Part 85
Next comes the important process of paring out, with regard to which it is almost impossible to lay down any specific rules. This, however, we can say with confidence, that more injury has been done by the neglect of paring, than by carrying it to too great an extent. The act of paring is a work of much more labour than the proprietor of the horse often imagines; the smith, except he be overlooked, will give himself as little trouble about it as he can; and that, which in the unshod foot would be worn away by contact with the ground, is suffered to accumulate month after month, until the elasticity of the sole is destroyed, and it can no longer descend, and the functions of the foot are impeded, and foundation is laid for corn, and contraction, and navicular disease, and inflammation. That portion of horn should be left on the sole, which will defend the internal parts from being bruised, and yet suffer the external sole to descend. How is this to be measured? The strong pressure of the thumb of the smith will be the best guide. The buttress, that most destructive of all instruments, being banished from the respectable forge, the smith sets to work with his drawing knife, and he removes the growth of horn until the sole will yield, although in the slightest possible degree, to the very strong pressure of his thumb. The proper thickness of horn will then remain.
If the foot has been previously neglected, and the horn is become very hard, the owner must not object if the smith resorts to some means to soften it a little; and if he takes one of his flat irons, and, having heated it, draws it over the sole, and keeps it a little while in contact with it. When the sole is thick, this rude and apparently barbarous method can do no harm, but it should never be permitted with the sole that is regularly pared out.
The quantity of horn to be removed in order to leave the proper degree of thickness will vary with different feet. From the strong foot a great deal must be taken. From the concave foot the horn may be removed until the sole will yield to a moderate pressure. From the flat foot little need be pared; while the pumiced foot will spare nothing but the ragged parts.
The paring being nearly completed, the knife and the rasp of the smith must be a little watched, or he will reduce the crust to a level with the sole, and thus endanger the bruising of the sole by its pressure on the edge of the seating. The crust should be reduced to a perfect level all round, but left a little higher than the sole.
The heels will require very considerable attention. From the stress which is thrown on the inner heel, and from the weakness of the quarter there, it usually wears considerably faster than the outer one; and if an equal portion of horn were pared from it, it would be left lower than the outer heel. The smith should, therefore, accommodate his paring to the comparative wear of the heels, and be very careful to leave them precisely level.
If the reader will recollect what we have said of the intention and action of the bars, he will readily perceive that the smith should be checked in his almost universal fondness for opening the heels, or, more truly, removing that which is the main impediment to contraction. That portion of the heels between the inflection of the bar and the frog should scarcely be touched, at least nothing but the ragged and detached parts should be cut away. The foot may not look so pretty, but it will last longer without contraction.
The bar likewise should be left fully prominent, not only at its first inflection, but as it runs down the side of the frog. The heel of our shoe is designed to rest partly on the heel of the foot, and partly on the bar, for reasons that have been already stated. If the bar is weak, the growth of it should be encouraged, and it should be scarcely touched at the shoeing until it has attained a level with the crust. We recal to the recollection of our readers the observation which we have before made, that the destruction of the bars not only leads to contraction by removing a powerful impediment to it, but by adding a still more powerful cause in the slanting direction which is given to the bearing at the heels, when the bar does not contribute to the support of the weight.
It will also be apparent that the horn between the crust and the bar should be carefully pared out. Every horseman has observed the relief which is given to the animal lame with corns when this angle is well thinned; a relief, however, which is but temporary, for when the horn grows again and the shoe presses upon it, the torture of the animal is renewed.
The degree of paring to which the frog must be subjected will depend on its prominence, and on the shape of the foot. The principle has already been stated, that it must be left so far projecting and prominent, that it shall be just within and above the lower surface of the shoe, it will then descend with the sole sufficiently to discharge the functions which we have attributed to it. If it be lower it will be bruised and injured; if it be higher it cannot come in contact with the ground, and thus be enabled to do its duty. The ragged parts must be removed, and especially those occasioned by thrush, but the degree of paring must depend entirely on this principle.
It appears, then, that the office of the smith requires some skill and judgment in order to be properly discharged; and the horse proprietor will find it his interest occasionally to visit the forge and complain of the careless, or idle, or obstinate, and reward, by some trifling gratuity, the expert and diligent. He should likewise remember that a great deal more depends on the paring out of the foot than on the construction of the shoe; that few shoes, except they press upon the sole, or are made outrageously bad, will lame the horse; but that he may be very easily lamed from ignorant and improper paring out of the foot.
