Part 5

One thing that should not be overlooked in a horse hitting his elbows is his hind action, it should be examined closely. The hind action may be too dwelling gaited, the stride may be too short or too long. Now if the hind action is of a sluggish nature, it will be a benefit to increase his propelling power, it will drive his elbow an inch, more or less, away from the flexing of the foot against it. If he is long and dwelly gaited you can quicken or make him more rapid, if he is striding too short you can lengthen his stride by fixing his feet and applying weight. It is very important to increase his propelling power. A horse that hits his elbows needs to be balanced by foot fixing, and the applying of weight to go on as light a line as possible, because the harder he pulls on the bit when at speed the more he is inclined to hit his elbows.

If the hind stride is too long and dwelly, shorten the hind toes considerably and use a square toe shoe and raise the heels with a side calk. If the hind stride is too short lower the quarters and heels of the hind feet as much as they will stand and add two or three ounces more weight to the hind shoes. With toe and heel calks a horse with a long cannon bone, with lofty action that flexes his foot from the ground with a snap is more likely to hit his elbows than a horse with shorter cannon bones.

XIII. AN UNUSUAL CASE OF ELBOW HITTING.

A horse that hits the right elbow with the left foot and the left elbow with the right foot is seldom seen. The horse Hunter Hill would begin doing this when going at a 2:40 gait or better, and would act bad and unsteady. He was brought to me to shoe and I was told he could not carry any weight. As he had not enough foot to change, I told the trainer he would have to carry weight to counteract the faulty winging in to the elbows. I made a pair of eighteen ounce heavy side weight shoes with the weight on the inside of each front shoe, thin heel and toe calks, toe calks well set back on toe of front shoes. These shoes took him away from his elbows and he raced good over the half-mile tracks stepping miles around 2:12. After he got gaited these sideweight shoes were discarded for plain lighter shoes.

XIV. PADDLING.

Just the reverse to winging in, a tiresome lost motion, a source of worry to horse and driver, especially if the horse has speed and is driven on sharp turns on half-mile tracks, but it is not as dangerous as the winging in hard to knees. Paddling is more easily controlled than winging in. Now to straighten the paddler, fix the foot on the leg that paddles, by cutting or rasping the inside of the foot from the inside toe back to the inside heel as low as possible, leaving the outside toe the highest or longest to leave the ground from. Be sure and have the inside of foot the lowest, the outside toe the longest. To begin this an angle close to 50 degrees or less, say 49, will have wonderful effect. The long or high toe on the outside will have a tendency to make the leg wing towards his knees at speed which is the controlling influence against paddling. The long or high outside toe is the part that has to leave the ground the last, which creates winging, and helps to stop paddling. To shoe a paddler, shoe with a light shoe, with as little weight as possible to go balanced. The more weight the more he will paddle, the less weight the less paddle.

The best shoe for a bad paddler is a sideweight shoe extra heavy on the outside of foot, bevel the outside edges of front shoes good. If the change of action is not quick enough you can use a toe weight placed on the foot well to the outside toe of foot. When I could not get the inside of foot low enough compared with the outside of foot I have made the front shoes thicker on the outside than the inside. When you have fixed the feet and shod a paddler this way you will begin to think that paddling can be stopped when at speed. Most paddlers must go as light in front as possible. With the feet fixed and shod as herein stated you will be surprised at the change of action that will take place when at speed, after a week’s driving. The faster the paddler is driven the less paddling he will be doing. The outside of the foot on a paddler needs to be kept the highest, which is just to the reverse of a knee and arm hitter, this applies to the front feet and action of the front legs.

XV. HOW TO MAKE A SHOE TO PREVENT PADDLING.

Take a piece of iron or steel two or three ounces heavier than the shoe the horse has been carrying and draw one end of it very light having it quite thin. Make a heavy outside weight shoe of it, leaving all the thickness at the outside toe of shoe, thin the outside heel down to the same as the inside heel. The outside edge of this shoe will be thick, but tapering thin to the inside edge of the outside web of shoe. This shoe begins to get light, narrow and very thin at centre of toe around to inside heel. Look up article on foot fixing to prevent paddling at speed when using this shoe. The horse’s foot will have to leave the ground from the outside toe of this shoe when stepping fast and this will have a tendency to make him wing in, and the line of action will become straighter as the animal becomes accustomed to it. This change can be quite radical, on a horse that has been paddling a long time, and not so rank on young stock just beginning to get gaited. This shoe does not stop the paddling on all animals when jogging slow as the foot can leave the ground or break over from center or inside toe of shoe, which has no control to prevent a slight paddle.

