Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/554

 any removal with a drawing-knife, the bar-shoe may be applied with advantage.

'71. In this case the heels of the shoe should be raised from the heels of the crust, and the bar rest on the frog.

'72. The hoof being cut and the shoe applied, as directed, will preserve the hoof in its circular form.'

Keeping the sole from pressure, and allowing the frog to bear the greater portion of the horse's weight, was the prevailing idea with Professor Coleman. The foot was distorted and mutilated to attain this object, and the most curious contrivances devised to confine the bearing solely to the toe of the foot and the frog. With regard to these principles of shoeing he was particularly dogmatic. 'There are only two principles to govern the practice of shoeing, which for all horses in all ages and in all countries must be invariably followed. . . . and which are of much greater moment than the shape of the shoe itself. So long as nails and iron are employed to protect the hoof, the crust is the part that should receive the nails and the pressure of the shoe; and the sole of every horse employed for every purpose is a part that should not be in contact with the shoe. All other rules for the practice of shoeing are subordinate and conditional.' Artificial frogs were invented and patented to make due pressure on that part of the foot, and everything was done to cause the expansion of the heels; and yet the sole was recklessly scooped away, while to fasten on a half-shoe, eight nails were employed (fig. 193). Though the method of shoeing with 'tips' and thin-heeled shoes had been recommended by Lafosse and others, these authorities are never once mentioned by