"HORSE AND MAN." 107 



much better than Nature, considers that a macadamised 

 road will wear the hoofs away, and so first cuts and 

 mutilates them, and then " protects " them with a more 

 or less heavy plate of iron. All the elaborately arranged 

 system of " springs " in the hoof is utterly destroyed by 

 our system of shoeing. The foot is rendered liable to 

 numberless injuries and diseases, and both the strength 

 and the endurance of the horse are greatly diminished, 

 while experience shows that, even upon the roughest 

 of roads, unshod horses will do more work, and do it 

 much better, than those which have been treated or 

 rather maltreated in the orthodox manner. 



That is one leading idea of the book. My father 

 collected information upon the subject from all sources. 

 He consulted comparative anatomists, professional 

 farriers, and veterinary surgeons almost without 

 number. He read every book bearing upon the 

 subject which he could find. He procured hoofs 

 and shoes of all sorts and sizes. He induced several 

 of his friends to take the shoes from off their horses, 

 and, after a space of three months or so, to allow of 

 the recovery of the hoofs from the bad treatment 

 which they had received, to work them as usual, but 

 without shoes, and to acquaint him with the results. 

 And when this was done, he made a point, whenever 

 possible, of seeing the horse for himself, and inspecting 

 its feet, in order that he might be able to speak and 

 write about it from personal knowledge. The con- 

 sequence was that he acquired a vast amount of informa- 

 tion upon the subject, and was able to give his judgment 



