XXVI. GAITING COLTS.
Sometimes you will find a colt that has not much knee, hock or stifle action and not much speed, and in such cases, to remedy the defect, after the feet have been leveled the hind feet a shade shorter than the front, I would recommend a heavy rolling toe shoe in front, eight, nine or ten ounces and a little lighter one behind, two or three ounces lighter. If the foot is large and the colt is strong, eleven ounces in front to begin with. Now as the action increases, decrease the weight. When the colt begins to make speed he or she will not need a rolling toe shoe in front, a plain shoe is better, one that will not slip back on leaving the ground. As the colt begins to make speed the action of the legs needs watching because sometimes they will begin to show a faulty line of action.
If they begin to get faulty they are liable to begin winging in or paddling out, and when shod again the feet can be fixed to prevent this way of going at speed. The most important thing is fixing their feet to prevent a faulty line of action for if the feet are not kept level they will begin getting rough gaited and unsteady. One important thing in fixing feet on yearlings to be shod and worked for speed is to keep the quarters and heels of front feet as low as possible, it affords comfort in landing and increases extension without carrying so much weight. Colts that have a lot of action at both ends, hind and front, need very light shoes all round, you can find out the proper balance with a toe weight.
To increase extension, lower the quarters and heels and apply toe weights instead of using so much in the shoe. The colt should carry a natural head, not too high and not too low, the lower the better if he is inclined to mix. If your colt is short and choppy gaited in his hind action lower the quarters and heels of hind feet and shoe with a heavy toeweight plain shoe and extend the shoe out one-quarter of an inch or more in front of toe of hind foot. When the colt begins to make speed decrease the weight of shoe of hind feet. Some youngsters require more weight behind than in front to equalize action so as to work harmoniously front and rear.
If you have a mixed-gaited colt and you want to make a trotter out of him or her, keep plenty of foot on both hind and front feet, especially at the toes. When fixing the feet to be shod cut or rasp the quarters and heels of both front and hind feet as low as possible, keep plenty of toe on front and hind feet. Usually you will find that the front feet have the longest angle to leave the ground from, but by lowering the quarters and heels of hind feet to get them as near as you can to the same angle of the front feet, the more you will be confining the gait to a pure trot, and there will be less danger of singlefooting or pacing.
I want my readers to distinctly understand that there is a set of pacing feet for a pacer and a set of trotting feet for a trotter, especially at the time when you are going to convert a trotter to the pace or a pacer to the trot. That, however, will be explained later in this book. If your trotting colt becomes mixed gaited or goes into a singlefoot or pace, the first thing to do is to lower the quarters and heels of hind feet as much as possible, keep all the toe on him you can and shoe with a light shoe with toe and heel calks. The front feet should be lowered in the same manner and add a few ounces more weight to front shoes and allow your colt to be driven as low headed as is comfortable.
When you try this remedy for a mixed-gaited colt or horse you will be surprised why you have not been able to find it out years ago.
The pacing youngster with not much of any kind of action at either end, needs to go in short toes and heavy shoes all around and if the toes of shoes are beveled or rolled it will be very good the first time shod. After your pacing colt begins to make speed, shoe to prevent slipping at both ends, with heel and toe calks on hind shoes. As a rule they go high headed, it seems to suit the majority of pacers.
HORSE-SHOE STACK—ALLEN FARM, 1916.
W. J. Moore
If your pacer begins to cross-fire lower the inside of hind feet but if you cannot lower the feet on the inside raise the outside with the thickness of the shoe, thick on outside and thin on inside. If you can lower the inside of hind feet low enough, a plain shoe will do with calks. The best shoe for a cross-firing pacer is a heavy sideweight shoe, thin and rounded off on the inside toe. You do not need any projections on this shoe, heel or toe, if the foot is properly prepared to widen action. If your colt gets to winging to his knees, lower the outside of front feet from centre of toes to heel on outside. If your colt begins to paddle with one front leg or the other, lower the inside of the foot or feet as much as they will stand, this will leave the outside toe the longest to leave the ground from, which, when at speed, will prevent a lot of paddling. The lighter the shoes on a paddler the better, but if he has to carry some weight in his shoes to balance action, put all the weight in the outside of his shoes. If you use a toeweight, attach it near to the outside toe for better results. Paddling is caused by the contraction of muscles on one side of the leg, the same as winging in, and not always by bad shoeing, the main thing is foot fixing.
Some say there is nothing under the sun perfect. Foals developing in the womb of their dam sometimes will be in a cramped position, which contracts those muscles or ligaments that cause winging in or paddling out. As some of the yearlings and weanlings show this faulty line of action before ever being shod. I have seen yearlings that were knee-knockers to begin with and you would think confirmed ones and after one, two or three shoeings you could not hear them knock their boots on the turns, and they would later develop into fast trotters and win races or take fast records at two and three years old.
At the Allen Farm, where I have been located for a great many years, I have seen results obtained by foot fixing and shoeing that satisfied me that there were secrets hidden from most of the public in the art or science of foot fixing and balancing faulty action, and from my experience and the results obtained, I felt that the public was entitled to my knowledge so gained. I have seen yearlings step eighths of a mile from 15¾ to 17 and 18 seconds, and many of them. I have seen a yearling step the last sixteenth of an eighth in seven seconds, a 1:52 gait, on this half-mile track which should go a second faster on a mile track.
Now if the foot fixing and shoeing that I have explained in this book and have been practising for years is not the nearest approach to the proper and correct way of balancing the action of the trotter and pacer, why has Bingara become the champion fourteen-year-old sire of 2:30 performers, located as he is in this cold climate and far away from the section where are the greatest number of producing dams? Mares by Kremlin 2:07¾, the champion living brood mare sire of the world, have produced wonderful results. Through these channels came Baden 2:05¼, a trotting race horse that raced on both half-mile tracks and mile tracks and was badly handicapped in many of his races by being scored ten, twelve, fifteen, and as many as seventeen times before getting the word. This scoring was not all done by one driver or one horse, but by different drivers and different horses trying to break the horse’s heart repeatedly, and when they could not rupture his legs, unhinge his back, rattle his thinking box or break his heart, Mr. Geers and Mr. Cox, the great race drivers, said that Baden 2:05¼ was the greatest race horse ever seen. In all my experience with the produce of Bingara I have never seen one yet that wanted to pace if looked after in his early education. I know him to get trotters from pacing mares, and nothing but trotters from all kinds of mares, his power to transmit the trotting gait to his produce is something wonderful, and his only pacers are those that were forced by the unsportsmanlike use of hopples.