The practical horseshoer : being a collection of articles on horseshoeing in all its branches which have appeared from time to time in the columns of "The Blacksmith and wheelwright" ...

Front matter

Franklin Institute Ijmmet

FHILdDELFHIrt

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Preface

Numerous works on horseshoeing have, from time to time, been published, but each one from the pen of a, single individual and representing only his experience and theories as to the best methods of practice.

The present work embraces the varying views of a large number of horseshoers located in all parts of the United States, and as such is unique in its conception. The articles presented in the following pages have, many of them, been called out in response to the special inquiries of readers of The Blacksmith and Wheelwright, and all of them have previously appeared in the columns of that journal.

Nearly or quite every phase of this intricate subject is treated in some shape or other. At the risk of being accused by some shoers of presenting misleading views or incorrect methods, the Compiler has been liberal in making selections from the mass of matter which has appeared during the past ten years in the pages of The Blacksmith and Wheelwright. He has deemed it better to occasionally err in a selection rather than set himself iv

PREFACE.

up as a censor of practices which have been found to result satisfactorily in some hands, if not in all.

Each reader should judge for himself of the practicability of any given method before adopting it.

So many ways of accomplishing the same result are offered that it is confidently felt that at least one or more may be found to fit almost every conceivable case. Without desiring to disparage any other work on the same subject, the Editor feels that the present volume will be found invaluable to every man who shoes horses, wholly or in part, for a living.

Not by any means the least valuable feature of the present volume, will be found the numerous tools for horseshoers as well as devices for controlling unruly horses.

The Editor.

THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER.

Introduction

The first method of protecting* the horse's feet was by means of buskins, as they were termed ; then came a network, and lastly metal shoes. The impetuous action of the animals, their weight, and the angular form of the hoof have given much trouble about the manner of fastening on the shoes.

In Japan a kind of rushwork is used, which wraps the whole hoof, but it wears so fast on the road that travelers take a quantity with them on a journey, and poor people have them ready-made for sale at stopping places. The Mongols in high northern places shoe their horses with the palmy parts of reindeer horns.

In ancient Persia, where the breeds of gray, dun and bay racers are all hard-hoofed, the use of shoes in the sandy districts was needless, and not much attention was required to the abrasion of horn ; but in the higher and more stony districts, where the frog and edges of the hoof became more tender, it was looked to. In rapid and long-continued marches the hardest hoofed animals became crippled, and in history we find more than one instance where military expeditions were arrested in their progress until the horses had time to recover and restore their hoofs. These occurred chiefly when great operations were directed by foreign commanders who trusted to their energy for surmounting obstacles which native warriors believed to be impracticable. Thus Alexander the Great, at the siege of Cyzicus, was thwarted and delayed, while the Persians, under Darius, and the Parthians appear to have been equally distressed under similar circumstances.

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At the time of Hannibal's invasion of the Roman- Empire horseshoeing appears to have been unknown to the Carthaginians, as we read that that mighty warrior was sometimes compelled to give his famous cavalry horses a rest to enable their feet to recover from the soreness occasioned by rapid and prolonged marches. That the Arabs of the Hegira (a.d. 622), or within a generation later, shod their horses is plain, if we believe that the iron work on the summit of the standard of Hosien, at Ardbeil, was made from a horseshoe belonging to Abbas, ancle of Mohammed, by order of his daughter Fatima. It was brought, says the legend, from Arabia by Sheik Soft. It is probable, therefore, that the art of shoeing must have been known among the Arabs as early as the time of Mohammed. These people say their first farrier came to them from the seaboard.

The greatest and earliest difficulty in the management of the horse's hoof seems to have been to combine a hard substance for the wear and tear with a ready means of fastening that would not injure the corneous substance, the ancients feeling that to make a puncture in the hoof would cause pain to the animal and otherwise injure him ; yet iron was found to be admissible. The form of the Asiatic horseshoe is circular, and instead of being fastened on by means of nails driven through the hoofs, it is secured by the clamps that appear to have closed on the outside or ascending surface. The exact counterpart of form, etc., existed at the period of the Ionian Greeks. The making of incisions in the hoof for the sharp points of the clamps to obtain a hold probably led to the knowledge that little or no pain was caused to the horse, and thus holes were bored for the nails, which became ever after the method of fastening.

BARBAROUS EXTRAVAGANCE.

