OSMER ON UNSHOD HORSES. 117 



their riders unshod; and in this kingdom I have 

 known several horses ridden for a considerable time 

 unshod on the turnpike roads about London without 

 any injury done to their feet. And I believe there 

 are many horses that might travel their whole life- 

 time unshod, on any road, if they were rasped 

 round and short at the toe ; because all feet exposed 

 to hard objects become thereby more obdurate if the 

 sole be never pared.' In shoeing a la Charlier the 

 sole never is pared, and it is always in direct contact 

 with the ground, without any shield whatever to 

 protect it from even sharp stones. 



The hackneyed objection to ' our moist, variable 

 climate, and hard roads,' so continually opposed to 

 the practice of leaving horses to go unshod (even 

 by some of the advocates for shoeing a la Charlier), 

 is a mere empirical assertion, not founded upon 

 experience, but an effect of imagination and pre- 

 judice which has become willingly accepted, without 

 a challenge, whilst it is really the reverse of fact. 



Mayhew says : * Truly the stable mind must quit 

 the scene of its present labours before it will submit 

 to be enlightened. It is now so protected by a wall 

 of selfishness, ignorance, and prejudice that it is 

 open to no assault ; ' and elsewhere : * Nature sends 

 the horse into the world with ready-made and stou1> 

 made shoes.' Mr. Douglas says of horse-shoers : 

 * They think they can stand, as it were, with their 

 backs against the door of the world, in order to 

 prevent novelties which might interfere with their 

 opinions from coming in. But the world's walls are 



