Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/614

 The old shoes must be carefully removed, in order that the crust of the hoof be not broken. Only two shoes to be taken off at once, and these diagonal ones—near hind and off fore, and vice versa; all the old nails and fragments of these, if present, to be extracted.

'2. With an ordinary rasp cut away the angle of the lower border of the wall around the whole circumference of the foot, so as to straighten it and form a bevel or slope, which greatly facilitates the employment of the grooving-knife.

'3. On this bevelled edge form the groove to receive the shoe, but do not cut it so deep or so wide as the thickness of the sole and width of the wall, the limit of the latter being the zone or white-line that marks the separation of these two portions, just within the track of the old nails (fig. 196). '4. Mould the hot shoe on the beak of the anvil by gentle blows, so as to give it, either from memory or by measurement on an old shoe, the shape of the foot, heating and reheating it until it is perfectly adapted, border to border, to the wall. If the horse wears its shoes quickly, the outer branch may be left thicker than the inner one.

'5. Make the shoe hot, and fit it into the groove by holding it there, but without pushing it towards the sole, taking great care not to leave it so long as to burn, or even heat, the living tissues which are very near this cavity. A few seconds are sufficient for this operation.