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.
Over-reaching.
This is an injury to the heel—generally the inner—of a front foot. The heel is struck by the inner border of the toe of the hind shoe. Over-reach occurs at a gallop in this country, but is seen in America as the result of a mis-step in the fast trotters. An over-reach can only occur when the fore foot is raised from the ground and the hind foot reaches right into the hollow of the fore foot. When the fore and hind feet in this position separate the inner border of the toe of the hind shoe catches the heel of the fore foot and cuts off a slice. This cut portion often hangs as a flap, and when it does the attachment is always at the back, showing that the injury was not from behind forwards as it would be if caused by a direct blow, but from before backwards—in other words by a dragging action of the hind foot as it leaves the front one. An over-reach then may result either from the fore limb being insufficiently extended, or from the hind limb being over extended.
The prevention of this injury is effected by rounding off the inside edge of the hind shoe as shown below.