' IMPECUNIOSUS ' ON THE TIP. 61 



one ; but he says : ' My friend, who gave me the 

 pattern of this shoe, remarked that the opposition of 

 the smiths at Melton to it must be seen to be appre- 

 ciated, and that the same might be said of most of 

 the grooms.' This is the old, old tale. Later on he 

 found that the three-quarter shoe had been with 

 advantage reduced in length until it became simply 

 a tip. Following his usual course, he adopted this 

 improvement, and liked it better still. Nor is 

 this to be wondered at, for expansion and con- 

 traction had now got very nearly their own way, 

 frog pressure and sole pressure being similarly 

 favoured, and each horse was left to find and use 

 nearly his own individual natural ' tread,' with 

 which the four inches of iron at the toe did not 

 much interfere, and those that had before ' cut ' or 

 ' brushed ' gave over doing so. Corns disappeared, as 

 there was no pressure on them ; and many of his 

 horses, which had incipient side bones, were entirely 

 cured of them. Of course, when once the cartilage 

 is turned into bone, nothing can reconvert it into 

 cartilage. He says : ' Nothing makes the heels grow 

 so fast as the wearing of tips ; with them snow does 

 not ball in the foot ; with every other shoe it does 

 so, more or less.' This is very sensible and compre- 

 hensible ; it arises from nearly copying Nature. Still 

 the ' crowd ' refused to believe that the horse's sole 

 could be safely brought down to direct and immediate 

 contact with the ground, even when told by this 

 gentleman that ' one of the most eminent of our 

 veterinary surgeons (Mr. Stanley, of Leamington) 



