For the ordinary horse for riding or driving, neither a racer nor a hunter, a shoe may weigh from nine to fourteen ounces. It is to be remembered in this connection, that shoes grow rapidly lighter as they get thinner from wear. This should be considered in deciding upon the weight of a horse's shoes. Big work horses are sometimes shod with shoes weighing five, six, and seven pounds. As few nails as possible to make the shoe secure is best—five to seven is enough. As the inside of the crust of the hoof is always thinner and more elastic than the outside on account of the greater weight it bears, contraction is generally found on the inside; use two nails inside and three outside, or three inside and four outside, if seven are necessary. The outside crust is thicker and stronger than the inside crust of the heel and affords more nailhold. No matter what the blacksmith or the coachman—who is often only his echo—says, insist that the bars of the horse's feet shall on no account be cut away. The wall of the hoof is not only much weakened by this operation, but the hoof must, in consequence of it, contract toward the heel. The reason advanced for doing this is that it allows room for expansion, when as a matter of fact, with the bars cut away, there is nothing to keep the foot open, and there follow contraction and corns. Corns mean lameness, a timid way of putting the feet down, and hence stumbling, and corns are very difficult to get rid of. Look at the healthy foot of a horse and see for yourself that this must be so, and then have your horses shod as though they really belonged to you. Remember that most blacksmiths shoe the horse to look well on the outside. It should be your business to insist that he be so shod that the hoof shall keep well on the inside!
To discuss different styles of shoes, questions of balancing horses for speed or action, would require a treatise by itself.
It is fair to condense advice on the subject by saying that the lightest and closest-fitting shoe that will suit the work and the peculiarities of moving of the horse will be the best for him. Do not allow paring of the sole and frog; have light shoes properly fitted; use as few nails as possible; make the shoe to fit the foot, and permit no rasping, burning, and paring to fit the foot to the shoe; do not allow the front of the hoof to be rasped.
It must not be forgotten in this matter of shoeing that there are no muscles below the knee and the hock, and the muscles used to move the legs are high up. What weighs little at the shoulder or stifle weighs very much more at the end of the leg. Take a stick three feet long and put a pound-weight on it next your hand, then transfer the pound-weight to the end of the stick next the ground, and you see for yourself the difference. Or suppose in fencing you put a weight equal to the handle, where the button is, and the difference in using the weapon is enormous. A horse shod with shoes unnecessarily heavy is at just that disadvantage; therefore it is of the utmost importance both for his comfort and your safety that he should be shod as lightly as is compatible with the work required of him. In fitting the shoe, great care should be taken that both sides of the hoof are of the same height. If they are not of the same height, the whole foot is thrown out of plumb; this twists the delicate joints of leg and pastern and leads to disease. In the majority of cases that I have noticed, the inside of the foot is left higher than the outside.
The horse left without shoes does not suffer from corns, thrush, "speedy-cut," sand-cracks, quittor, and the like. On the contrary, he develops and keeps in condition a foot wonderfully well adapted to carry him and hold him. He has a wonderful cushion to run on and take the jar off, enclosed in a fibrous case of horn. The care of the foot and the shoeing thereof should leave as much to nature and as little to the blacksmith as possible. Artificial conditions make iron shoes necessary, but except for the heaviest kind of work on the roughest and hardest roads the less shoe, the fewer nails, and the less paring and rasping of the foot, the better. The cavalry in this country do not shoe the horses on the hind feet unless special service requires it.
Where a horse interferes or forges, certain changes in his shoeing may help matters. In interfering, unless it arises from bad malformation, the height of the shoe may be increased on the inside, or a three-quarter shoe used on the outside; or, if this fails, the exact opposite may be tried. The so-called Charlier shoe, which fits into a bevelled hollow around the crust, suits some horses.
Clicking or forging arises from the striking of the toe of the hind shoe against the under edge of the toe of the fore shoe. It results usually from the quicker action of the hind quarters than the fore quarters. A remedy is to shorten the toes of the hind feet and level off the edges of the toe of the fore shoe. Shortening the toes of the fore feet enables the horse to raise his fore feet more quickly and thus to get them away before the hind quarters reach his fore feet. In hilly country, or where horses are overworked or weakened by illness, this overreaching is most common, and often disappears when horses get accustomed to the country, or get stronger and better able to lift, and to carry their feet properly.