APPENDICES. 215 



to read all this discussion give the system advocated by 

 * Free Lance ' a fair trial ; don't be too hard at first, but 

 work on gradually, and don't be disheartened the first 

 two months or so, while the horse's feet are hardening. 



ABERLORNA. 



APPENDIX E. 



Horse-Shoeing. 



HAVING lived for a considerable portion of my life in the 

 Argentine Republic, allow me to say a few words about 

 the shoeing of horses. In the camp, as the country is 

 termed there, horses are never shod, but town horses 

 are. As you are aware, there are no stones on the plains 

 of the Argentine Republic. The soil is a rich black 

 mould of a considerable depth. Horses, if their hoofs 

 have not been accustomed by degrees to paved streets, 

 will naturally go tender at first ; therefore, the owners 

 immediately clap shoes on them. It would be as absurd 

 to expect a horse not reared in a stony country to go 

 sound when first brought on to pavement, as it would to 

 be surprised at a person who has never gone barefoot 

 feeling uncomfortable when walking over gravel without 

 shoes or stockings. Yet it only needs practice, and 

 Nature will soon put a hard covering on the sole of the 

 foot. 



We could tell in an instant if a horse had come from 

 the Sierras of Cordova or other stony mountain ranges. 

 The hoofs are smaller than those of a Pampas horse ; in 

 fact, more mule-shaped and worn down by the hard 

 ground, and not by artificial means ; the horn is, more- 

 over, very dense and free from cracks. Depend upon it 



