having allowed the shoe to remain on the foot for months.

It is well known to physiologists, that the constant removal of any natural growth is calculated to result in one of three effects: it may stimulate production, causing the willfully-excised material to be secreted in unnatural abundance; or, on the other hand, it may interfere with the powers of growth and occasion the material to be withheld altogether; else the operation may cause the product to be secreted in a diminished quantity. These conditions of hoof are those which the English smith most often complains of, little suspecting that he may innocently have aggravated the very evil over which he so loudly laments. Weak, shelly feet are generally attributed to the colt having been bred upon marshy soil. This accepted reason may answer its purpose; but it does not explain why, upon the horse being taken into work, or being carried a long distance from the place of its birth, the deficiency should become more conspicuous, and the weakness grow more annoying with each successive shoeing. Thick, stubborn hoofs are too common to need much comment; but this effect is generally attributed to the lateral nailing, which confines the expansion of the quarters. Does not this excuse suggest the wisdom of carrying the fastenings to the toe, where the greater thickness of the horn would afford better hold to the nails, while at the same time the amount of substance would forbid all idea of motion?

In reply to the above suggestion, it may be answered that English smiths like to spare the toe of the horse’s foot. All the strain of draught is thrown upon this part, which must be dug forcibly into the earth whenever the load is heavy or is difficult to draw. In fast-trotting animals, the toe receives the impetus of the blow when the foot descends upon the ground; therefore, it is urged, the smith has found out by experience that no nail should weaken this portion of the hoof. The answer appears to be final, but, on consideration, it will be found of small value. Mr. Woodger, one of the best veterinary surgeons in London, informs the writer he prefers to drive nails through the toe of the horse’s foot.

In the first place, the different methods of fastening on the shoe have to be properly considered. The author proposes a simple puncture through all the substance, which, as the opening made is filled with metal, can hardly produce weakness in the structure. The smith drives the nail perpendicularly, not through the wall of the hoof, but into its outward investing envelope, or into a material particularly harsh and resentful of interference--thus separating the fibers of the horn, destroying its integrity, and, of course, weakening its capability of sustaining violence.

But, bearing in mind the foregoing reply, supposed to be urged in defense of the established custom, let it now be asked, does the English smith really respect the part, about the integrity of which he appears to be so anxious? How does he act, when he fits upon the foot of a horse a shoe having a clip at the toe? Does he, then, scrupulously respect the most forward portion of the hoof? No! He actually employs his drawing-knife to cut away the horn, thus forming a bed or seat within which the clip can lie ensconced. Nor is this all; he turns up the heels of the shoe afterward, thus forming a calkin, and actually throwing the bearing of the hoof on that portion of the foot which he has just denuded of its natural protection.

Against all objections embodying the cruelty of this mode of proceeding, it may be responded that the horn is not endowed with sensation; that it can be cut or burned without awakening the slightest feeling; and, therefore, the introduction of the present remark is entirely out of place. While listening to such talk, it might be inferred those processes which a few people speak of as exciting no feeling, were positively the sources of pleasure to the animal. But if shoeing is to the horse so perfectly painless an operation, what makes many of these quadrupeds dread its infliction, and refuse to enter the forge? Is it excess of happiness that occasions several of these creatures to resist the office of the smith, and provokes a few actually to struggle so violently to escape his attentions as to sacrifice their existences? Is it any form of ecstasy that renders most animals fidgety while being shod, or is it the restlessness of perfect bliss which induces nearly all to move about as though they were anxious to escape?

The horse is naturally docile and obedient. To serve man is its destiny, to obey its master is its delight. To please the human savage, it deforms a beautiful frame before it is matured; and, under the impulse of fear, submits to usage which destroys the value of its life. In such a creature, which is denied the use of words, actions must be reasonably construed, if we desire to interpret its emotions. The acquiescence of ages has viewed contortion as the evidence of agony; and universal opinion has regarded nervous movements as being indicative of fear or of suffering.

