Part 5

I will cite one case of this kind, the very worst in my experience. A horse that weighed over 1400 pounds that could scarcely stand on his feet, had been treated by different veterinary surgeons and shod several times and could not keep the shoes on his feet and he was so sore that I got wet with perspiration getting two nails in one shoe and I had to stand him in a very soft place to do that. This horse would lay down in the lot most all the time and eat the grass from where he could reach it and then move to where he could reach more, he was the most hopeless subject I ever came across. I shod him according to the instruction herein prescribed, and he trotted off with his tail curled over his back like a colt. He was put to work the next morning and continued at work until sold for two hundred dollars. Elevating the heels with calks creates pain and misery to the animal.

XL. CROSS-FIRING PACERS.

When a pacer begins to cross-fire every one knows he is not balanced. There are different causes for cross-firing: front feet not properly fixed and at the proper angle, not carrying the proper amount of weight in front will help to cause it, and on hind feet the same. Too much slipping will help to create it. But the most important thing that causes cross-firing, nine times out of ten, is because the hind feet are a lot higher on the inside than they are on the outside, which creates a leverage to leave the ground from when at speed, which extra height or length of foot acts as a leverage to control the line of action of the leg after the foot leaves the ground. In all my experience with cross-firers I have found this the most important factor, namely, the inside of the offending feet to be the highest. So the fixing of the feet is the most important part of the contract. If you can get the feet properly fixed to change the leverage, to control the line of action, there will be no more cross-firing. (This same rule applies to a trotter that is unbalanced if the insides of his hind feet are the highest and when he strikes a singlefoot or pace he is very likely to cross-fire). The pacer that begins to cross-fire needs the insides of the hind feet lowered, a little longer angle to leave the ground from, with the height or extra length of foot to create a leverage on leaving the ground to be at the outside toe. A foot properly fixed as herein prescribed and a properly made and fitted shoe will stop cross-firing. I would recommend a sideweight shoe, the weight to be applied to the outside of feet, the inside to be beveled or rounded from center of toe back to the inside quarter of each hind shoe. The shoes could be a few ounces heavier than previous shoes for best results. As a rule pacers go best and fastest in shorter feet than the trotters. The easier a pacer can leave the ground the more rapid gaited he will be, and the more he will be inclined to stick to the pace. By all means shoe to prevent slipping both in front and behind. A proper angle for the front feet has to be found, also for the hind feet, so that the speed at both ends will be in harmony, if one end is faster than the other there will be friction.

There will be found in this work directions as to how to lengthen or shorten the stride, to increase or decrease knee or hock action, to widen hind action, also the best way to prevent winging in and paddling out, at speed. Also how to quicken the action of dwelling gaited ones. As to the proper amount of weight that the horse goes the fastest with in his shoes, the trainer should know better than any one else, but all trainers are not the best judges of gait, an expert on the ground taking a view from in front, from behind, and a side view, has a big advantage over the driver. An expert trainer and race driver knows when his pupil can step a mile, half or three-quarters at a 2:10 or 2:05 or a 2:00 gait on a light line, that his horse is all right, if there is any friction he can see it or feel it on the lines.

XLI. NOTE OF IMPORTANCE.

Now right here is the most important part of a little transaction that should not be omitted from any trainer’s records. The condition your horse has worked up to and how he has been cared for, his weight, whether he wears calks or not, what is the angle of his feet and length of toes front and hind, what is the weight of his front shoes also his hind shoes, also about his harness, the exact length of back strap and check rein, and what hole the buckle belongs in the check rein should be carefully noted. If you keep a record of these things no one can tell you what your horse needs, for you will know it yourself far better. If a change takes place and it is not physical, it may have occurred in the shop if he has been shod recently, and as you have kept a record of his feet and shoes and harness you can find out by reference to it.

The last time I was in Lexington, Ky. I was working at my trade, shoeing horses, when I was approached by a gentleman by the name of Saunders, he said to me that he was told by some of his friends to see me about shoeing a cross-firing pacer that he had and he also said that I was recommended to him very highly. I told him I could tell him what I could do for the horse after seeing the condition of the feet, if I could help him or not, so he had the horse led around to my tent to be looked at. After looking at the feet and shoeing, I told him I could help that horse wonderfully, so the next day my subject was led around for me to operate on. I had learned that this horse cross-fired so bad they could hardly keep quarter-boots on him, and they were afraid to work him on account of cross-firing. He was entered to start at the meeting but was a little short of work. His feet were in bad shape according to the calipers and foot adjuster and to my eye. I fixed this horse’s feet to pace without cross-firing and truly, according to the prescription given in this book for cross-firing. That horse responded to the treatment instantly and the horse paced fine with no more cross-firing. He was worked a couple of times during the week and went all right, and during the meeting he was going so good they agreed to start him. He started in the race and if my memory serves me right he finished second the first heat, the second heat several horses finished ahead of him, I do not remember how many, but when they came out for the third heat the driver of this horse was called up in the stand to watch this horse while a driver by the name of Mike Bowerman piloted him to victory in three straight heats and he took a record close to 2:10. I believe the horse’s name was Sable Gift, or some other gift. The only gift the horse got was a record, something he did not want, neither did those that were buying first, second and third choices.

