Horseshoeing for the Rank Beginner
(Page 3 of 6)
September/October 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
Another common error is to nip too deeply into the narrow portion of the quarter just ahead of the heels. This forces you to either leave a gap here, or lower the heels more than you had intended. I prefer to leave a gap, if this occurs. By the same token, if you are too conservative in cutting down the heels, especially if you keep the horse shod over a period of time, the heels will tend to pinch the life out of the frog, resulting in "contracted heels". So you want to keep the frog down between the heels, but don't overdo it.
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Once you have decided where you want to cut the heel, draw an imaginary line from the heel to the toe and nip the hoof along that line. Repeat on the other side, and the worst of the job is done. It should take but little rasping to finish leveling the foot. Remember to keep your rasp level at all times, or you can rapidly spoil your alignment. Try to start each stroke of the rasp on a wide portion of the wall (not the heel) in order to avoid cutting too deeply.
Next we get to a highly controversial subject. Many farriers will tell you never to rasp the wall. But if they fit the nail holes of the shoe to the white line, they almost invariably must dub the toe off with a set of nippers after the shoe is set. (Figure 4). This is one exception to the rule. "Fit the shoe to the foot, not the foot to the shoe."
In order to properly place the crease of the shoe on the white line, the distance from the white line to the toe of the hoof cannot exceed the distance from the crease to the toe of the shoe. Normally, horn growth on the wall in creases near the sole. So I rasp off the portion shaded in Figure 4. I try to straighten the line of the front of the foot without cutting the periople (waterproof outer layer of the wall) above the portion I have to remove. Usually this is the lower one-third to one-half at the toe, very little if any in the quarters. If this operation takes a considerable portion of the periople, I use a hoof dressing after I finish, and repeat the dressing every week or so where possible, especially with horses whose hooves tend to dry and crack excessively, or in areas where the feet are always dry,
Now we are ready to select the shoe. Don't try to predetermine the shoe size. We want the crease to fit the white line and the heels of the shoe to fully cover, but not extend too far behind the heels of the hoof. (Figures 1 and 5). Cold shoes have a tendency to stretch with hammering, so don't select a shoe with a considerably longer heel than necessary, if the foot you are fitting is quite wide. Chances are, your heel will be too long on the finished shoe,
Fitting the shoe can be tedious until you get the knack of it, but cold shoes will bend and bend and bend until they take the correct shape. Here we want to be sure to "fit the shoe to the foot". Any rasping or nipping on the hoof from this stage on is an effort to cover up errors made in fitting the shoe. You can warp a shoe around an old wagon axle or a piece of railroad iron, but to be able to consistently do a rapid and accurate job of fitting a shoe, you'll want a good farrier's anvil. It should weigh in excess of 100 pounds, have a long tapered horn, and a good underslope to the heel, so that it is shallow in the area of the hardy hole. (Figure 6). With such an anvil, you will do gradual spreading and gentle curves on the horn, leveling and abrupt spreading on the face, and sharp bends in the hardy hole.
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