"Cutting" or "Brushing."
By these terms is meant the injury to the inside of the fetlock joint which results from bruising by the opposite foot. Possibly some small proportion of such injuries are traceable to the system of shoeing, to the form of shoe, or to the action of the horse. They are, with few exceptions, the direct result of want of condition in the horse and are almost confined to young horses, old weak horses, or animals that have been submitted to some excessively long and tiring journey. The first thing a horse-owner does when his horse "brushes" is to send him to the farrier to have his shoes altered. In half the cases there is nothing wrong with the shoes, and all that is required is a little patience till the horse gains hard condition. At the commencement of a coaching season half the horses "cut" their fetlocks, no matter how they are shod. At the end of the season none of them touch the opposite joint, with perhaps a few exceptions afflicted with defective formation of limb, or constitutions that baffle all attempts at getting hard condition. The same thing is seen in cab and omnibus stock. All the new horses "cut" their legs for a few weeks. The old ones, with a few exceptions, work in any form of shoe, but never touch their joints. They "cut" when they are out of condition—when their limbs soon tire; but they never "cut" when they are in condition—when they have firm control of the action of their limbs. There are, however, a few horses that are always a source of trouble, and there are conditions of shoeing which assist or prevent the injury. The hind legs are the most frequently affected and this because of the calkins. Many horses will cease "cutting" at once if the calkins of the shoes be removed and a level shoe adopted. There are certain forms of shoe which are supposed to be specially suitable as preventives. A great favourite is the "knocked-up-shoe"—i.e., a shoe with no nails on the inside except at the toe, and a skate-shaped inner branch.
Fig. 74.—"Knocked-up" Shoes—with and without an inner Calkin.
These shoes are fitted not only close to the inner border of the wall but within it, and the horn at the toe is then rasped off level with the shoe. Whether they are of any use is a question, but there is no question of the harm they do to the foot. Some farriers are partial to a three-quarter-shoe—one from which a couple of inches of the inside heel has been removed. Some thicken the outside toe, some the inside toe. Some raise one heel, some the other, and some profess to have a principle of fitting the shoe based upon the formation of the horse's limb and the peculiarity of his action. If in practice success attended these methods I should advise their adoption, but my experience is that numerous farriers obtain a special name for shoeing horses that "cut," when their methods, applied to quite similar cases, are as antagonistic as the poles. A light shoe without calkins has at any rate negative properties—it will not assist the horse to injure himself. For all the other forms and shapes I have a profound contempt, but as people will have changes, and as the most marked departure from the ordinary seems to give the greatest satisfaction, it is perhaps "good business" to supply what is appreciated.
The two great cures for "cutting" are—regular work and good old beans. When a man drives a horse forty miles in a day at a fast pace he, of course, blames the farrier for all damage to the fetlocks. He is merely illogical.
Fig. 75.—Toe of Hind Shoe showing the edge which cuts the Front Foot.