Hot Fitting of Horseshoes

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 48, 20 October 1891, Page 3

Hot Fitting of Horseshoes

It is well known lo all liorscshoers Hint many horses' feet particularly (he front ones, and c«recinl]y in summer lime, are very liard and brittle, and about as diffi I cult to cut as a cow's horn. Now, if a red*bofc shoe, vntes "MD.D," in Michigan Farmer, "is held *(o a hor»e's hoof for a few seconds the hoof can im mediately be cut its easily as a piece of I mellow cheese Mind what I sny, t''C foot is always 'cut instantly after the burning, or there is nothing gained by the operation. alone is the reason why hot fitters follow that practice, and any» thing el be that is said'about it is merely a waste of words intended to mislead The' word cold fitting is, a misnomer, for "there is no such thing. All shoos are fitted to the horses' fcefr while they ale hot. As the shoe is worked on the anvil so it is fitted or formed to the foot. It is impossible to fit a shoe to a horses' foot without scorching it a little, or, if possible, no man would take the trouble nith a cold ihooforthe very good reason <c that the devil gels the smith that hammers cold iron." But to do as some smith^?)qijhold a red-hot shoe to a horses' foot until the smoke of the_burmng hoof actually hides the smith, is barbarous ~ra the extreme Doubtless theie .arc so'mc honest,"well--meanin?, but yery hardworked horse* shoers that quiet their consciences by the thought that burning tho hoofs does (lie horses little or no haim, and enables them lo do more and easier work. With all due deference to these men, I say most emphatically the practice is one of the most injurious to which a horse can be subjected. It is all nonsense to say that horseifcoes cannot be made to stay on and wear as well by cold fitting as by hot fitting. I have seen horses shod by cold fitting and the shoes have remained on over three months and done well all that time, and the hoises were worked eyery day, Surfdays excepted. I do not advocate any such thing, however, for in my opin ion six weeks is a long time for shoes to staj on any horse's feet. In conclusion I will say, if all horse owners insist that there must be no more burning of their horses* feet when shod (even if something more must be paid for the work) the practice would cease, but not till then. '