72 



SHOEING. 



Fig. 579.— An Old Quarter-crack 

 Grown Down. 



Fig. 580. — Quarter-crack. 



through a 



delicate operation, and in the hands of common smiths liable to do mischief. But 

 any smith capable of paring a hoof cannot fail to be equal to removing part of the 

 sole with the drawing-knife. That the practice may be faithfully executed in the 

 army, a farrier from each regiment of cavalry has been permitted to attend the col- 

 lege to learn the practical part of shoeing.' 



" The foregoing passages, abounding as they do in errors, give evidence of the 

 manner in which some of the greatest changes in the prac- 

 tice of horse-shoeing have occurred since its history has 

 been written, and changes which have led to the worst pos- 

 sible results. Once, however, the notion got possession of 

 the minds of the men at the wheel, that the bottom of the 

 foot, its arched sole, 

 was not designed to 

 support the weight, 

 but to yield to pressure 

 downward ; every- 

 thing had to give way 

 to that idea. The sole 

 and frog were torn 

 away, and because, 

 during the barbarous 

 experiment, the con- 

 nection did not yield, and the bone 7orotrude like a finger 

 torn glove, negative evidence was taken in confirmation of the theory framed ; 

 the paring away of the horses' soles with the drawing-knife was thus estab- 

 lished, and the army, by sending farriers to learn the new system, became the 

 means of enforcing the absurd and cruel practice of thinning the sole throughout 

 this kingdom and the colonies. 



" It is interesting to see the differently constituted mind of Mr. Moorcroft on 

 the natural bearing of the question in 1800. He says : — 



" ' The sole ties the lower edge of the crust together, and by its upper part 

 forming a strong arch, it affords a firm basis to the 

 bone of the foot, and by its strength it defends 

 the sensitive parts within the hoof.' 



"This is true. We fail to discover a single 

 passage in any work or any 

 traditional account to show 

 that any objection was raised 

 to the continuance of the use 

 of the buttress in England, any 

 more than over the rest of the 

 world, where it had been 

 adopted from time immemo- 

 rial, until, along with his other 

 new theories about shoe- 

 ing, Mr. Coleman believed it to be the wrong thing to employ, and then a 

 crooked knife and a coarse rasp were adopted as weapons that might do more de- 

 structive execution than the one dismissed." 



George Fleming, in his work on " Shoes and Horse-shoeing," says : — 



" This evil of paring or rasping must be looked upon as the greatest and most 

 destructive of all that jjertains to shoeing, or even to our management of the horse. 

 ?5 a 



Fig. 581. — Toe-crack. 



Fig. 582. — Toe-crack. 