XLII. KEEP THE FEET LEVEL.

The front foot should never be the highest on the outside of a trotter or pacer, unless the horse paddles with one or both front legs. A foot that is left high on the outside and low on the inside will help to prevent paddling and will increase the winging in to the knees. A foot that is kept high on the inside and low on the outside will help to prevent winging in to the knees. There are lots of paddlers who do not begin to paddle until the foot has left the ground quite some distance, and to prove this I have seen the shoes worn by some paddlers and the most of the wear on the shoes of the paddling leg or legs was at the outside toe of shoe. A paddler that leaves the ground from the inside toe of shoe can be made to carry the leg straighter in a line at speed easier than one that leaves the ground from the outside toe.

The reason why a front foot should not be left highest on the outside, of a trotter or pacer, unless he is a paddler, is this; supposing the front legs at the chest or where the upper arm joint is connected with the chest is ten, twelve or fifteen inches apart, I mean the distance the two front legs are from one another where connected with the body. Now when this horse is at speed and can go fast at the trot or pace, like most all fast horses at speed, his foot prints will be straight in a line one after the other on the track. Now if their upper arms are ten or twelve inches apart, more or less, and at speed their feet land nearly on a line, the front legs are not working forward and backward in a straight up and down line from the body, so this being the case just try to imagine just how those two front feet land on the ground with the legs wide apart at the upper arms and the feet landing straight in a line or nearly so at speed. The question is, should the outside of front foot be lower than the inside, if so, how much, to distribute and equalize the concussion on both sides of a front foot at the heels _when at speed_. What I am trying to explain is, if you have a fast trotter or pacer and he does not paddle, and you are working to develop speed intending to race, and if the outside of the front feet are the highest and the inside of the hind feet are the highest, every time you work this horse with unbalanced feet you are guilty of one of the greatest crimes that are committed by trainers and horse-shoers.

In fixing the front feet on all fast horses, trotters or pacers, that do not paddle, first rasp the outside of a front foot down to where you want it, toe and heel, then you can rasp the inside of the foot down to where it will suit the action of the leg the best. The reason for this is you can always lower the inside of a front foot a lot lower than you can the outside of same foot and when you rasp the inside of a front foot down _first_, nine times out of ten you will not be able to rasp the outside of the same foot down to a level with the inside. Now the hind foot is just to the reverse. Always rasp to lower the inside of a hind foot down first to where you want it and then take the outside down to a level with it. If you do not fix feet by this rule, the sensitive portion of the foot will often prevent you from lowering it enough to level up matters with opposite side, and the sensitive parts of the foot that will prevent you from doing this will be the outside of a front foot and the inside of a hind foot. This is the main reason why so many floormen in shops all over the country cut the inside of front feet too low for the outside, and leave the inside of the hind feet too high for the outside of same. But if you will fix feet by this rule you will be right the most of the time.

XLIII. PULLING ON ONE LINE AT SPEED.

I was approached on this subject and had it explained to me that a certain horse going the right way of the track at speed would go on one line and keep going into the fence or hugging the pole, and would make two or three breaks going the length of the stretch on a half-mile track, and could not be kept away from the fence. After an examination of the teeth, cheeks, and tongue, and bit, and finding these to be all O. K., I concluded that it must be from uneven extension of the legs. The extension and propelling power of the off legs was greater than that of the nigh ones. A three-ounce toe weight on the feet of the nigh legs straightened or balanced up the lost action of the nigh side so that the horse would speed the length of the stretch in any position on the track without pulling on one line and so the necessity for pulling on one line to keep the horse straight was stopped.

The feet on this animal were well fixed hind and front, as to length of toes and angle of feet, the hind shoes weighed alike and the front ones also. The muscular development of the extension power of the off legs was stronger than that of the nigh legs, perhaps also the propelling power of the off hind leg. This is the reason the horse was pulling on one line. The off legs were reaching farther than the nigh ones, which kept forcing the horse to go towards the fence. Unbalanced feet will cause this as well as undeveloped muscles. I have no doubt but there are lots of horses going on one line and hugging the pole that need a change in the angle of the feet, or the proper weight at the proper place to balance up matters. If the strides of this horse had been measured there would have been found a big difference between the off and nigh strides, so you see it is not always the teeth, cheeks, or bit that cause this trouble. The horse in question later stepped miles in 2:09.