_The putting on of the Shoe._—The foot being thus prepared, the smith looks about for a shoe. He should select one that as nearly as possible fits the foot, or may be altered to the foot. He will sometimes care little about this, for he can easily alter the foot to the shoe. The toe-knife is a very convenient instrument for him, and plenty of horn can be struck off with it, or removed by the rasp, to make the foot as small as the shoe; while he cares little, although by this destructive method the crust is materially thinned where it should receive the nail, and the danger of puncture is increased, and the danger of pressure upon the sole is increased, and a foot so artificially diminished in size will soon grow over the shoe, to the hazard of considerable or permanent lameness.
While choosing the shoe we must once more refer to the shape of our pattern shoe; the web is of equal thickness from toe to heel. A shoe, thinner at the heel than at the toe, by letting down the heel too low, is apt to produce sprain of the flexor tendon, and a shoe thicker at the heels than at the toe is fit only to elevate the frog, to the destruction of its function, and to its own certain disease, and also to press upon and to batter and to bruise that part of the foot which is soonest and most destructively injured.
_The Hinder Shoe._—In forming the hinder shoe it should be remembered that the hind limbs are the principal instruments in progression, that in every act of progression, except the walk, the toe is the point on which the whole frame of the animal turns, and from which it is propelled. This part, then, should be strengthened as much as possible; and, therefore, the hinder shoes are made broader at the toe than the fore ones, and the toe of the foot, which is naturally broader than that of the fore-foot, is still further widened by rasping. Another good effect is produced by this, that the hinder foot being shortened there is less danger of overreaching or forging, and especially if the shoe be wider on the foot surface than on the ground one; and thus the shoe is made to slope inward, and is a little within the toe of the crust.
The shape of the hinder foot is somewhat different from that of the fore foot; it is straighter in the quarters, and the shoe must have the same shape. For carriage and draught horses generally, calkins may be put on the heels, because the animal will be thus enabled to dig his toe more firmly into the ground, and urge himself forward, and throw his weight into the collar with greater advantage. But the calkins must not be too high, and they must be of an equal height on each heel; otherwise, as has been stated with regard to the fore feet, the weight will not be fairly distributed over the foot, and some part of the foot or of the leg will materially suffer. The nails in the hinder shoe may be placed nearer to the heel than in the fore shoe, because, from the comparative little weight and concussion thrown on the hinder feet, there is not so much danger of contraction.
_Different kinds of Shoes._—The shoe will vary in substance and weight with the kind of foot, and the nature of the work. A weak foot should never wear a heavy shoe, nor any foot a shoe that will last longer than a month. Here, perhaps, we may be permitted to caution the horse-proprietor against having his cattle shod too much by contract, unless he binds down his farrier or surgeon to remove the shoes once at least in every month; for if the contractor, by a heavy shoe and a little steel, can cause five or six weeks to intervene between the shoeings, he will do so, although the feet of the horse must necessarily suffer. The shoe should never be heavier than the work requires. An ounce or two in the weight of the shoe will sadly tell before the end of a hard day’s work. This is acknowledged in the hunter’s shoe, which is narrower and lighter than that of the hackney with even smaller feet than the hunter; and it is more decidedly acknowledged in the racer, who wears a shoe only sufficiently thick to prevent it from bending when used.
_The Hunting Shoe._—The hunter’s shoe is different from that of the hackney in shape as well as weight. It is not so much bevelled off as the common concave seated shoe. Sufficient space alone is left for the introduction of a picker between the shoe and the sole, otherwise, in going over heavy ground, the clay will get in, and by its tenacity loosen, and even tear off the shoe. The heels likewise are somewhat shorter, that they may not be torn off by the toe of the hind-feet when galloping fast, and the outer heel is frequently and injudiciously turned up to prevent slipping. The reader will remember what we have just said of this. If calkins are necessary, let, at least, both heels have an equal bearing.
_The Bar-Shoe._—A bar-shoe is a very useful contrivance. It is the continuation of the common shoe round the heels, and by means of it the pressure may be taken off some tender part of the foot and thrown on another which is better able to bear it, or more widely and equally diffused over the whole foot. It is principally resorted to in cases of corn, the seat of which it perfectly covers—in pumiced feet, the soles of which may be thus elevated above the ground and secured from pressure—in sand-crack, when the pressure may be removed from the fissure and thrown on either side of it—in thrushes, when the frog is tender, or is become cankered, and requires to be frequently dressed, and the dressing can by this means alone be retained. In these cases the bar-shoe is an excellent contrivance, if worn only for one or two shoeings, or as long as the disease requires it to be worn, but it must be left off as soon as it can be dispensed with. If it be used for the protection of a diseased foot, however it may be chambered and laid off the frog, it will soon be flattened down upon it; or if the pressure of it be thrown on the frog to relieve the sand-crack or the corn, that frog must be very strong and healthy which can long bear the great and continued pressure. More mischief is often produced in the frog than previously existed in the part which was relieved. It will be plain that in the use of the bar-shoe for corn or sand-crack, the crust and the frog should be precisely on a level, and the bar should be the widest part of the shoe, to afford as extended bearing as possible on the frog, and therefore less likely to be injurious. Bar-shoes are evidently not safe in frosty weather; they are never safe when much speed is required from the horse, and they are apt to be wrenched off in a heavy, clayey country.