XVI. HITCHING, HOPPING OR RUNNING BEHIND.

This way of going comes from different causes. An unbalanced foot from being improperly fixed, will cause it. The improper weight of shoes at one end or the other, or all around, will cause it; speeding a colt or horse that is pulling too much weight, especially up a grade, will cause it; forging, scalping, speedy cutting, shin and hock hitting will cause it; carrying the head to one side at times will cause it; soreness of the back, rump or muscles of whirlbone, stifle or thigh will cause it.

Examine the faulty leg for soreness, for if the horse is not lame from soreness somewhere, he can be balanced to go true. If a horse begins hitching, his fast work should be stopped until he is properly balanced, for no horse can improve his speed after he becomes rough gaited without danger to himself. The first thing to do is to get him balanced. First, see that his feet are level. Nine times out of ten you will find his feet are not mates or do not hang level, you will find the foot on the offending leg that is doing the damage different from its mate. In all my experience I have found the foot on the faulty gaited leg to be very high on the inside, if not at the toe, it would be at the heel, but the majority of times it would be high from toe to heel, which would be the main cause of the hitching. Fix the front feet to hang level, the angle and length of toes the same. The two hind feet should be at the same angle and have the same length of toe. The foot of the faulty going leg should be made the lowest on the inside and the shoe to be used on this foot must weigh double the weight or from one to three ounces more than double the weight of the one on the opposite hind foot. This shoe can be made with the weight in the outside, with the inside edge from the centre of toe back to the inside quarter rounded or beveled off considerably, fit the shoe full to the outside toe. If the hitching horse is shod according to these directions and does not begin to go better gaited, it is because he is lame. If he carries five-ounce shoes behind put twelve or thirteen ounce on the faulty gaited leg and the light shoe on perfect gaited leg.

XVII. FORGING.

This is a very annoying fault and the same rules to remedy it do not apply to all horses, for what will stop one may not stop another. Most all forging will be done jogging, or going an ordinary road gait. From forging comes the scalping which is very dangerous when the horse begins to brush along, as scalping creates rough and bad gaited horses. There are many horses that will forge or scalp going slow in the same shoes that suit them for speed. It is hard to shoe all horses with a set of shoes that will suit the horse, the driver and a faulty gait at varying rates of speed, all at the same time. Horses that are low gaited in front that forge jogging, need as a rule, a lot more weight in their front shoes. Horses that go high gaited with lots of knee action in front that forge require a light shoe. Forgers usually have excessive action either in front or behind. Locate the faulty end, see if the horse has too much action in front and not enough behind, or if he has too much behind and not enough in front. Get a line on his gait before you make any changes, perhaps you may not have to change but one end of him to either increase or decrease action. Weight in the shoe is the important factor applied to a perfectly balanced foot, whether it is a front foot or a hind foot. You can add weight to the front or hind feet, as may be desired, to increase action, or decrease the weight to decrease the action at either end. Now right here I will say, a horse jogging hardly feels a change of weight of one, two or three ounces, but will show the effect of five or six ounces from the start. Do not be afraid to apply a heavy shoe to hind feet for if his action requires it to prevent forging, the horse will like it better and so will you.

In adding weight to hind feet you will be increasing the hock action and in some horses it will take considerable weight to do it; horses going an ordinary road gait will not feel one, two or three ounces increase of weight in hind shoes. Horses stepping fast as a rule do not do any forging and, of course, the lighter they can go the better. There are many horses—fast trotters—that forge or scalp jogging, that would go cleaner or purer by applying a four-ounce toe weight, some may need a five-ounce weight, lots of them have to be jogged too fast in order to prevent forging or scalping, when perhaps a toe weight would be the remedy. A horse going a 2:10 gait will feel the effects of a one or two ounce weight as much as one going a slow gait would feel the effects of four or five ounces.

Take a side view of your horse as he is driven by and locate the faulty action, you will be able to tell if it is too short, too long, too high or too low, too rapid or too dwelly, front or hind action. If the lost action is in front as to height, extension or rapidity, fix the feet to help the shoes to perfect the action. If the front action is too low shorten the toes, leave the heels high or raise them with shoe or side calks and shoe with a shoe five or six ounces heavier, more or less, as the action requires, use a square or bevel toe shoe. A rolling toe shoe is good on slow-going horses, the horse should carry his head higher than usual. If the front action is too high, lower the quarters and heels as low as they will stand, and shoe with a light shoe, and if there is not extension enough use a toe weight to balance up action, the horse should carry his head lower, or natural. If the hind action is too low shorten toes as much as they will stand and add several ounces more weight and raise the heels a half inch or more. If hind action is too high lower quarters and heels as low as they will stand, keeping plenty of toe on hind feet and shoe with a very light shoe to prevent slipping. If he is handling his hind legs too rapid for the front ones, this last sentence will remedy that also. I have seen obstinate forgers at a slow gait stopped by carrying from two to three times more weight on the hind feet than in the front feet, and vice versa, according to their front or hind action.