The smith, to quiet timidity, may strike “the brute” with his heavy hammer, or with his scarcely lighter pincers. But no severity can deprive flesh of its inherent privilege to writhe, when tortured. Fearful injuries have resulted from the smith’s impatience. Every blow, however, does not lead to an inquiry; though any animal, having a most retentive memory, may on the next occasion shy as it approaches the door of the forge; or it may ever after, with that strange perversity for which thoughtless proprietors are at a loss to account, prove resistful at the approach of the shoeing smith. Nevertheless, though the pantomime of terror should be a language universally comprehended, few of those most accustomed to horses can see anything in the nervous spasms of the animal but the exhibition of a vice which needs to be resisted! Such people will imagine they deserve to be commended when, by the exertion of their utmost force, they have overpowered the mute timidity which was endeavoring to appeal to the sympathy of its heartless superiors.

Calkins to the shoes of the horse, as at present made, are positive abominations. The shoe, in the first instance, is forged too long for the foot, when, the extra length of iron being bent downward, a calkin is established. Below, the author presents a sketch, made from memory, of the highest calkin he ever remembers to have looked upon. It was encountered in the country, soon after the breaking up of a severe frost; and, probably, it was intended to counteract the wear of metal which invariably accompanies a frozen condition of the highways. It would, however, with a change of weather, fail in its intent; for the principal wear is then endured by the toe of the shoe, and the heel comparatively escapes friction. All such things operate according to their height. They fling the entire bearing forward, where, without any such aid, it must strongly press. Although contraction of the tendons is mostly confined to cart-horses, (and this constrained position of the foot must favor such an affection,) nevertheless the smith may receive it as an unjust accusation when he is told that high calkins are to blame for the spread of such a state of disease.

The author, probably, has said enough about the evils attendant on the present system of shoeing; and, although the subject is far from exhausted, he yields to the reader’s desire of learning what the writer would substitute in the place of that which causes the numerous evils he has denounced. The reformer’s office is but half performed when the bad is exposed. The most difficult part remains to be discharged--that of conceiving and of declaring the good which shall fill the void left by the necessary destruction of the evil.

The author is conscious that, after having condemned so much, he has placed himself under an obligation to adduce that which he believes to be grounded on right principles. When doing this, the mighty question of expense is entirely ignored. It is his office to make known the remedy; he has no concern with the cost of its application. Gentlemen, however, though exacting the utmost service from the horse, generally begrudge the price of the iron which must be ground down while the patient quadruped is laboring for its task-master’s benefit. With too many proprietors the cheapest is the best form of shoe. The temptation of saving a few pence frequently sways the judgment in favor of some particular article. The welfare and the life of earth’s most beautiful ornament is, by too many human beings, reduced to a money consideration. So thoroughly is this fact appreciated that, when a new shoe is submitted to the notice of the forge, its chances of success are always judged by the charge for which it can be manufactured, apart from the merits of the invention.

There is, however, a custom general in the forge which has been discarded by other trades. The linen-draper tickets up the goods in which he deals; and, be the customer rich or poor, the price is known to both. The smith, however, will charge the tradesman three shillings and sixpence, or four shillings, the set, for a horse’s shoes; while the person of independent property, or in the upper sphere of life, he makes pay five shillings for the self-same article. This rule can be based on no principle of fair dealing, and it needs only to be exposed to be immediately overthrown. Yet, even up to the present time, so exploded and so antiquated a rule of trade prevails in the forge, where the addition of an extra sixpence is unjustly made to turn the scale of merit.

However, the author has here nothing to do with such considerations. His duty is confined to freely stating his conscientious convictions, and to acknowledging the reader as the appointed judge of the soundness or unsoundness of his conclusions. Impressed with such a belief, the following form of shoe is submitted to the public. It is, by the writer, designated “a slipper shoe;” and the appearance of such a protection, when fixed upon the foot of a heavy horse, is presented below.

