Rational Horse Shoeing and Wagon Making
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with rules, tables, recipes, etc., useful to
manufactures, blacksmiths, machinists,
well-drillers, engineers, liverymen,
horse-shoers, farmers, wagon-makers,
mechanics, amateurs and all others who have
occasion to perform the work for which this
book is primarily intended.
Many devices are now gotten up for shoeing kicking horses. It
is no use for a man to wrestle with a horse, and every horse
shoer should try to find out the best way to handle vicious
horses. One simple way, which will answer in most cases, is to
put a twist on one of the horse's lips or on one ear. To make a
twist, take a piece of broom handle two feet long, bore a
half-inch hole in one end and put a piece of a clothes line
through so as to make a loop six inches in diameter. Another
way: Make a leather strap with a ring in, put this strap around
the foot of the horse; in the ring of the strap tie a rope. Now
braid or tie a ring in the horse's tail and run the rope through
this ring and back through the ring in the strap, then pull the
foot up. See Figure 16. The front foot can be held up by this
device also, by simply buckling the strap to the foot and
throwing the strap up over the neck of the horse. Shoeing
stalls are also used, but they are yet too expensive for small
shops. No horse-shoer should lose his temper in handling a
nervous horse and abuse the animal; for, in nine cases out of
ten, will hard treatment make the horse worse, and many
horse owners would rather be hit themselves than to have
anybody hit their horse.
Don't curse. Be cool, use a little patience and you will, in most
cases, succeed. To a nervous horse you should talk gently, as
you would to a scared child. The horse is the noblest and most
useful animal to man, but is often maltreated and abused.
Amongst our dumb friends, the horse is the best, but few
recognize this fact.
HOW TO SHOE A TROTTER
In shoeing a trotter it is no use to follow a certain rule for the
angle, because the angle must vary a little in proportion to the
different shape of the horse's foot. Every owner of a trotter will
test the speed by having shoes in different shapes and sizes,
as well as having the feet trimmed at different angles, and
when the angle is found that will give the best results the
owner will keep a record of the same and give the horse-shoer
directions and points in each case.
Stifled, and Spring Halt