474 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sort may give to the horse the freedom which is essential for the 

 health of the foot, although he insists that all the shoes thus far used 

 are lamentable failures, "There are," he says, "many more pieces of 

 iron curved, hollowed, raised, and indented than I have cared to enu- 

 merate. All, however, have failed to restore health to the hoof. Some 

 by enforcing a change of position may for a time appear to mitigate 

 the evil ; but none can in the long run cure the disorder under w^hich 

 the hoof evidently suffers." Such language, it might be thought, 

 could come only from one who had discarded the use of shoes alto- 

 gether. All, however, that Mr. Mayhew has done, is to point the way 

 to the road which he was not prepared to take. But the experience of 

 JMiles and Mayhew, La Fosse, Charlier, and Douglas, seems to lead by 

 necessary logical inference to one conclusion only. If the working of 

 the traditionary system leaves the horse a wreck almost before he has 

 reached his prime, if the lessening of the weight of iron and of the 

 number of nails used in fixing the iron has been followed by direct 

 and important benefits in every instance, if even those who hold that 

 a horse must be shod have discovered that that which they look on as 

 a protection to the fore-feet is merely harmful to the hind-feet, is it 

 possible to stifle the suspicion that this insignificant remnant of a sys- 

 tem so fruitful in mischief may have no magic power, and, in short, 

 that the horse may do just as well without them ? 



This conclusion has been courageously avowed and most ably en- 

 forced by a writer calling himself " Free Lance," in his recently pub- 

 lished work on " Horses and Roads " ; and, to say the least, it is time 

 that the whole question should be fully and impartially considered. 

 It affects the wealth of the nation, and on it depend both the useful- 

 ness and the comfort of a race of noble animals which are indispen- 

 sable to our prosperity. The force of prejudice may be great, and a 

 widespread traditional system may not be soon or easily overthrown ; 

 but it can not for a moment be supposed that Englishmen generally 

 will assume with reference to it an attitude of unreasoning and obsti- 

 nate antagonism. Fear probably will be found to supply a restraining 

 motive more powerful than open ill will. Many who think that the 

 new theory may look well enough on paper will doubt its value in 

 practice, and will regard their own horses as exceptions to which it 

 can not apply. With a strange ignorance of fact, they will insist that 

 unshod horses may move safely over smooth and soft ground, but 

 must fail when it is rugged, and hard, and stony, or will be oppressed 

 by a vague dread that a horse which has gone well enough without 

 shoes for six months may break down in the seventh. But even those 

 who refuse to give up the practice of shoeing will yet acknowledge its 

 faultiness, and wish that they could give it up without risk. To all 

 such we need only say that if they have any regard for impartiality 

 they are bound to consider the arguments and the facts on Avhich the 

 conclusions of "Free Lance " rest ; and most assuredly they will find in 



