US555041A - Interfering device for horses - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

M. HAUGHEY. INTERFBRING DEVICE FOR HORSES.

N0. 555,041. Patented Feb. 18, 1896.

U H ED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

MICHAEL HAUGHEY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

INTERFERING DEVICE FOR HORSES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 555,041, dated February 18, 1896.

Application filed August 12, 1895. Serial No. 558,997. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MIcHAEL HAUGHEY, a citizen of the United States,residing at the city of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful improvement in horse-boots for use in the prevention and cure of the habit or defect in horses commonly known as interfering, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in interfering horse-boots, in which a leg-strap is employed that has as an appendage a device adapted to impinge or play upon the leg of a horse to which it is attached and the opposite leg, and thereby cause the animal to travel Wider, or with his legs distended farther apart, than it would were it not equipped with sucha device; and the objects of my improvement are, first, to limit the forward and backward motion of the pendant, so that its action is practically restricted to a free upward and downward movement; second, to provide suspension and adj ustability of the pendant part separate from the annular leg-strap, retaining relation therewith; third, to provide a shield or fender for the swell of the ankle, or pastern joint, which acts as a combined protector and as a means of adjusting the pendant in the desired position on the horses leg and maintaining it there. I attain these objects by the device illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved interfering horse-boot; Fig. 2, a sectional detail view showing mode of buckling the leg-strap and the accompanying pendant and adjusting-strap in one buckle; Fig. 3, a similar view showing the fastening of the two straps and the buckle, and Fig. 4 a similar view showing the inside of locking and adjusting shield for the pendant and its strap.

Similar letters and figures refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.

In the drawings, A represents the leg-strap B, the adjustable pendant strap; 0, the buckle fastened to one end of the leg-strap A by the rivet a, which rivet is also used to attach the pendant-strap B to the leg-strap A and buckle at one end.

D is an adjustable pad that is provided with the loop 01 inclosing both strap ends and holding the pad D in place under the buckle.

d d are two adjustable loops, whereby the strap B is adjusted on the leg-strap A, thus raising or lowering the pendant as the loops are moved to or from the buckle.

F is a leather shield provided with four mortises or slits f f f f set diagonally of cross-lines drawn through its center, which receive and hold crosswise the strap B below the leg-strap A, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and slides up and down, thereby contributing to the adjustment of the pendant, while its office as a shield or fender on different horses is maintained.

E is a pendant or striker comprising one or more balls of rubber, wood, or other suitable material having an open center, whereby it is strung on the strap B and is held in place below the fender F by the strap B and the washers e 6, these latter being provided with a small round hole, through which the strap B is passed and closely held, so that the pendant-balls are limited in moving upon the strap which holds them.

In the construction and operation of this device an ordinary leg-strap is provided together with an auxiliary strap B, the latter being about twice the length of the leg-strap and somewhat narrower. The buckle is then inserted in one end of the leg-strap, and where the end turns the strap B is joined by the rivet a to the leg-strap and buckle. Then the pad D is put on, inclosing an end of both straps. Then one of the loops d is reeved on both straps and the shield F is put on the pendant-strap through the slots f f from top to bottom, and one of the washers e is then strung 011 the strap B, followed by the balls 6 e e and the other washer e. A loop of the strap 13 is then returned through the slots f f of the shield F and the other loop (1 added to join the straps A and B, and the device is ready to be used on the horses leg. This is done by passing the same around the leg just above the pastern-j oint and buckling the legstrap, having done which the shield and pendant are adjusted to the leg, the former coverin g the pastern-joint and the latter just below it, adjustment being made by the loops (1 d and the moving of the strap B in the shield F, as shown, until the proper placement is had. The pendant-strap B is then buckled in the buckle and the operation is complete. Thus arranged it is apparent that the crossing of the strap B in the shield 1 before it is reeved through the pendant E gives a resistance to any forward and backward motion of the pendant While it permits of an upward and downward motion thereof.

This construction, besides accomplishing the results sought in a much cheaper and more efficacious manner than any of the interfering-boots heretofore used, has the merit of dispensing entirely with the chafing that results from accumulation of dirt and sand in frictional bearing of the strap upon the foot of the horse.

Having thus described my invention, that which I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In an interfering-boot for horses, the combination of the leg-strap encircling the horses leg a pendant-strap of greater length than the leg-strap and attached thereto so that both straps at their free ends may be fastened by a buckle, and adjustably connected laterally, by one or more loops inclosing both straps; an intermediate shield to receive and hold the pendant-strap and adapted to perpendicularly locate and hold the pendant, together with the pendant, all substantially in the manner shown and described, and for the purposes set forth.

MICHAEL IIAUGlIEY.

\Vitnesses:

E. J. OBRIEN, II. C. SHORE,

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