Special report on diseases of the horse / by Drs. Pearson [and others].

Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Special report on diseases of the horse / by Drs. Pearson [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    650/690 (page 564)
    distribution of the nails. Does the shoe fully cover the entire lower border of the wall? or is it too narrow or fitted so full on the inside that it has given rise to interfering? or has the shoe been nailed on crooked? or has it become loose and shifted? is it too short or so wide at the ends .of the branches as not to support the buttresses of the hoof ? Does the shoe correspond with the form of the hoof ? Are the nails distributed so as to interfere as little as possible with the expan- sion of the quarters? are there too many? are they too large? driven too “fine” or too high? These are questions which the observer should put to himself. Note carefully the wear of the old shoe. It is the unimpeachable evidence of the manner in which the hoof has been set to the ground since the shoe was nailed to it, and gives valuable “pointers” in lev- eling the hoof. Wear is the effect of friction between the shoe and the ground at the moment of contact. Since the properly leveled hoof is set flat to the ground, the “ grounding wear” of a shoe should be uniform at every point, though the toe will always show wear due to scouring at the moment of ubreaking over.” Everything which tends to lengthen the stride tends also to make the “grounding wear” more pronounced in the heels of the shoe, while all causes which shorten the stride, as stiffening of the limbs through age, overwork, or disease, bring the grounding wear nearer the toe. An exception should be noted, however, in founder, in which the grounding wear is most pronounced at the heels. If one branch of the shoe is found to be worn much thinner than the other, the thinner branch has either been set too near the middle line of the foot (fitted too close), where it has been bearing greater weight while rubbing against the ground, or, what is much more often the case, the section of wall above the thinner branch has been too long (too high), or the opposite section of wall has been too short (too low). “ One-sided wear, uneven setting down of the feet, and an unnatural course of the wall are often found together.” How much an old shoe can tell us, if we take time and pains to decipher its scars! The horse should next be observed at a walk and at a trot or pace, from in front, from behind, and from the side, and the “ breaking over,” the carriage of the feet, and the manner of setting them to the ground carefully noted and remembered. A horse does not alwaj^s move just as his standing position would seem to imply. Often there is so great a difference in the form and slant of two fore hoofs or two hind hoofs that we are in doubt as to their normal shape, when a few steps at a trot will usually solve the problem instantly by showing us the line of flight of the hoofs and referring them to the regular, base- wide, or base-narrow form. No man is competent either to shoe a horse or to direct the work till he has made the precited observations.