CHAPTER X.

LEATHER AND RUBBER PADS.

In the days when farriers were driven by theoretical teachers to pare out the soles and otherwise rob the foot of its natural covering of horn, artificial protection had frequently to be given to the foot. A horse with a thin sole could not travel over rough roads, on which sharp loose stones were plentiful, without great risk of injury; consequently in those times plates of leather were often used to protect the foot. When a horse went "a little short" his owner not unnaturally concluded that he had bruised his foot and that the protection of a leather sole would be beneficial. In many cases the defective action was due to other cause than bruising, but still the leather was adopted, and it soon became an accepted theory that leather soles modified concussion and protected the foot from jar. This is more than doubtful, and I hold a very firm opinion that a plate of leather between the shoe and the foot has no such effect, whilst it interferes with the exactness of fit of the shoe. "Leathers" are useful on weak feet to protect a thin or defective sole from injury. When the under surface of a foot has been bruised, cut through, or when it is diseased, leather offers a useful protection, but when the sole is firm and sound it is quite unnecessary.

To apply leather properly, a square piece fully the size of the shoe is taken. A portion is then cut out where the clip has to fit and all protruding parts cut away level with the border of the shoe. If applied without more precautions, an open space would be left between leather and sole into which mud and grit would find their way and the leather would soon be cut through by resting on the irregular surface of the frog. To prevent this mischief the under surface of the foot is made level before the shoe is applied. The leveling is managed by spreading a paste of tar and oatmeal over the sole, and filling up the space at the sides of the frog with tow. Then the shoe with the leather is nailed on in the usual manner.

The belief in leather as an anti-concussive appliance has led to the use of what are called "ring-leathers." These are not plates covering the whole under surface of the foot but narrow bands fixed between shoe and hoof. They are absolutely useless, in fact their only possible effect is to spoil the fit of the shoe. Plates of india-rubber have been tried between the shoe and the foot as preventives of concussion. They invariably fail by reason of their effect upon the shoe. At each step when the weight of the horse comes on the foot the elastic rubber yields, the shoe is pressed closer to the foot, the nails are loosened, and when the foot is raised the rubber rebounds. The shoe soon becomes so loose that it is cast or torn off. Nothing elastic should be placed between shoe and foot. When an elastic or spring is applied it must be between the shoe and the ground.

Various arrangements have been adopted to supply the horse's foot with some provision against concussion. Injured and diseased feet may no doubt be benefitted by some elastic appliance which secures them from the jar of contact on a hard road. They may be protected against direct bruise. The healthy foot requires no such protection. Nature has covered it with a thick layer of horn and has provided against concussion by quite other means--by the co-ordinate action of muscles, by the oblique position of the pastern and by the construction of the back part of the foot.

Quite apart from any attempt to prevent concussion a valuable use has been found for india-rubber pads in connection with horse-shoeing. The improvement in modern road-surfaces has been accompanied by an increased facility for slipping, and it has been found that no material gives such security of foot-hold on smooth surfaces as india-rubber.

The earliest of these contrivances with which I am acquainted was formed so as to leave the frog uncovered whilst a bearing of rubber was given all round the inner circumference of the shoe. This pad had a wide flat border which fitted under the shoe, with which it was nailed on to the foot. Its great objection was that it could not be nicely fitted on many feet without first cutting away the bars.

Then we had rubber pads which were not nailed on with the shoe, but which fitted into the shoe and were removed at will. The objection to these was that they could only be used with a seated shoe and could not be applied with a narrow shoe or one possessing a flat foot-surface.

The next form to appear was a leather sole on which an artificial frog was fixed. Great difficulty was at first experienced in fixing this frog so that it remained firm. The difficulty has not yet been surmounted by all makers, but Mr. G. Urquhart, of London, makes a most reliable article. These "frog-pads" certainly give a very good foot-hold on all kinds of paved streets.

A pad of very elegant appearance is "Sheather's Pneumatic." It is not solid like the ordinary frog-pad but hollow and is compressed at each step but immediately resumes its prominent form on being relieved of pressure.

One of the simplest anti-slipping pads is "Balls & Keep's Wedge-pad." It possesses one advantage in not covering up the whole under-surface of the foot. When properly fitted it is firmly retained and does its work, but a careless farrier may so apply it that it shifts on the foot. To fit it exactly the wall of the back part of the foot must be lowered more than that in front, so that shoe, foot and pad may all be closely adjusted.

What is called the "Bar-pad" is a leather plate on which an india-rubber pad occupies the whole of the back portion and it is fixed to the foot with a short shoe. This pad is not only an anti-slipping agent, it is anti-concussive, and for some diseases and some injuries of the heels is a most valuable appliance. For long-standing "corns," for cases of chronic laminitis, and for horses that markedly "go on their heels" the bar-pad is without doubt the most efficient arrangement yet invented. The best are made by Mr. Urquhart.

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.