SECRETARY'S REPORT. I45 



Fi^. 5. 



-t3 



Figures 4 and 5 — Are perspective views, the one of a for@, the 

 other of a hind foot shoe, showing in slightly different aspects the 

 objectionable forms of the toe caulks to which I have above alluded ; 

 and representing a system that was, at the time I speak of, all but 

 invariable here in the formation of this part of the" shoe. Both 

 shoes were taken off feet in which severe lameness had been suddenly 

 caused by a false step, jerk or twist, the fault being, (as in hundreds 

 of other cases where it is never suspected,) from the animal's tread- 

 ing on something hard or impenetrable, with the narrow point on 

 which he is propped up. I have often admired the almost artistic 

 care bestowed by some of our smiths, in bringing to the nicest point 

 this part of the shoe, which, after all, has nothing but the dirt among 

 the horse's feet to come in contact with, while leaving the other 

 side, to which the elastic and often tender foot has to be nailed, 

 twisted, uneven and unworkmanlike. From the degrees of care 

 they bestow on the different sides of the shoe, one would almost 

 think the foot was the insensible body and the road the animated and 

 sensitive being ; but the reason probably lies in the fact of the side 

 of the shoe next the foot being hidden when it is nailed on. Both 

 the shoes from which the sketches represented were taken, were 

 made in St. John. 



Another of the errors in shoeing which I found current when I 

 came here, was the want of a tip or projection, turned up on the 

 point of the shoe for an abutment against the toe of the hoof. It 

 seemed to me that in respect of this, the smiths had turned the shoe 

 wrong side up, giving a tip downwards where nature never designed 

 it to be, and denying one upwards where it was essentially wanted. 

 As from the long toes, so from this also the fore feet are the greatest 

 10 



