HOUSE SHOEING—THE EVIL PRACTICE OF PARING AND RASPING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20115, 1 July 1914, Page 3

HOUSE SHOEING—THE EVIL PRACTICE OF PARING AND RASPING.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Tho evil, of paring or r&spiny horses' feet is undoubtedly the cause of lameness amongst a big percentage of '.be working horses of modem times, not only in the feet, but shoulder joint lameness, shouldei slip, rapid wasting of the muscles, etc., are in most cases caused by altered fcot action. Paring or rasping injudiciously must be looked upon as the gieatest evil and most destructive of all -Miat pertains to shoeing, or even to our management of the horse. Nine-tenths of tho shoeing smiths all over the w crld who resort to this practice cannot explain its object, and those who have written in defence of ir. say! it is to allow the descent of the sole : and facilitate the lateral'-expansion'of J the hoof. Fancy our gardeners cutting ' and rasping; the bark off our fruit trees i to assist them at their natural func-1 tion«. and improve their appearance. \ wid ye.t the bark is of no more vital iin-j portance to the tree than the horn of i the sole, wall *md frogiare to the horse's ' teefc. The sole, frog and bars must on ! no account, or under any conditions (unless for surgical reasons) be interfered with in any way by knife or rasp. As. certainly as they are interfered with and their substance reduced so surely will, the hoof be injured. .Nature has"inado ! every provision for the defence. They i will support the contact of hard, soft. rugged, or even sharp bodies if allowed' to escape ohe shoeing knife; while no*-, i cold wet or even dry weather has little f iiiflnence on the interior of the foot, or , on the tender horn, if man does not step in. "to beautify the feet" by robbing theiii of their protection, perhaps merely to please the fancy of an ignorant groom, coachman or trainer, or to conform to ?. senseless custom. Inde> t pendent of lameness, one fertile cause ' of sand-crack is the insane practice of paiing the sole and rasping the- outer wall (unless for surgical' reasons), by which the hoof is weakened in its iriteority and unfitted to bear j.ar or concussion, it becomes hard, brittle, and bracked : no longer the elastic, strong, weight-bearing and protecting substance originally designed by Nature for tht comfort of tho beast, and the pleasure of man. My object, in writing these linos is not only to attempt to minimise the suffering" of our dumb friends, but •also to,point out most emphatically that no veterinary surgeon can be held responsible for the breakdown of a horse under any circumstances when the horse is not shod under professional supervision. Yours faithfully. JOSEPH CARWARDTNE. Veterinary Surgeon.