HORSES AND THEIR FEET. 477 



horses on the principle of the modified Charlier shoe, Messrs. Smither 

 & Son, of Upper East Smithfield, have found the result marvelously 

 to their advantage, in the measure of comfort and safety with which 

 their animals do their work, whether in the London streets, on pave- 

 ment, or on country roads. So far as their experience has gone, 

 there are no horses which it does not suit, and it is of special service 

 for young horses running on the London stones, and for horses with 

 tender feet, or corns, and to prevent slipping. In othpr words, the 

 absence of metal confers benefits which can not be bestowed by its 

 presence. Facts in America teach the same lesson. At a meeting of 

 the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture in 1878, Mr. Bowditch, a 

 practical farmer, declared that "nine hundred and ninety-nine thou- 

 sandths of all the trouble in horses' feet come from shoeing," that he 

 was in the habit of driving very hard down hill, that he had galloped 

 on ice on a horse whose feet had merely a small bit of iron four inches 

 long curled round the toe, and that this piece of iron is all that is 

 needed even in the case of an animal whose feet have been abused for 

 a series of years. When nothing is left but this fragment of the tra- 

 ditional shoe, and when even this fragment has, as in Massachusetts 

 and elsewhere, been retained for the fore-feet only, it is incredible 

 that men should fail to ask what the use of this relic of the old system 

 may be. Donkeys in L'cland are unshod, and they work on roads at 

 least as rough, hard, slimy, and slippery as those of England. " Can 

 one really believe," asks " Free Lance," " that the animal which is en- 

 dowed with the greater speed and power should have worse feet than 

 his inferior in both respects ? " To such a question one answer only 

 can be given ; and the lesson may be learned by any one who will take 

 the trouble to go to the wilds of Exmoor or Dartmoor. There, as in 

 the Orkneys and on the Welsh hills and in many parts of the Conti- 

 nent of Europe, horses run unshod over rocks, through ravines, and up 

 or down precipitous ridges. "Yet all this," Mr. Douglas remarks, 

 " is done without difficulty, and to the evident advantage of their 

 hoofs, for these animals never suffer from contracted feet, or from 

 coi-ns, sand-cracks, etc., until they become civilized and have been 

 shod." Mr. Douglas, it is true, holds that civilization involves the 

 need of a shoe of some sort for horses as for men; Mr. Mayhew advo- 

 cates the use of the tip, and, as we have said, it is not in human nature 

 to stop short at such a point as this. It is obvious that, if the complete 

 abandonment of iron is followed by increased efficiency and power of 

 endurance on the part of the horse, as well as by deliverance from a 

 number of painful and highly injurious diseases, the owner is directly 

 and largely benefited in more ways than one. His horses live in 

 greater comfort and for a longer time ; his veterinary surgeon's bill 

 and the outlay for medicine are greatly lessened, and the costs of far- 

 riery disappear altogether. 



Farriers Avill, of course, complain that their occupation is gone. 



