Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/569

  of horn will then remain. If the foot has been previously neglected, and the horn is become very hard, the owner must not object if the smith resorts to some means to soften it a little; and if he takes one of his fat irons, and having heated it, draius it over the sole, and keeps it a little while in contact with it. When the sole is thick, this rude and apparently barbarous method can do no harm, but it should never be permitted with the sole that is regularly pared out.

'The quantity of horn to be removed in order to leave the proper degree of thickness will vary with different feet. From the strong foot a great deal must be taken. From the concave foot the horn may be removed until the sole will yield to a moderate pressure. From the flat foot little need be pared; while the pumiced foot will spare nothing but the ragged parts. The paring being nearly completed, the knife and the rasp of the smith must be a little watched, or he will reduce the crust to a level with the sole, and thus endanger the bruising of the sole by its pressure on the edge of the seating. The crust should be reduced to a perfect level all round, but left a little higher than the sole.' The horn between the crust and the bar must be carefully pared out, in order to remedy or to give the animal temporary relief from corns, and the frog was to be diminished to a proper degree. More depended upon the paring out of the foot, according to Mr Youatt, than on the construction of the shoe; that few shoes, except they press upon the sole, or are made outrageously bad, will lame the horse; but that he may be very easily lamed from ignorant and improper paring of the feet.

Nothing could be more erroneous than this author's