Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-02-20
THE HORSES FOOT.
Facts Important for all Drivers to
Know

the foot of the horse than with any
other part. A plain talk about this, |
entirely devoid of unexplained pro- !
fessional terms, may be helpful to |
those who will spend the time to re- |
fleet upon it. Many diseases of the |
foot are directly the result of faulty
shoeing or absence of care of the feet,
and consequently avoidable. The foot
of the horse is a wonderful piece of
mechanism. 1t consists of hundreds
of distinct parts. all interdependent,
but each as absolutely necessary as
are the various parts of railroad en-
CINE. The internal framework orr
skeleton Of the horses foot consists
of three bones. The interspaces con-
tain nerve and blood vessels and var
ious intricate machinery to secrete
horn and a greasy, watery matter to
lubricate the various parts of the
machinery and keep the horn of the
hoOf soft and elastic.
The frog is a very important part
of the machinery. 1t prevents serious
effects of conclusion to the body
when the animal is travelling on al
hard road. The conclusion upon the
frog keeps all the other machinery of
the foot in motion; otherwise hoof
material would not be secreted nor
lubricating material to oil the machin-
cry and keep it in smooth and effect
i've running order-the latter for the
same purpose that the engineer keeps
bp nprTinnc Of OF, o
oiled. If there were no frog there
would be no fabrication; all the ma
chinery would become dry, the hoof
brittle, shrink up and bind, and the
horse would become d cripple and per-
haps lose the hoof. By pairing away
the frog, as some smiths do when
shCeing the horse, they do about the
and the animal for they destroy the
main piece of the machinery, with
out which all the rest must fail. With
no spring to receive and modify the
conclusion as the horse travels, it
pounds him and makes him feel sore
all over. AS a preventive of harmful
conclusion, the frog protects the horse
cars protect the coaches and pas
senger. Without springs here, the
passengers would have their lives half
pounded and jerked out of them in a
days travel Some inexperienced
smiths are so anxious to have the
frog look nice, and it pares SO easily,
that they are too free in using the
~, 1zy,if bn oIy L.
pairing of the frog is to trim off from
it the partially discovered shreds at
tached to it, if there are any.
The art of shoeing is very little
understood. The hoofs of no two
horses are exactly alike. Before
fashioning or applying a shoe, the skill
full operator will view the foot from
every point. The best smith l ever
knew, when a strange horse came to
his shop to be shod, would have the
attendant move the animal both on a
walk and on a trot before he would be-
gin operations. He could then see
where the horn of the hoofs needed
most pairing and where the least
When he had done with the horse his
feet would squarely strike on the
ground when he moved Very few
pay any attention to this desirable |
feature. When the shoe is fastened
on, it's lower or under surface should |
be about even with the surface of the
frog, in travelling on the earth the |
calks sink into it so that the frog
strikes the earth at every step as we'll |
as the shoe, and this conclusion OF
the frog upon the earth is what keeps |
the internal machinery of the foot |
in healthful action. The creator de-
signed the horse to walk on the face |
of the earth; but when he is kept |
upon the smooth, hard paved city |
streets, the shoe calks keep the frog
far above anything to press against |
and in consequence there is nothing !
to keep the internal machinery of the |
foot in motion, and hence the hoofs |
get dry and brittle and the animal is |
then called "hoof bound or footsore"
and becomes a confirmed cripple, and |
is usually sold for what he will fetch. |
and all this because of man putting
him in an unnatural condition-whereI
the frog cannot be acted upon by
conclusion with the ground or any
thing else.
Cobblestone pavement is better for
horse than a smooth, hard pave
ment, for the frog will sometimes
strike the former. 1t is unsafe to keep
work horses on a hard pavement
longer than year at a time; and let
the close of that year be in the spring,
for they would get some relief in win
ter when the snow is on the ground.
When horses are footsore and not too
old they will largely or entirely re-
cover from it if kept on farm year
or two. Many farmers near cities
understand this, and watch for young
horses with tender feet that are right
otherwise. They purchase them at
a small price, take them to the farm
and make sound horses of them, and
perhaps sell them at a largely ad-
vanced price to go back to the city.
where they are most likely to contract
the same trouble again. There is a
good deal in determining whether a
horse is shod right or not by looking
at his shoes when somewhat worn.
If one corner of a toe calk is worn off
more than the other corner, it is an {
that the side of the hoof ]
next to the most worn corner has been
pared down too much. To correct
this and cause the foot to strike the
ground squarely, the opposite side of
6a VI, I'll