The round horseshoe of old Arabian methods was an improvement on the Circassian, the outside clamps being

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omitted and nail holes substituted. Then came the alteration to thinner iron plates with hut little opening". Then the more lengthened heels, all unfit for securing- the feet m rocky countries. Then the war horses were shod with very large, heav^- iron shoes, slightly turned up and pointed at the toe, also cocked at the heel with broad spikes to afford a surer footing- at a charg-e. In the chivalrous age a marching- party of marauders, by placing the horses' shoes in a reversed manner, deceived pursuers, who, seeing the toemarks in a given direction, turned their backs upon the route they pursued. This was practiced in the border wars by what were called " moss-troopers," who had often great reason to avoid capture, for the gallows not unfrequently closed their career.

Contrary to the general impression, says Gen. Dumas, the Arabs of the Sahara are in the habit of shoeing their horses with a view to the nature of the ground they are compelled to travel over. It seems to be the universal practice among these people to remove the shoes in spring, when the animals are turned out to grass, it being asserted that care must be taken not to check the renewal of the blood, which, it is thought, takes place at this season of the year. Their horseshoes are kept readj^ made (four sets of fore and hind shoes being a year's supply), and are fitted cold. The shoes are very light, but made of well-hammered iron. The hoof is allowed to grow freely, being neither pared nor shortened, the very stony ground and incessant work required of the horse sufficing to wear it off naturally, as by growth it projects over the iron.

The Arabian smith while plying his vocation sits with legs crossed and doubled under him.

The nails used are so constructed as to serve as calks, being provided with large oblong heads.

In the days when barbarous extravagance was taken for magnificence, a horse was occasionally shod with silver.

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In the eleventh century — or, to give the exact date, a.d. 1038 — Boniface, Marquis of Tuscany, a wealthy prince, in going to meet Beatrix, his intended bride, had his horses shod with silver, and the shoes were allowed to be cast off in order to be appropriated by the multitude that followed in throngs. At a later date Lord Doncaster, an English ambassador, acted in a similar manner on his public entry into Paris. The following account may be amusing : " Six trumpeters and two marshals in rich velvet liveries closely laced over with gold, led the way ; then came the ambassador and retinue of pages, booted, with horses richly caparisoned. The ambassador's horses were shod with silver shoes, lightly tacked on, and when he came to a place where persons of beauty or eminence were, his horses pranced and curveted in a showy manner and threw the shoes away, which the greedy multitude scrambled for, and he was content to be gazed on until a farrier — or, rather, argentier — from among his trained footmen took from out a velvet bag others and tacked them on, which lasted until he came to the next group of grandees, and thus, with much ado, he reached the Louvre."

William the Conqueror is said to have introduced horseshoeing in England, yet one Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, the property of a Saxon chief named Gamelbere, who retained his fief on the condition of shoeing the king's palfrey whenever he should lie at the Manor of Mansfield, and that he should give another palfrey whenever he should lame the king's animal, is recorded. If the account should be true, horseshoers must be older in England than the Norman Conquest, and when looking at the Bayeux tapestry it is perceived that both Saxon and Norman horses showed unequivocal marks of shoes and hob-nails on their feet.

Henry de Ferrers, who bore six horseshoes in his shield, was of the Norman invaders, and, it is believed, was intrusted with the inspection of the king's farriers. The armorial

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bearings are, it is true, older than the regular establishment of heraldry, but most likely they were, together with the family names, signs of office. The proper names of Marshall and Smith are singularly typified by hammers, tongs, anvils and horseshoes.

THE " CURVED CHARM. "

In regard to the superstition attached to the " curved Charm," it is universal. In Abj^ssinia, Barbae, and even in Guinea, horseshoes are fixed on doors and the thresholds of houses as much as in Europe, Asia and America. One is seen carved on a pagan Runic monument of the eleventh century, and the practice is known in Japan, China and Persia, and it is traced upon the cabin door of the Hottentot and the West Coast negro almost as frequently as on the barn door of a Dutch or English farmhouse. The horseshoe may be seen nailed to the mast of the coasting vessels^ not after the manner of antiquity, with the heels up, but with the arch topmost. In Devonshire and Cornwall, England, they are nailed on the great west door of the church ; also on the door of the church at Halcomber, Devonshire, where formerly four horseshoes were seen, possibly to keep off witches, whose especial amusement it was

"To untie the winds, and make them fight Against the churches."

Inquiry receives the same answer to symbolize a contemptible superstition in this country. Whittier says :

" And still o'er many a neighbor's door She saw the horseshoe's curved charm."

