Shoe for stumpy hoofs, viewed from ground-surface,
hoof-surface, and in profile.
Only those upright hoofs which are the result of the causes mentioned in 3 and 4 are to be dressed as ordinary hoofs, and if the service required is not too exacting they should be shod with tips ([Fig. 201]), or with shoes with thinned branches.
3. The Contracted Hoof.
A hoof which has deviated from its normal form in such a manner that its posterior half, either in part or as a whole, is too narrow, is a contracted hoof. The walls of the quarters assume an abnormally oblique direction downward and inward towards the median line of the hoof.
When contraction affects only one quarter, it is called unilateral contraction, or abnormal wryness ([Fig. 211]).
Fig. 205.
A fore-hoof with bilateral contraction of the quarters: a, spur of horn prolonged from the buttress, which compresses the frog; b, narrow median lacuna of the frog.
The buttresses are usually very much prolonged and press upon the frog and cause it to shrink. The bars no longer run in the natural straight direction from the point of the frog backward and outward, but describe a circle passing outward, backward, and inward.
Fig. 206.