The principal peculiarity in this shoe is the long strip of metal which rises above the upper surface and conceals about three-quarters of an inch of the toe. This is not an enlarged kind of clip, but a hollow receptacle, which projects above the shoe and covers part of the hoof. The use will be best understood when stated that it confers the name--the slipper shoe. The toe is sheltered within the shallow cavity, and its purpose is to afford the stay which the clip imperfectly provides at the expense of the horn’s destruction. When the fore portion of the foot is being dug into the earth, this provision, while it allows the hoof to be employed in its integrity, will prevent all the stress being transferred to the nails, and thus hinder the clinches being loosened.

This shoe has no web. It consists of a piece of iron the breadth of which is merely sufficient to afford a secure lodgment for the crust. The thing possesses true calkins, but their existence does not interfere with the level of the upper surface on which the foot rests. The shoe is forged of one thickness from toe to heel; and a portion of metal under each quarter being removed, leaves the calkin, which thus only serves to maintain the evenness of the bearing. A slipper shoe, adapted for a lighter kind of animal than was supposed in the above illustration, and not fixed on the foot, is presented on the next page.

It may possibly be urged that in thus forming the calkin, the author has weakened the strength of the quarters. Nature has, however, set the example, by weakening the horn at the quarters; nevertheless, by so doing she has not destroyed the strength of the hoof. The quarters of an old shoe, when removed after six weeks’ hard wear, invariably are not sensibly diminished in substance, showing that the lessened amount of horn communicates small friction to the metal. Besides, the toe is supported upon massive iron, while the heels are upheld by blocks of the same metal. A law of mechanics instructs us that if the extremities of any powerful substance are adequately sustained, the body which bridges over the space may be without support. The heels being raised to an equal height with the toe, the metal left at the quarters, as it is removed from attrition, is imagined to be fully equal to the necessities of its position.

A LIGHT SHOE.--SHOWING THE MANNER IN WHICH CALKINS MAY BE FORMED, WITHOUT ANY INCREASE OF WEIGHT.

The diagram exhibits the Slipper Shoe, as suited for different breeds of animals; also shows the sameness in both kinds of manufacture.]

Most existing shoes are =fullered=, or have a hollow space, narrow but long, near to the outer margin. Into this empty void or groove the heads of the nails are received; but as the substance in front is ground down by wear, of course the duration of the shoe must be shortened in proportion to the depth of the fullering. That the reader may fully comprehend the signification of a fullered shoe, on the following page is a copy, made from Mr. Goodwin’s excellent work on Shoeing, which the author can recommend as the fullest, the most explicit, and altogether the best book on this topic which was ever written in the English language.

By inspecting the next illustration, which represents the ground surface, the reader will perceive an indented void near to the outer margin. Behind this indentation or fullered cavity the iron gradually slopes away, so that the substance which is exposed to wear, and on which the horse must travel, consists of the narrow strip that extends round the outward edge of the shoe.

(Ground surface.)]

(Ground surface.)]

The author’s proposed shoe contemplates iron of an equal thickness at every point which is usually exposed to wear. The nails are driven into holes made to fit close around the heads of those fastenings, so that the shoe being fixed, no loss of substance is to be detected; for the nail heads fill the spaces which were countersunk for their admission.

Fullering, or a free indentation round the shoe. This space is
indicated by the dark portion of the diagram, and within which
the heads of the nails repose.

Countersinking, or only removing so much metal as may be filled up
by the heads of the nails which are to retain the shoe upon the
horse’s foot.
]

The nails pierce the toe of the proposed new shoe. This part is selected, because this portion of hoof is covered with the thicker horn; therefore is indicated as the region where all stress should bear. The author is aware that, among smiths, there is a strong objection to driving nails in the center of the wall. Yet it seems to the writer that a more violent outrage is inflicted by actually removing a portion of its substance, so as to make an abiding-place for a clip, than by piercing obliquely the strongest part of the hoof, subsequent to the toe having grown below the true foot.