" The cautious goodman nails no more A horseshoe on his outside door, Lest some unseemly hag should fit To his own mouth her bridle bit.'

io

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The shoe, an illustration (Fig*. 1) of which is here given, was taken from the foot of one of the Arabian horses presented to General Grant by the Sultan of Turkey. According to Flem-

Fig. 1.— Shoe from the foot of one of the Arabian Stallions presented to General Grant in 1879 by the Sultan of Turkey.

ing*? the horses of the East have been shod with similar shoes for the past 500 years, the only variation from the form shown in the engraving- being* in the opening for the frog*, which is usually made triangular.

The dimensions of this shoe are as follows : Length, 5f

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inches ; width, inches ; thickness, £ of an inch. The heel, which is bent up about f of an inch, shows a fracture in the iron at the point where it was originally welded. The nail-holes are one-fourth of an inch in diameter.

Fig 3 . —Syrian Fig: . 4.— Spanish

Horse Nail. Horse Nail.

In Fig-. 2 is shown the style of nail used in shoeing Arabian horses. It seems bungling and clumsy in comparison with the neat, trim American nails. Fig. 3 is, if anj'thing, more bungling in construction than the Arabian nail, and represents the nail in use in Syria. Fig. 4, a Spanish nail, is a step forward, and, at least, resembles our modern nail,

Chapter I. Horses And Horseshoeing

The Treatment of Horses.

Being very fond of horses, and finding in a good lively drive with an occasional friendly " brush " more of real solid enjoyment than in almost any other recreation, I am naturally led to think much upon the subject of the proper care and treatment of horses, and also through observation and comparison to form opinions as to suitable vehicles and best condition of roads, through the medium of which the most enjoyment may be had with the least of wear and tear and danger.

A horse fit to be called a good roadster, that is, one having the necessary amount of speed to start up and pull a wagon with two men over a country road, far from level, at a really rapid gait, must have some breeding, be in good health and condition, and have good feet. What are good strains of blood can be learned from breeders. There must be bone, and muscle, and proper form, but there must be intelligence and courage, with that gamecock pluck which cannot be found in dunghills. The right horses may be had by the thousand, and how to properly feed and care for them in general, covering all matters of stabling, ventilation, grooming, clothing, harness and fittings, how to drive to develop latent speed and improve upon that already developed, or at least to keep the developed trotter or roadster

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at the best, are subjects that have been so thoroughlytreated upon by veterinarians, professional drivers, and gentlemen amateurs as to appear to leave nothing more to be said.

Still it is a fact that there are continually many of the most promising horses going wrong — "going all to pieces," to quote a common sajing — in spite of being in the best of hands, where no reasonable trouble or expense would be counted too great whereby they could be kept right or cured after going wrong. These things show that either the teaching is at fault, or that little, seemingly unimportant conditions, so slight as to be overlooked, are really of great consequence.

A great many horses have a hitch in the gait produced by driving at speed too far when the pulling weight was great, or asking for a little too much speed of a colt. Asking the horse to speed right out before the proper amount of slow work has been done on first leaving the stable, produces the same defect. Hitching is nearly as bad as cribbing, is unsightly and annoying, and cuts speed down equal to absolute lameness. It is sometimes cured, but where one confirmed hitcher is taught to again go square, hundreds of square, pure-gaited horses might be kept so by " waiting a little."

From a condition of absolute soundness, feet get sore, get, in fact, in the same condition which is known to be the sequel of acute founder neglected, and still without any acute founder. Neglect of proper paring at reasonable intervals; lack of suitable exercise; want of necessary moisture ; ill-fitting shoes which, by preventing the foot from performing in all its parts the natural functions that tend to the secretion of healthy horn and the preservation through suitable action of proper shape; bruising of the sole by contact with small stones in driving, these stones being often picked up between the frog and web of the shoe

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and carried for miles, or even left in the foot for days "by that class of men who say, " Humph, I never trouble myself about a horse's foot. If a horse is sound he wants nothing- done to his feet" — these and divers other causes gradually — and to the owners and drivers many times — imperceptibly produce a condition of the feet which shortens the gait, impairs the speed, and causes on-lookers to say :

" 's horse is sore, actually goes lame at times"; and

still the gentlest hint to the owner that his horse is not " all right" will be indignantly be met with the response, " Sound as any horse in the world," until downright lameness ensues. Now something* must be done, and the veterinarian is consulted, who, with pills and powders, balls, blisters, and poultices, special shoeing and hoof ointment, soakers and bandages, and continuous care, palliates the horse's disease and depletes the pocket of the owner, and finally admits, when patience has been exhausted, what he knew was the fact in the beginning*, that " all treatment is only palliative — a cure is impossible."