_Tips_ are short shoes reaching only half round the foot, and worn while the horse is at grass to prevent the crust being torn by the occasional hardness of the ground, or by the pawing of the animal; and the quarters at the same time being free, the foot disposed to contract has a chance of expanding and regaining its natural shape.
_The Expanding Shoe._—Our subject would not be complete if we did not describe the supposed expanding shoe. It is either seated or concave like the common shoe, with a joint at the toe, by which the natural expansion of the foot is said to be permitted, and the injurious consequences of shoeing prevented. There is, however, this radical defect in the jointed shoe, that the nails occupy the same situation as in the common shoe, and prevent, as do the nails of the common shoe, the gradual expansion of the sides and quarters, and allow only of a hinge-like motion at the toe. This is a most imperfect accommodation of the expansion of the foot to the action of its internal parts, and even this accommodation is afforded in the slightest possible degree, or rather can scarcely be afforded at all. Either the nails fix the sides and quarters as in the common shoe, and then the joint at the toe is useless; or, if that joint merely opens like a hinge, the nail-holes in the shoe can no longer correspond with those in the quarters which are unequally expanding at every point; and, therefore, there will be more stress on the crust at these holes, which will not only enlarge them, and destroy the fixed attachment of the shoe to the hoof, but will often tear away portions of the crust. This has, in many cases, been found to be the effect of the jointed shoe: the sides and quarters of the foot have been broken until it has become difficult to find nail-hold. This shoe, to answer the intended purpose, should consist of many joints, running along the sides and quarters, which would make it too complicated and expensive, and frail for general use.
While the shoe is to be attached to the foot by nails, we must be content with the concave seated one, taking care to place the nail-holes as far from the heels, and particularly from the inner heel, as the state of the foot and the nature of the work will admit; and where the country is not too heavy nor the work too severe, even omitting the nails on the inner side of the foot. Shoes nailed on the outer side, and at the toe, are more secure than some would imagine, while the inner quarter will be left free, to prevent contraction, or to arrest its progress.
The attempt, however, to lessen the evils produced by shoeing is most praiseworthy; and men like Mr. Bracey Clark deserve the respect and thanks of the public, although their labours may not be crowned with success. Every contrivance permanently to fix the shoe on the foot without the use of nails, has failed; but a make-shift shoe has been contrived, and is to be procured at most saddlers, which is easily carried in the pocket, and put on in a minute or two if a shoe is lost in hunting or on the road; and which will remain securely attached to the foot, and prevent injury to it, during a journey of thirty or forty miles.
_Felt or Leather Soles._—When the foot is bruised or inflamed, the concussion or shock produced by the hard contact of the elastic iron on the ground gives the animal much pain, and causes a short and feeling step, or even lameness, and aggravates the injury or disease. A strip of felt or leather is sometimes placed between the seating of the shoe and the crust, which, from its want of elasticity, deadens, or materially lessens the vibration or shock, and the horse treads more freely, and is evidently relieved. This is a very good contrivance while the inflammation or tenderness of the foot continues, but a very bad practice if constantly adopted. The nails cannot be driven so surely or so securely when this substance is interposed between the shoe and the foot; the contraction and swelling of the felt or leather, from the effect of moisture or dryness, will soon render the attachment of the shoe less firm; there will be too much play upon the nails; the nail-holes will enlarge, and the crust will be broken away.
After wounds or extensive bruises of the sole, or where the sole is thin and flat and tender, it is sometimes covered with a piece of leather, fitted to the sole, and nailed on with the shoe. This may be allowed as a temporary defence of the foot; but there is the same objection to its permanent use from the insecurity of fastening, and the strain on the crust, and the frequent chipping of it: and there are these additional inconveniences, that if the hollow between the sole and the leather be filled with stopping and tow, it is exceedingly difficult to introduce them so evenly and accurately as not to produce some partial or injurious pressure—that a few days’ work will almost invariably so derange the padding as to produce partial pressure—that the long contact of the sole with stopping of almost every kind will produce, not a healthy, elastic horn, but horn of a scaly, spongy nature; and that if the hollow be not thus filled, gravel and dirt will insinuate themselves, and cause unequal pressure, and eat into and injure the foot.—_The Horse._
SHOOT, _v._ To discharge anything so as to make it fly with speed or violence; to discharge from a bow or gun; to let off; to perform the act of shooting; to germinate; to be emitted; to protuberate; to jut out; to pass as an arrow; to feel a quick pain.