XLIV. A GOOD JUDGE OF GAIT.

In all my experience with horsemen and horses I believe William Russell Allen’s judgment about gait and prospective or ultimate speed is superior to that of any one I have ever come in contact with. He seems to have the faculty of knowing at a glance the frictionless gait from a fairly good gaited one. To prove this I will cite a few instances. On one occasion he was away on a visit and on his return he said to me that he saw Uhlan 1:58 as a two-year-old or a three-year-old, I do not remember exactly, but it was before he came into prominence, and Mr. Allen told me he was the best gaited colt he ever saw. This colt must have been just as he said, for it could not have been over a year, or two at the outside, when this same colt trotted to a world’s record, and it did not surprise me much after remembering what Mr. Allen told me about his gait. The same thing happened again when he saw Peter Volo 2:02, early in his two-year-old form. Also the full sister to Peter Volo, Volga, Mr. Allen told me she was gaited to win all her engagements.

Here at Allen Farm he picked a yearling out of about thirty early in the season, that was out of a non-producing dam, to beat all the yearlings an eighth of a mile at the trot that season at the farm on a small bet. It was big odds and was taken very quickly by one of the employees, who was wishing he could get more of that kind of bets. When the brush work of the season was over the field ticket was never presented to the pool seller to be cashed. Mr. Allen’s first choice out of a large field won by a quarter of a second and we had a lot of fast ones, but any how he had the laugh on me at the finish.

XLV. BAR SHOES.

If you have a horse with toe cracks, quarter cracks or one that is sore or lame from corns, a bar shoe is the best kind of a shoe. If you have a horse with a dropped sole, or founder footed horse the bar shoe is the best kind for such feet. It is also a good shoe to be used on feet where expanders are used as the bar in the shoe will protect the expander at times when an open shoe will not, and frog pressure on the bar will also help to get expansion. The most important thing to guard against is, do not drive any nails back of the quarters because that will prevent expansion. Draft horses with wide low heels or thin soles require bar shoes for the hard roads, as they stay sound longer wearing bar shoes than in open shoes. For racing purposes the bar shoe is very important for the front feet, and occasionally for the hind feet, for both trotter and pacer. Any horse racing or in training that carries a light, or very light front shoe should by all means wear a bar shoe, it is a great support to the foot when hitting the ground hard and fast, as the natural expansion and contraction is at its limit while going at a fast rate of speed.

For a heel weight shoe you can get more weight in the heels of a bar shoe than in an open shoe, which heel weight the action of some horses requires more so than they do toe weight. A trotter or pacer that spreads his hind shoes or front shoes, should by all means wear bar shoes. The last time I shod John R. Gentry for Mr. James Ramey, I shod him with bar shoes all around with heel and toe calks for that memorable race at Detroit in the 2:13 or 2:14 class, he won his race easily breaking the track record, under strong restraint. He could have paced a very fast mile or two that day if he had been asked to do it, he was sold after this performance.

I have never seen many yearlings or two-year-olds that needed a bar shoe while in training. It is a very bad shoe for either yearling or two-year-old unless a hoof expander is kept in the foot to prevent contraction and help expansion, for the feet will surely get contracted without something to prevent it, after the heels grow high enough to lose their frog pressure. I used a pair of heavy heel weight bar shoes, about ten or eleven ounce, on one yearling’s hind feet to stop forging and scalping while he was being jogged every day. The shoes he was brushed or speeded in for about ten days did not suit him for jogging. This yearling trotted eighths in 17¼ seconds, a 2:18 gait. I tried more weight in front but it did no good.

XLVI. SLIPPING OR SLIDING TOO MUCH.

Slipping will unbalance a horse when trying to get on his stride at speed; slipping too much on landing or on leaving the ground creates lost action that cannot be overcome by muscular development. I will cite a couple of cases here to prove this. A horse that trotted in his work miles in 2:27 over a half-mile track, when shipped to Rigley, Portland, Me., could not trot a mile there in 2:45 without being very unsteady, and this over a mile track. I examined his foot prints and saw he was slipping too much. I calked his shoes with toe and heel calks, never changed his feet, and this horse trotted miles in 2:25 without a break.

A mare that was trotting miles in her work over this same half-mile track in 2:25 easily, quarters in 33 or 33½ seconds, was shipped to Portland, Me., to a mile track and could not trot a mile there in 2:40 without mixing and acting very unsteady. On examining her foot prints I found she was slipping too much. I was sure her feet were fixed properly. As she became very unsteady and inclined to mix, I added two ounces more to her front shoes and gave her a heel and toe calk on hind and front shoes and she became very steady the next workout, and the driver told me she could trot a mile in 2:16 or better.