Well, what can be done? Much may be done. Insist upon having* as much of the superfluous growth of hoof cut away- at each shoeing as will relieve the foot from any undue pressure caused by excessive growth. Don't pare the frogs, but, by sufficient moisture, keep them in such condition that "frog pressure" shall come upon an elastic cushion, not upon a substance as unyielding as the wall itself. Pressure on the frog* is beneficial only when the frog* is in proper condition to receive it. Don't insist too strongly upon leaving* the sole untouched by the knife without first knowing what sort of feet you are dealing with. Some feet will shed out the dead horn from the sole in scales of considerable thickness once in a month or six weeks, and never need to have the sole pared at all. Other feet which have the sole untouched by the knife will never shed out a particle of the sole for an entire year, and by the accumulation of hoof

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which should not remain, and if shed out should be cut out, such feet are subjected to pressure which must cause excessive pain and produce corns and sore, shortened action.

To compensate for the change from the cool, soft turf, with the morning- due upon the grass, and the occasional wade in the brook or through the marsh which the horse finds in pasturage, to the hard, dry roads, with the dust, heated in summer to blistering, and the dry, unyielding floor of the stable, there must be some moistening or softening agency applied to the feet at times or there will be contraction, corns, uncertain, tender-footed action, and finally downright lameness. " Yes, give them a good soaking out in hot water two or three times a week, and stuff them over night with linseed meal and wheat bran." No, not till such treatment is necessary, and with proper care it need not become necessary. Keep a soaking tub or box, and, with as much clean, cool water as will reach above the coronet, let the horse stand with fore-feet immersed for a few minutes, or an hour, once in a few daj7s, or weeks, or every day, as the drjmess of the roads or the condition of the particular feet in question demands. This, with the application of a good hoof ointment in some cases, will do much good. Aim to keep the feet cool, with the frogs in an elastic condition. Make a soaking box 18 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 7 inches deep inside, by having the sides the same length of the bottom, and nailing them to the bottom, then nailing the end pieces to the sides and bottom, the bottom board being inside. Such a box will hold water as well as a tub, is lighter, and takes up less room. Make it of pine from full 1 inch to 1£ inches thick.

When a horse comes in from a drive, clean his feet out with some sensible kind of hoof-pick which will get the gravel from between the sole and web of the shoe, then with a sponge and pail of water wash each foot clean.

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inside and out. Of hoof ointments there are plenty. Vaseline will answer first-rate.

If a quick drive is to be made, whether of ten or twelve miles within the hour, or of twenty or thirty miles at the same rate, don't be in a hurry at the start. Begin easily, warm your horse up gradually, get the joints limbered up and in good working order, and as the lungs and heart get. in proper action, with stomach and bowels relieved as they will be by waiting a little, your horse can rattle along easily at a rate which Avould have made him puff and blow, and scour, and lather if started out too fast at first, and you " get there" with your horse in good shape. "With some drivers certain horses are said to be " poor feeders," while with other drivers the same horses will do as much work and never lose a feed. Don't start out too strong : always ease off a little toward the last end of a drive. Slackening down to a jog or walk for the last mile of a drive makes, sometimes, hours of difference in the time it takes for the horse to be dry and comfortable, besides letting the machinery, which has been working- at its utmost tension, get back to something- like its normal condition under easy action, instead of coming to a standstill from the high state of strain.

About Horseshoeing.

It is probable that on no other subject pertaining to mechanical practice is there more diversity of opinion. If we go to the authors of treatises on horseshoeing, we are told that to keep the horse's foot in a perfect condition of health it is simpty necessary to shoe according to the rules laid down by them ; but when we turn from the opinions expressed and rules laid down by one writer, to find him contradicted on every important point by other authorities, what are we to do ? With one the all-important thing is

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"cold fitting-/' while another recommends " hot fitting-," not simply as admissible and something- to be tolerated, but as the only way in which a shoe can be properly fitted, and as being a positive benefit to the foot rather than an injury.

To open out the heels, even to drawing- blood — using a saw for the purpose when necessity, or laziness, suggests it, and then cut down the wall all that it will bear, following this by a cutting away of the entire sole until it readily yields to slight pressure with the thumb, or till the blood oozes through, while the frog is also nicely trimmed off, is advised by one, while another says, "The frog and sole should never, under any circumstances, be cut at all."