The thickness of wall there offers several advantages, when considering the retention of nails. The solidity of the secretion is a proof that this portion of the hoof is not endowed with motion. Consequently, when fastening a piece of iron to it, we are not fearful of interfering with the exercise of a healthful function. Such would be the case if the nails were to fix the quarters, where the joint thinness, moisture, and elasticity of the horn afford the best evidence nature meant should reside expansion and contraction.

When the contents of the foot are compressed by the superimposed weight of the animal, or when the hoof is resting upon the ground, the quarters yield to the downward pressure, and they accordingly expand. When the burden is removed by the hoof being raised, the quarters again fly back to their original situations. The sides, therefore, being in constant motion, are entirely unsuited for the purposes to which the smith compels them. No wonder the clinches are loosened, or the shoes come off, when the nails are driven into parts hardly ever at rest; this action is important to the circulation, for the contraction still allows the arterial blood free ingress, while the expansion permits the full return of the venous current.

Therefore, because the thickness of horn denies the possibility of movement; because the amount of inorganic secretion likewise presents a reasonable hope of not injuring other and more delicate structures; and because the toe affords those numerous properties which, for the retention of the fastenings are rendered imperative, the nails, in opposition to the usage of ages and the experience of thousands, are fixed within the anterior of the hoof--seven or five being there employed to fix the shoe.

There is another quality appertaining to the proposed shoe which may be briefly touched upon. The thing is equally applicable to the field or to the road. For hunting purposes, it is superior to any modern shoe. It possesses no unnecessary surface, being absolutely without web, and is lighter for the absence of so useless a provision. It is also fixed more firmly upon the foot, being the better able to withstand the drag, always present, when riding in winter over stiff clays. Moreover, it does not fetter the quarters of the hoof or necessitate vast removal of the sole; consequently it leaves the pliable horn to aid the spring, thereby allowing the horse the full exercise of its natural power.

This reference to one kind of sport, naturally calls to mind another form of amusement in which the horse is a principal performer. Thorough-breds, before they start for the race, are shod in very light, but in equally thin shoes, of which the appended example may convey some idea. Now, thinness and lightness, where metal is concerned, are attainable only by the sacrifice of strength. The sad accidents which have occurred through using the present racing plates, and by these being broken, bent, or twisted, during the violence of the contention, ought to provoke their abolition.

Such accidents are, however, fortunately more rare than the substance of the shoe might lead most readers to suppose. Nevertheless, a greater injury is consummated by affixing a fetter, which prevents the elasticity of the quarters aiding the exertions of the animal, while, from its dimension, it can afford but little protection to the foot. How much the speed of the racer must be dependent upon that elasticity with which the quarters are endowed, may be judged of by any person who has ever visited a race-course and beheld the horses trot previous to the start. Who can have failed to notice the play of fetlock by which “the blood action” is characterized? Now, nature never forms one part an exception to the whole. She delights in harmony; consequently the spring which resides in the fetlock is positive evidence of the elasticity which belongs to the unfettered foot. But the bounding property, which the frog, sole, and quarters would naturally provide, the trainer counteracts, in order to impose a dangerous article, which is not a horse shoe, nor even a respectable substitute for one.

A TIP OR HALF SHOE NAILED ONLY TO THE TOE, AND LEAVING BOTH THE QUARTERS FREE. ]

It is so formed, however, as to exercise the worst functions of the regular shoe. It is a fetter upon the foot, and firmly impales the quarters, thereby seriously crippling the animal and impeding the natural power. If any part of a thorough-bred’s foot required metallic protection, it could only be the toe; for this part alone is employed during the horse’s quickest pace. The other portions of the hoof touch the ground, when aiding the spring; but these are never used with that amount of energy which necessitates anything approaching artificial defense. Now, the plate and its nails check expansion; these also oppose that force of rebound residing in the hoof and in its various structures. The best horse must feel the bondage most. The spring or rebound is to it of most value. But that function is destroyed. Many a fine animal has, doubtless, been condemned for having “no go in him,” which, could it have exerted all its natural power, would have been declared winner of every race for which it was ever entered.

