A right front shoe with forging calks;
suitable for a saddle-horse, or hunter
(convex iron).
The Hind Shoe:—Length, the shoe may project from one-fourth to three-eighths of an inch behind the buttresses. The toe should be well rounded and somewhat blunt so that the horn of the toe will project beyond the shoe an amount equal to one-half the thickness of the wall. Width, somewhat less than the front shoe. The branches are of equal thickness, and should carry heel-calks whose height equals the thickness of the shoe. To guard against interfering the inside calk may be omitted and the inner branch thickened, fitted snug and bevelled strongly base-narrow. Clips are to be placed at inner and outer toes. Seven nails are sufficient.
The shoes for hunters do not differ materially from those suitable for Park Hacks. The hunter’s shoes are somewhat lighter, and to guard against injury to the feet by over-reaching and interfering, and against the shoes being pulled by stiff mire and by treading, the shoes must represent merely a prolongation of the hoofs, i.e., must be no longer and no wider than the hoofs themselves. The front shoe of narrow, convex iron is rolled at the toe and has a central toe-clip. Forging heel-calks are advisable.
The hind shoe is set back at the toe, carries inner and outer toe-clips, an outer heel-calk and an inner interfering branch. Seven nails.
Shoeing Runners.
Racing plates are intended solely to prevent excessive wear and breaking away of the wall, and to insure a secure foothold upon the ground. The shoes are made as light as possible, but they must not be so narrow and thin that they will bend or break. They are therefore made of steel, wide enough to cover the bearing-surface of the wall, white line, and an eighth of an inch of the sole. The ground-surface is divided into two sharp edge’s by a deep, clean, fullering continued entirely around the shoe. heel-calks are of no advantage. Front and hind shoes carry six nails. The last nails are well back in the quarters to prevent the spreading or bending of the light shoe. Front shoes are provided with central toe-clips; hind shoes carry inner and outer toe-clips and are set slightly under at the toe ([see Figs. 125], [126], [127], [128]). An average weight running plate for a medium-sized hoof is three to four ounces.
Fig. 125.
A fore running plate,
hoof-surface.