After the drivers of those two horses found they would get all unbalanced trying to get on their stride, they did not go to work with the lines and whip endeavoring to balance up matters, and cruelly abuse the dumb animals for what they were not responsible, but asked me to take a look at them. This thing of balancing faulty action with the lines and whip is a thing of the past, and he who thinks it can be done has stopped, he may be one of the know-alls and if so is past redemption and will have to be regenerated to be successful at the profession.

XLVII. SIDEWEIGHT SHOES.

Sideweight shoes are used with good results on horses that wing in to their knees or knee hitters. Apply the weighty side of shoe on the inside of foot, fix the outside of the foot from the center of toe to the outside heel the lowest, it will be good in some cases to have the outside web of shoe only one-half as thick as that of the inside, the thinner the outside the better for the winging in. For paddling out the sideweight shoe is used with the weight on the outside of the foot, be sure and fix the foot by lowering the inside of foot from center of toe back to the inside heel, have the inside of foot lower than the outside for a paddler, and have the outside of foot lower than the inside for a _front shin_, knee and arm hitter. A hind foot has to be fixed the lowest on the inside for speedy cutting, shin and hock hitting. A sideweight shoe is used a lot for speedy cutting, shin and hock hitting, but if the feet can be properly leveled low enough on the insides, many horses will go clean, or good gaited without the sideweight shoe, as it is the extra high inside of hind feet that causes the closing up of the hind action that makes all the trouble.

In many cases to help matters as to speedy cutting, shin and hock hitting the front action has to be examined. The horse may have too much or not enough front action to work in harmony with the hind action. If he is going too high or lofty I would reduce the lost lofty action and increase the extension. If he is going too low I would increase his front action by shortening his toes and adding several ounces more weight, sometimes it will require from four to six ounces more weight. To reduce the high or lofty front action and create more extension lower the quarters and heels of front feet, shoe with an extra light bar shoe and have the foot at an angle of from 48 to 50 degrees. In making this change you will get immediate results, and if necessary you can also experiment with a toe weight to balance up matters more satisfactorily.

XLVIII. TOE WEIGHT SHOES.

A toeweight shoe is used with good results on front feet to increase the fold of the knee, more height and reach. This shoe can be used with a square, round, beveled or sharp toe, or with a grab toe calk as the case calls for. If your horse is inclined to mix and needs weight to go good gaited, the sharp toe or one with a grab on it is best. To shorten the stride, shorten the toes of feet and square or bevel the toes of the shoe but do not lower the heel any. By increasing the weight of this shoe and raising the heels you can increase the height of the front action to your liking. To lengthen the stride in using this shoe, lower quarters and heels of the front feet to an angle of 48 to 50 degrees and use the plain toeweight shoe or one with a grab on it. This toeweight shoe is the best to use on a trotter that is hitching, hopping or running behind, and when carrying one hind leg between the front ones. Bevel this shoe from a little to the outside center of toe around the inside to the quarter or near the heel with a small heel calk. This shoe must be from one to two ounces more than twice the weight of the shoe carried on the perfect gaited leg. If the good gaited leg is carrying a six-ounce shoe this faulty gaited leg or foot will have to carry 13 ounces, not less, to change the line of action, 14 ounces will be better than 12 ounces, but the hind foot will have to be the lowest on the inside, if anything, as it was a high inside of foot that first started the trouble. A horse that is hitching should not be speeded until the action or gait of the faulty leg has been balanced, for it is so easily done. A driver who will try and drive the hitching out of a horse with the lines and whip is just as much unbalanced as is the dumb animal.

XLIX. POCKET WEIGHTS.

A pocket weight can be used jogging a knee knocker or paddler in the fall, winter and spring, to develop the muscle required and to prevent those faulty lines of action, and you can use from five to ten ounces, as the case may need to the foot of the faulty gaited leg. But be sure and shoe the foot or feet _very light_, and prepare the feet according to the chapter in this book on winging in or paddling out. If the feet are not properly prepared to help the pocket weight to control the faulty line of action, one will be working against the other, and the results will be unsatisfactory, but if properly performed as to foot fixing and weighting, and a little time to bring about the change results will be good. The hole in foot to receive the spur of the pocket weight should be about half way between toe and heel to get best results. The pocket weight should be used on inside of foot for winging in and on outside of foot for a paddler.

L. ANKLE HITTING OR INTERFERING.

There are so many different causes for this that there is no fixed rule in shoeing that will apply to all cases. I have seen horses cutting their hind ankles from the following causes: the foot or feet too high on the inside, the foot or feet too high on the outside, the foot or feet too long at the toe, and too low at the heels, all out of proportion as to the correct angle. Horses that are weak, low in flesh, and worked beyond their physical capacity, when not able to perform their daily task without getting leg weary, conformation of some horses makes them brush, box, or cut their hind ankles.