Fig. 90.—Bar-pad with Shoe.
Fig. 91.—Without Shoe.
All these pads increase the cost of shoeing but what they save, by preventing falls and injuries to the horse and fear and anxiety to the driver, far more than balances the account in their favour. The cost however is an item, and inventors have turned their attention to the production of some other methods of applying rubber in connection with the shoe for the prevention of slipping.
Shoes have been manufactured into which cavities of different forms and sizes have been made. These are filled by correspondingly shaped pieces of rubber. The cavity must be so formed as to retain the rubber and this renders the manufacture very difficult except by the employment of malleable cast iron shoes. This is a great disadvantage.
Another plan is to make from rolled bar iron, a hollow shoe, section of which would be U-shaped but level to the foot. Into the groove so formed a thick cord of rubber is placed after the shoe is nailed on the foot. This wears well and affords good foot-hold but it entails the serious objection that the nails are difficult to drive and far from being so safe as in the ordinary shoe. If rubber is ever to be available in a grooved shoe it should be designed so that the nails and nail holes are not interfered with.