PEINCIPLES OF HORSE-SHOEING. 99 



universally. You can increase such qualities as beauty of 

 form, style, and gentleness of disposition, almost as you 

 please. But I believe there is a limit to the increase of 

 speed. I consider speed an accidental thing that may happen 

 in any family of horses. Nobody has any right to expect its 

 reproduction in the offspring. It is an accidental quality; 

 and, if a man gets it, he is mighty lucky. But it will not 

 do to rely upon it : give us, rather, a generous, noble, large, 

 elegant, good-dispositioned horse. 



Question. I should like to ask the last speaker a few 

 questions. I have been very much interested in the subject 

 of horse-shoeing for the last year or two. I have never been 

 able to find a blacksmith, who, if left alone, would keep a 

 horse going well. I have been in the habit of driving my 

 horses very much as the doctor does. I drive very fast at 

 times ; and they are standing about in the snow and slush a 

 great deal of the time. I would like to have him explain 

 how his blacksmith has been in the habit of shoeing so as to 

 keep his horses going well, and how he takes care of his 

 horses when they come iiT. 



Dr. Hunt. I have but very little to say on that, only that 

 I have never seen a horse's foot made hot by any shoe put 

 on it. I tell my blacksmiths, when they put a shoe on, to 

 heat it red-hot. I want the shoe perfectly fitted first, and 

 then they may heat it red-hot. I want it so hot, that it will 

 make a perfect mark around the foot. It will not scorch any 

 thing to do any harm : it only makes a slight burn on 

 the dead part of the hoof, which is no damage whatever : the 

 life is farther up. That does not do any harm ; and it is the 

 only way in which a blacksmith can set a shoe as it should 

 be set, so that there will be a perfectly even bearing. I have 

 never known a blacksmith to shoe a horse in that way with 

 any bad result. I never saw a horse's foot made iiot by 

 travelling any ordinary drive, as the result of such shoeing. 

 I do not know what harm could come from such shoeing 

 anyway ; so that I can simply answer the question by saying 

 that I have never known any harm to be produced. I can- 

 not prove a negative. If the gentleman wants to know how 

 it is that it has never happened, of course I cannot answer ; 

 but I do know what causes the trouble as I have explained. 

 Sometimes, if you drive one of these "pounding" horses a 



