Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/521

 were so adjusted, and to about the same degree. Some of Bourgelat's maxims on shoeing were very good, especially the second, in which he particularly insists on abstaining from opening up the heels. 'The second maxim in good shoeing is never to open the horse's heels; this is the greatest abuse, and ruins the majority of feet.' 'Opening the heels' is when the farrier, in paring the foot, cuts the heel close to the frog, carrying the opening to within a finger's breadth of the coronet, so as to separate the quarters from the heel, and by this means the foot is weakened, and made to contract. That which is called opening a heel is in reality contracting it, for the roundness or circumference of the hoof being cut in this 'opening,' there is nothing left to sustain the heels; therefore it inevitably happens, if there is any weakness in the foot, that it contracts. If the farriers were careful of their reputation and mindful of their duty, they would make this maxim one of the principal points in their statutes.'

Any one who has had much to do with horses, or visited a shoeing forge, will know that it is customary to adjust or try on the new shoe while it is in a hot state, so as to obtain for it a more solid and secure bearing on the hoof, and to fit it better. Before the 18th century, it is probable that the hoof-armature was usually adjusted in a cold state, a practice which has many disadvantages. Cæsar Fiaschi seems to corroborate this, when he says of the shoeing of his day: 'Je ne vois d'autre remède, eu égard au peu de solidité de cette ferrure, que de savoir soi-même brocher les clous on de se faire suivre par un maréchal.' He nevertheless speaks of fitting the shoe while it was hot. At any rate, it is not until 1736 that we find the first