Real-Life Communication
You answer the phone and talk with a man about a horse he just bought.
He is very upset about the shoeing job that was last done on the horse and
tells you what he thinks is wrong. He wants you to come out and see if you
can fix the work that the last farrier did.
The owner says:
"I've
got a horse here that I think has been terribly shod. The wall has been rasped
away and the toes have been dumped. When the horse is walking, I don't
think the frog is even touching the ground like it should.
"Oh boy,
it looks like a terrible job! I don't think the right number of nails,
three on the inside and four on the outside, have been used. And the clenches
aren't in line and seem to be coarse nailed. The clip doesn't look
like it has been well drawn or fitted. When I lifted the foot I was worried
that the farrier cut too much away from the sole. Last but not least, I can
see daylight between the shoe and the foot!
"Could you come out and
fix some of these problems?"
In order to understand what
has gone wrong, you first need to understand what the owner is talking about.
"We have to study and know the anatomy of the hoof and the leg," says Lara
Doyle, a farrier. "There are a lot of technical terms in shoeing that you
have to know. Beyond those terms, you've also got to read up on and know
about all the diseases of the hoof."
Using the vocabulary below, decipher
what the owner was saying, and rewrite his phone call in a layperson's
terms:
Vocabulary:
Wall: The wall is visible
when the horse's hoof is on the ground. It looks like the horse's
fingernail, and encircles the foot.
Sole: When you pick up
the horse's hoof, you can see the sole. This bottom surface of the foot
protects the foot from injury from below. The sole is not very thick.
Frog:
A wedge-shaped growth on the bottom of the hoof that acts as an anti-slipping
and anti-concussion device. It absorbs shock when the horse puts down its
foot.
Dumped: The horse's toe, or front wall, has been
rasped away so that it curves to fit a shoe that is too small for the horse's
hoof.
Clench: When the nail passes through the wall of the
hoof, the small piece that is turned over and twisted off is called the clench.
Coarse
nailing: This is when the nails come out too high up the wall of the hoof.
Clip:
This is a lip on the front of the shoe that is used to keep the shoe in position
and on the hoof.
Rewrite the owner's phone conversation now.