254 THE HORSE 



development which soon takes place in this structure can 

 only be believed when seen. One example affords the 

 writer especial satisfaction to recall. In the summer of 

 1874 an especially handsome horse came up for sale at 

 Tattersalls, which a relative was anxious to purchase, but 

 the near fore-foot was so contracted it was almost a club 

 foot ; there was not so much space between the angles 

 of the bars as the first joint of a man's thumb, whilst the 

 frog was only conspicuous by its absence. Still, the horse 

 trotted quite sound on the stones, and was only five years 

 old, and therefore the opinion was vouchsafed that the foot 

 would improve if shod with Charlier shoes. Nearly all 

 would-be buyers w^ere chary of risking such an awkward- 

 looking foot, and the horse was purchased for 120 guineas. 

 He was at once shod with the proposed shoes, and when 

 the stud was removed to Melton in November the foot 

 had considerably improved, while he had not lost his 

 action in any way whatever. He turned out a brilliant 

 hunter, and when the stud was sent up for sale the following 

 June there was not much difference between the two feet 

 and he was bought in for 420 guineas. Three years 

 afterwards he once more accompanied some other hunters 

 to the sale-yard, and was again bought in for 350 

 guineas, there being then no difference in the width 

 of the two feet, while both frogs were about the same size. 

 Belmont was another notable instance of the Charlier 

 system of shoeing. At the time he was purchased by 

 the writer, one ankle was so weak from being constantly 

 struck by the opposite foot that he could scarcely stand long 

 enough on that leg to have the other foot shod. Charlier 

 shoes soon put an end to the brushing, and, after winning 

 several small races, he was only just beaten for the Grand 

 Military Gold Cup at Sandown, and the following year 

 won the Dunboyne Plate at Fairyhouse, and the Conyngham 

 Cup at Punchestown, and finished up by winning the 

 MetropoUtan Plate at Baldoyle, in which races he competed 

 against some of the best steeplechasers then in training. 

 He practically owed all these races to the benefit received 

 from wearing Charlier shoes, which enabled his weak leg 



