292 



Horseshoeivg. 



fact that the power to do so has nothing to recommend it but the 

 danger and risk attending the performance. Again, he imagines 

 that a hoof carefully rasped all over imparts an air of finish to his 

 work, of which he feels proud, forgetting altogether that he has 

 removed a most important covering from the hoof, for which no 

 amount of ornamental finish can compensate. 



I am anxious again to impress on smiths and their employers 

 tliat horse-shoeing is at best but a necessary evil, and that any 

 attempt to raise it to the rank of an ornamental art must be attended 

 Avith damage to the horse and inconvenience to its owner. My sole 

 object is to render it as safe, simple, and useful as possible; to 

 divest it of all difficult and dandy crotchets in its application, and 

 7educe it to one principle, to be carried out in the shoeing of all 

 sorts of horses, at all sorts of work. 



This principle, which admits of no 'variation, may be summed 

 up as follows : the shoe must fit the foot from heel to heel, 

 whatever the shape of the foot may be, and the crust must have 

 an equable bearing on the shoe all round ; the toe of the shoe 

 must have a clip in the centre, and, when the foot will bear 

 it, the toe must be elevated from the ground; the nail-holes must 

 be so placed as not to encroach on the inner quarter, but leave 

 the inner quarter and heel free to expand, and they must pass 

 straight through the shoe ; the frog must never be touched by 

 a knife, or the surface of the hoof by a rasp. The detail may 

 fairly be left to the judgment of the smith, who will be able to 

 determine the description of slioe best calculated to meet the 



requirements of the foot that 

 he has to deal with ; he will 

 have to consider whether it 

 is strong and upright, or 

 weak and flat, and be guided 

 by those circumstances as 

 to the substance, width of 

 web, and amount of sealing 

 the shoe must possess,. and 

 also the degree of elevation 

 of the toe the foot will bear. 

 These are matters of detail 

 infringing no part of the 

 principle, and may and ought 

 to be left to the experience 

 and judgment of the smith. 

 Fig. 8 represents the ground 

 surface of a near fore foot, 

 shod as it ought to be, and 

 fig. 9 represents the same foot, "with the shoe rendered trans- 



Fig. 8. 



