CHARLIER SHOES ON THE HIND FEET. 141 



a veterinary surgeon and a professor of high degree 

 and repute. 



But how is it that so many people recommend 

 the Charlier shoe for the fore feet only ? The fore 

 feet appear to have to carry more weight than the 

 hind ones, as part of the shoulders and the neck and 

 head are in front of them ; but certainly they were 

 so constructed by the Almighty as to admit of this. 

 In the case of a saddle horse or pack horse, the 

 hind feet are called upon to share the extra weight. 

 In the case of draught horses, the hind ones do 

 nearly all the propulsion at the same time that (in 

 shod horses) they take nearly all the weight, at the 

 time of starting, which is the heaviest pull. In 

 countries where shoeing is only partially practised 

 the horses are shod in front, and their hind feet left 

 bare. This is the case in Kome, as it is at the 

 Cape, and the American farmers before cited acted 

 thus, and so do many others ; but nowhere are 

 horses to be seen which are shod behind whilst 

 their fore feet go bare. There is a striking anomaly 

 of theory about this. Of course the theory of shoe- 

 ing is wrong ab initio, and perhaps this accounts 

 for the various views taken of it. ' Impecuniosus ' 

 was not the man to do things by halves. He began 

 by using the Charlier shoes only in front, and he 

 relates of a mare, which had twice fallen as a 

 hack, that she was benefited by them. He then 

 shod her behind also, a la Charlier, and he says, 

 6 after the first few days she never made a " peck " 

 on the road, and felt quite different under me so 



