Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/616

 may be safely carried so far, that the ground-surface of the shoe and the sole are on the same level, and share in supporting the weight and strain imposed upon them. With feet damaged by previous maltreatment, this cannot be done until the horn has been sufficiently regenerated; and in the mean time the shoe may be allowed to project a little above the sole, and particularly towards the heels; though it does not last so long, does not hold so fast, and the frog, not coming entirely on the ground, is longer in regaining its healthy conformation. In these cases, lighter shoes might be used, though they must be replaced more frequently; but in this the hoof does not suffer, the nails being so small and few in number, and no paring or rasping being allowed. With feet of this description it sometimes happens that after the first application of the shoes, the horse does not travel well for three or four days, or sometimes even longer; he is afraid to touch the ground. Rest, or gentle exercise on soft soil, will suffice to give him assurance and free action; and as a longer time elapses, every inconvenience disappears; the sole and crust which are never mutilated become thick and natural, and then stronger shoes may be applied, and imbedded deeper.'

M. Charlier remarks, that it is not rare to see parts of the sole exfoliate in flakes during the first months of his method of shoeing; this, he says, is the dead horn which is being removed to give place to a good secretion as elastic as it is resisting, and in this case it may be useful to aid nature, by carefully excising these flakes, which, if allowed to project, would produce the effects of a foreign body. In this, I think, he is mistaken, as in my