_Instructions in Shooting_—But (to be brief, which is here my study) allow me to suggest an humble attempt for the instruction of the complete novice, first, let him take a gun that he can manage, and be shown how to put it to his shoulder, with the breach and sight on a level, and make himself master of bringing them up to a wafer.
Then, with a wooden or bone driver (instead of a flint) let him practise at this mark; and when he thinks he can draw his trigger without flinching, he may present the gun to your right eye, by which you will see, at once, if he is master of his first lesson. In doing this he must remember, that the moment the gun is brought up to the centre of the object, the trigger should be pulled, as the first sight is always unquestionably the best.
Then send him out to practise at a card with powder, till he has got steady, and afterwards load his gun, occasionally, with shot, but never let the time of your making this addition be known to him; and the idea of it being, perhaps, impossible to strike his object, will remove all anxiety, and he will soon become perfectly collected.
The intermediate lesson of a few shots at small birds may be given; but this plan throughout must be adopted at game, and continued, in the first instance, till the pupil has quite divested himself of all tremor at the springing of a covey, and observed in the last, till most of his charges of shot have proved fatal to the birds. If he begins with both eyes open, he will save himself the trouble of learning to shoot so afterwards. An aim thus, from the right shoulder, comes to the same point as one taken with the left eye shut, and it is the most ready method of shooting quick.
Be careful to remind him (as a beginner) to keep his gun moving, as follows: before an object, crossing; full high for a bird rising up, or flying away very low; and between the ears of hares and rabbits running straight away. All this, of course, in proportion to the distance; and if we consider the velocity with which a bird flies, we shall rarely err by firing, when at forty yards, at least five or six inches before it. Till the pupil is _au fait_ in all this, he will find great assistance from the sight, which he should have precisely on the intended point, when he fires. He will thus, by degrees, attain the art of killing his game in good style, which is to fix his eyes on the object, and fire the moment he has brought up the gun. He may then ultimately acquire the knack of killing snap shots, and bring down a November bird the moment it tops the stubble, or a rabbit popping into a furze-brake, with more certainty than he was once used to shoot a young grouse in August, or a partridge in September.
Many begin with very quick shooting, and kill admirably well, but are often apt not to let their birds fly before they put up their guns, and therefore dreadfully mangle them, and, I have already observed, are not such every-day shots as those who attain their rapid execution on a slow and good principle.
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As shots in the field, at game, Mr. Jenkins, near Petworth, Sussex, and Cottingham, who was formerly gamekeeper to Lord Roos, are perhaps the best. The former has killed twenty brace of partridges in a day, at forty shots, without selecting the shots, but took them fairly as they happened; and in four days’ shooting, has never missed. The latter I was out with when he killed, in two days, forty-three successive shots (many of them in covert) at partridge, pheasant, woodcock, and hare; and his style of shooting, when open, and he could give time, was most regularly deliberate.
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Should different guns be employed, the shooter should have all the locks made, if possible, to require exactly the same pull to bring them to action; there is nothing deceives or disconcerts him more than shooting one day with a stiff, and the next with an easy going lock; the transition from that which goes off with a slight, to that where a hard touch is necessary, will often cause the most expert to miss his bird.
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If a rival shooter (some stranger) races to get before you, push him hard for a long time, always letting him have rather the advantage, and then give him the double without his seeing you. Having done this, go quietly round (supposing you have been beating up wind); and, on reaching the place where you began, work closely and steadily the whole of the ground or covert that you have both been racing over, and you will be sure to kill more game than him, who is beating and shooting in haste, through fear of your getting up to him; and (if the wind should rise) driving the dispersed, and consequently closest lying birds to your beat, as fast as he finds them.
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Beware of the muzzle of the gun being kept hanging downwards; when so carried, the shot is apt to force its way from the powder, especially in clean barrels; if it happens that a space of sixteen or eighteen inches is thus obtained, and the gun fired with its point below the horizon, it is ten to one but the barrel bursts. There are other perilous consequences besides those that generally accompany the disruption of a barrel, for the men, horses, and dogs, are in perpetual danger of being shot when a gun is carried in the before-mentioned pendent manner.
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When a gun begins to exhibit symptoms of having done its work, the sooner a man discards it the better. An injured barrel or enfeebled lock may prove fatal to the owner or his associates. Accidents every day occur, and very lamentable consequences proceed, from a culpable neglect in retaining arms which should be declared unserviceable and disused.