PROFESSOR PERCIVAL ON TIPS. 49 



as on the front part of the hoof (or the toe) it has 

 been proved that what little there may be is in- 

 appreciable, tips will not much interfere with it ; 

 that is to say, tips that do not cover more than the 

 front half of the rim of the foot for many farriers 

 put on shoes that are only an inch short at the heels 

 and with six nails in them, for turning horses out to 

 grass, and call these tips, which they are not. A 

 half-bred horse of 15^ hands will generally be shod 

 with a piece of iron 14 inches in development when 

 measured round its edge. Six inches would be the 

 measure of a tip, and Mayhew gives an engraving 

 in which a real tip is shown, and it is secured by only 

 four nails. 



Mayhew also says: 'The late W. Percival, the 

 respected author of " Hippo-pathology," many years 

 ago informed the author that he had long ridden 

 a young horse about town with no greater protec- 

 tion to its fore feet than tips could afford. He 

 showed the hoofs of the animal to the writer, and 

 more open or better examples of the healthy horse's 

 feet need not be desired.' A gentleman who wrote 

 in the ' Field ' some ten years ago, under the nom 

 de plume of * Impecuniosus,' cites Mayhew to the 

 effect that ' some horses will go sound in tips that 

 cannot endure any further protection ; ' and he 

 remarks thereon : ' The moral, so to speak, of this 

 is, that it is the shoe, not the road, that hurts the 

 horse ; for if so weak and tender a foot as is de- 

 scribed can go sound when all but unshod, why 

 should not the strong sound one do the same ? The 



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