The late William Percivall, the respected author of Hippo-pathology, many years ago informed the author that he had long ridden a young horse about town with no greater protection to its forefeet than tips could afford. He showed the hoofs of the animal to the writer, and more open or better examples of the healthy horse’s feet need not be desired. Why could not tips be employed by racers, instead of the present ridiculous pretense at a shoe? If any greater protection is imperative, or is thought to be needed, the shoe proposed by the author would give all security, while it left the pedal structures free to exercise their important uses. There can be no doubt as to the safety of tips; in which, if Mr. Percivall could for years take his quadruped through the streets of London, another animal might, surely, scamper over the well-kept turf of a race-course, where the heels merely touch the earth during the intervals of leaps, and then only for an instant.

Were tips more generally employed, this form of shoe would be more highly valued. They are, however, now thought only to be of service when the animal is, “for a season,” thrown up; but there can be no reason why the racer--trained, exercised, and worked always on choice turf--should ever be crippled by any more regular form of shoe. Most horsemen, however, like the warriors of old, place their great dependence on the accumulation of iron. The nearest approach they ever make toward a tip, and then only when guarded by a veterinary surgeon’s advice, is a three-quarter shoe. The tip is a protection to be worn only during the run at grass, and to be discarded so soon as the stable is entered. Is not the racer always at grass, since the rail or the van generally carries it over the roads? How often do the feet of the thorough-bred fail, though there must be further cause than the work they have undergone? But no one is silly enough to suspect the shoeing can be at fault!

A THREE-QUARTER SHOE, WHICH ONLY LEAVES ONE-QUARTER UNFETTERED. ]

The three-quarter shoe is but an enlarged kind of tip. Most horsemen appreciate the unilateral nailing, which was revived some years ago by that excellent veterinary surgeon, Mr. Turner, of Regent Street. They can understand the advantages of leaving one-quarter without nails so long as the unfettered part be covered by a regular shoe. They comprehend that by omitting the nails on one side of the hoof, that side is left free to exercise its natural property of expansion. Therefore they perceive that the unilateral mode of shoeing is a partial remedy for contraction.

Though always worked on grass, and ever lightly shod, no animal is so troubled with mule hoofs as is the racer; yet no quadruped is so entirely under the inspection of man. The mode of shoeing must be at fault. That cannot be right the results from which are purely evil. The consequences experienced from the custom of fettering that portion of the foot on which the pleasure of motion and the extent of the rebound both depend, argue strongly in favor of tips, not only as training, but more especially as running shoes. Men with fleshy feet, having no protection from leather, fearlessly tread the race-course; yet the owners of blood stock seem afraid of trusting their animals to perform an act not equally bold--although nature sends the horse into the world with ready-made and stout-made shoes. There can be no just reason why the steed which never quits the turf need be hampered even with a unilateral shoe, were the horn only carefully, and not ruthlessly, cut away.

A seated shoe implies a regular shoe, which has only so much upper surface left as will admit of the crust resting upon it. The remainder of the web slants away, till the posterior or inner margin becomes a comparatively fine edge. Such a make of shoe may lessen the weight, but it can afford no protection; while it offers a snug lodging for stones or grit, and presents an extended surface for the huntsman’s dreaded heavy clay to act upon. Yet, for the sake of its prettiness, the seated shoe is all but universally adopted. No other form is so largely patronized by what should be the informed class of society.

Mr. Bracy Clark once brought forward a jointed shoe, which was intended to admit of expansion; and was offered to the public as a radical cure for all the evils to which the foot of the horse was liable. The joint was placed at the toe, the shoe being forged in two halves, which were united by means of a rivet. The thing was wrong in principle. The toe, which nature intended should be fixed, was obliged to move, before the heels could expand; then, parts could not yield in different degrees, but all must move at once, according to the motion of the iron. It was soon discovered to be terribly injurious, when brought into use. The battering speedily fixed the central rivet, and afterward wore away the joint, leaving the two halves disunited. A thing which turns out defective, both in principle and in practice, merits that neglect into which the jointed shoe has now fallen.