But the subject is of too wide a scope, the opinions and practices of horseshoers and horse-owners differ too radically ; while the almost endless variety of feet to be shod, the variety multiplied over and over by the varied conditions in which the feet are found, owTing in some measure to shoeing both good and bad, leave too much to be written to hope for more than the most casual reference here to a few of the abuses to be found.

How better point out these abuses, as they look to the writer, than to relate some scraps of personal experience ? But need I put this experience in the first person ? Have not so many other horse-owners been through the same experience that to state the fact, leaving out the "I," will come right home to them ? A new horse is purchased after careful examination of feet and limbs ; the gait and manner of going are all that could be desired, and there is not a mark on any ankle or knee to show that there has ever been such a thing as striking either forward or behind. For two, three, or even for four or five weeks the horse is driven with the same shoes he wore when purchased, the clinches get out so that it looks dangerous to go longer without shoeing, and still there has been no interfering. The horse

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is taken to the shop and has " a new set all round." The old shoes when removed are contemptuously tossed into the scrap heap, with the remark that "it is a great wonder that the horse could go at all with such things on ; should suppose he would cut himself all to pieces." Now the horse is to be shod properly. No more great sprawling shoes.

The feet are cut down, the soles are pared thin, the frogs are "trimmed into some shape," and the shoes are fitted full on the outside and close on the inside. Of course there is no harm in fitting the shoe full even to projecting a little on the outside, but on the inside, where there may be danger of striking, the shoe must be fitted and nailed on close. What is close ? Why, anywhere fron one-sixteenth to one-quarter of an inch out from being flush with the wall on the inside quarter, the projecting hoof to be rasped off after the shoe is nailed on and the clinches laid down. In rasping off the projecting wall from the inner quarter to the toe, the shoer, to avoid an unsightly joining of angles, carries the rasping up on the wall to, perhaps, within an inch, or thereabouts, of the coronet; and of course to make it look right the rasping must be continued all the way around to the same height, when by a liberal application of saliva, and a rub with the hand or corner of the apron, or sometimes with a dampened sponge kept for the purpose, the injury to the enamel is to some extent concealed temporarily, and the horse is pronounced well shod.

What is the result ?

The small stones which strike the sole cause the horse to flinch and finally to go almost continually lame, or at least with an uncertain gait, caused in part by actual hurt and partly from fear of being hurt. There is a tendency of the ankles to turn in, and also at the knee, at each successive step, owing to the lessened amount of ground bearing which the foot has on its inner half. Half ? No ; too much has

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been cut away, and with the inequality of surface on which the foot must be placed in traveling- the greater amount of surface covered by that portion of the foot outside of the frog than inside, the greater distance from the center out acting as a powerful lever, the ankles and knees are deflected inward so much as to make it impossible for the passing foot to g-et by without hitting*.

Here we have an interfering horse, hitting every ankle and both knees as a direct, unmistakable result of shoeing ; and the worst of it is, from just the shoeing which is so generally believed to be a preventive of interfering, and which will be persisted in until the horse becomes a perfect cripple unless "booted all over," while the walls of such feet, denuded of the enamel, and at every shoeing losing more and more of their substance through the use of the rasp, will become so split as to make it difficult to find a sound place for a nail.

It is not cutting away the little which may be cut from the inside of the foot that insures its passing the ankle or knee without hitting, but it is the position of the knee or ankle relative to the line of motion of the foot in passing which has the greatest influence. Who says, " Everybody knows that " ? Who says, " That's just wrhy we shoe in the way you condemn" ? Well, then, tell me why this horse began to interfere almost from the moment he left your shop, and in driving ten miles had bloody ankles, laying the foundation for a callous spot on each ankle, where no hair will ever again grow, while he had not a mark of this kind before you took him in hand ?

Shoeing Horses.

Said a driver of trotting horses to the writer, in speaking of a valuable trotting mare which was beaten in straight heats three weeks ago : " When I took her, directly

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after the race, I found her feet so soft from having- been stuffed with linseed meal that she actually could not go without flinching*, and the smell from her feet was enough to knock one over."

Said I, " Did you not drive this mare yesterday against the same horse that beat her in straight heats three weeks ago?"

" I did/' he replied, " and she won in three heats, under a good pull all the way, and is going- now as sound as a colt. She wants no stuffing of feet ; just ' tub her out ' once in a while. It doesn't do to keep a horse's feet too soft."

One writer says : "I have found more trouble caused by not cutting enough than by cutting too much ; I like to see all dead tissue cut away."