urned in' or 'turned out' toes, so shall we have feet with a wall
crooked inwards or crooked outwards; and it may be mentioned here that the
evil results inflicted on the foot by ill-shaped limbs above will make
themselves the more readily noticed when the animal comes to be shod for
any length of time. So long as a natural wear of the foot is allowed,
so long does it accommodate itself to the form of limb above. So soon,
however, as the shoe is applied, and a more or less equal (and in this case
harmful) wear by that means insisted on, so soon does this abnormal change
in the height and direction of the horn fibres begin to make itself seen.

While arising in the majority of instances from faulty conformation of the
limb, crooked feet may also be brought about by bad shoeing, or by unequal
paring of the foot, and, in a few cases, from unequal wear of the foot in a
state of nature.

_Treatment_.--Although it may be taken as a rule that lowering of the
higher wall, even if persisted in at every shoeing, will do nothing towards
remedying the primary cause (viz., the evil conformation of the limb), yet
it will serve to keep the condition within reasonable limits. In this case,
while removing so much of the wall as is deemed necessary, care must be
taken to leave uncut the sole and the bar. Leaving these intact gives us
two natural and very potent protections against the contraction already
mentioned as impending.

Where, by reason of the thinness of the horn or other causes, sufficient
paring to equalize the tread cannot be practised, then the same end may be
arrived at by the use of special shoes. That branch of the shoe applied to
the half of the foot with the lower wall should be thickened from above
downwards. Or, on the same branch, may be turned up a calkin of sufficient
height for the purpose. Of the two methods the first is preferable.

In any case, whether depending upon paring, or upon the use of a special
shoe, the animal should be sent to the forge quite often, for it is only by
a well-directed, and therefore constant, application of the principles here
laid down that improvement may be brought about.

When marked contraction of one-half of the foot is present, it will be
best treated with the expanding shoe of Hartmann, already described in the
section of this chapter dealing with contracted heels (see Fig. 76).

(_b_) THE CURVED HOOF.

_Definition_.--The hoof with the wall of one side convex, and that of