Horseshoeinc/. 275 



is thirteen years old, and I have had him eight years. The horse 

 I purchased to replace the one that ^Yas shot in December is 

 seven years old, and was in hard work up to the time I bought 

 him, and although he has been only five months in my posses- 

 sion, his feet and legs have wonderfully improved, and begin to 

 resemble those of my other horses. 



If I were asked to account for my horses' legs and feet 

 l:)eing in better order than those of my neighbours, 1 should 

 attribute it to the four following circumstances : First, that they 

 are all shod with few nails, so placed in the shoe as to permit 

 the foot to expand every time they move ; secondly, that they all 

 live in boxes instead of stalls, and can move whenever they 

 please ; thirdly, that they have two hours daily walking exercise 

 when they are not at work ; and fourthly, that I have not a 

 head-stall or rack-chain in my stable : these four circumstances 

 comprehend the whole mystery of keeping horses' legs fine, and 

 their feet in sound working condition up to a good old age. 

 Another case occurs to me, Avhere the same result has followed 

 similar treatment in a mare I purchased for a friend twelve 

 years ago ; she was twelve years old when I bought her, and had 

 done a great deal of work ; she has ever since been shod by the 

 smiths who shoe my horses, has lived in a loose box, is never 

 tied up, and continues to do her work as pleasantly as ever she 

 did. I may mention, in confirmation of the fact, that my horses 

 are never tied up ; that a short time ago a veterinary surgeon, 

 who had occasion to apply a liniment to the throat of one ot 

 them, asked for a halter, and learnt to his astonishment that there 

 was not one in the stable ; we substituted a watering bridle, and 

 afterwards fastened the horse to the pillar reins, to prevent his 

 rubbing his neck, instead of adopting the usual plan of tying 

 him short by the head to the wall : a watering bridle is at all 

 times preferable to a halter either for commanding or leading a 

 horse. 



I am often assured, when talking of shoeing, that it is quite 

 impossible to persuade country smiths to listen for a moment to 

 any new suggestion, or to adopt any new plan, that they are an 

 obstinate prejudiced race, and nothing can induce them to relin- 

 quish any of their old notions. 1 can only say in reply, that this 

 does not at all accord with my experience of them as a class ; on 

 the contrary, I have found them, for the most part, to be hard- 

 working, painstaking men, evincing great interest in their work, 

 and anxious to do it as well as they could. I do not mean to 

 say that there are no exceptions, because 1 know there are ; but 

 the exceptions do not disprove the rule. 



Before we consent to condemn them in a body let us see how 