XVIII. SCALPING.

This is a very dangerous fault. When a horse is making speed and begins scalping, he is unbalanced quite bad, he needs changing before being speeded again for if you don’t he or she will get rough gaited, or will begin carrying the hind leg between front ones, hopping, or trying to run with hind action. The first thing to do is to examine the hind feet, you are likely to find the hind feet a lot higher on the inside than on the outside nine times out of ten. Some horses will begin scalping after their feet get too long. In horses with excessive action, carrying too much weight in front will cause scalping at speed. Horses with very little action in front and not carrying weight enough will be liable to scalp at speed. When shoeing for scalping use a square toe shoe, light or heavy, as may be required by the front action.

Feet all out of proportion and at the wrong angle and not level will cause scalping. Now if the animal has very little hock action and mostly stifle action, I would lower and shorten the toes of the hind feet as much as possible, use a square toe shoe and raise the heels with a side calk, this will shorten the stride and by adding some weight to the hind shoe it will increase hock action. Most all scalping is done with front or outside toe of the front shoe coming in contact with the coronet of hind foot. It hurts the horse so much that he will try to find some way to avoid it; some trainers use a gaiting pole to prevent the horse from going crooked in the shafts because of this fault.

XIX. REMEDY FOR SCALPING.

If the front action is low, long and of a sluggish nature, shorten the toes of feet considerable and add about five ounces more weight to the shoes, or more, if required to create a more lofty knee fold. The action of some horses requires a lot more weight than others to make the change. The shoes to be used, if working to make speed should be a square toe shoe, or a beveled toe shoe, also a wedged shaped shoe thick at the heels and thin at the toe is good, squared at the toe. For ordinary road driving a rolling toe shoe is good, but not for extreme speed, as it has a tendency with most horses to slip back too much on leaving the ground; and the horse should be made to carry his head higher than usual. If the front action is high, short, or too rapid, not working in harmony with the hind, lower the quarters and heels of front feet as much as they will stand and keep a fair length toe on the front feet and shoe with a very light shoe and use a toe weight to balance for extension, place a spur for toe weight well up on toe of foot out of way of the scalping; and the horse should be made to go as low headed as is comfortable to him.

If the hind action is low, long or of a dwelling nature, shorten the toes as much as they will stand, and shoe, to elevate the heels, with a thick heel shoe, or raise the heels with side calks. A few ounces more weight than he has been carrying will be all the better to make him use his hocks more. If the hind action is high and choppy with not much extension, lower quarters and heels as much as they will stand and keep a fair length toe on him, it will keep him closer to the ground; and shoe light to prevent slipping.

A side view of the animal as he is driven by you will give you the correct view of his front and hind action. If the action is too short, too long, too high or too low, in front or behind, the chances are you may not have to change but one end of him if you have a good eye for locating faulty action. If your horse is good and can beat his record, or go the race of his life, and scalps jogging, try a toe weight on him in front, if it does not stop him wear scalpers on him jogging and let well enough alone.

I have had to take a three and one-half ounce shoe off a colt that trotted eighths of a mile in seventeen and a quarter seconds, that was scalping jogging, and shoe him with a ten and a half ounce heel weight shoe nailed back near quarters of hind feet to prevent him from scalping at the jog, after two changes in the front shoeing.

XX. SIDEWEIGHTS.

Sideweight shoes with the weight on the outside have a different effect or result on front and hind action. An outside weight shoe on a front foot has a tendency to make the leg wing in, and an outside weight shoe on a hind foot will widen and lengthen the stride, if feet are properly prepared, so you see it widens the hind action and closes the front action. To close the action of the front leg with this sideweight, lower the front foot on the inside. To widen the action of hind leg, lower the inside of hind feet. This sideweight shoe will help a paddler that has to carry a little weight, if you will lower the inside of the foot, but it is no good for a knee knocker. The outside weight shoe has a different effect on front and hind action, has a tendency to close one and widen the other.

Sideweight shoes are good to correct the following faulty lines of action if the feet are correctly prepared for them to help the shoe, for if the foot, or feet, are not properly fixed to help the line of action this faulty fixed foot will work against the effect of the sideweight, and the results will be very unsatisfactory. Sideweight shoes are best for winging in, or paddling out, with front legs, hitching or hopping or carrying a hind leg in, out of line, or carrying a hind leg between the front legs, also good for a wheel swinging hind leg.

XXI. WHEEL SWINGING.