Balancing and Shoeing Trotting and Pacing Horses

Chapter 14: XI. SHIN, KNEE AND ARM HITTING PACER.

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About This Book

A practical, experience-based manual for balancing and shoeing light-harness horses that emphasizes foot preparation, trimming and shoe selection to correct or prevent faulty gaits. It offers routine care for foals and young stock, step-by-step guidance for preparing the sole and frog, and diagnostic approaches to common problems such as winging, paddling, interfering, forging, scalping, contracted heels, corns and hoof cracks. The author explains adjustments in trimming, the use of various shoe types and weights, frog pressure and bar shoes, and methods to reduce concussion and uneven wear, aiming to provide clear, actionable remedies to maintain sound, efficient action.

XI. SHIN, KNEE AND ARM HITTING PACER.

H. J. Rockwell and Rustler a pacer and trotter respectively, would hit and cut their boots something terrible. I took H. J. Rockwell away from his knees by the mode of foot fixing and shoeing hereinbefore prescribed and that made a race horse of him, whereas he had been hitting his knees for several years. While he was hitting his knees he was rated as a quitter, but after he began to beat horses like “B. B.” over the half-mile tracks, the race followers wanted to know from his trainer, the late F. M. Dodge, what he had done to him. I mention this particular case because the public or horsemen that knew this horse knew he was a tough proposition to balance.