Shoeing Horses. 7 



officer, used to rattle * puss ' out of her form with a musical 

 pack of beagles, which he followed on foot. I often went 

 with my father, who was accustomed to drive every 

 week day to and from his office in Cork ; though my 

 proper work was going to school with my sister in an old 

 * inside outside ' car to Kinsale. The amusements of my 

 childhood were trout-fishing and riding every horse upon 

 which I could get a leg up. Being a good deal on the road, 

 I saw something of the evil effects of the old system of shoe- 

 ing. At that time, shoeing smiths liked to lower the heels 

 of the horses' feet as much as they could, in order to get 

 frog pressure ; but did not think it necessary, also, to lower 

 the toes, so as to equalise the work between the respective 

 muscles which bend and straighten the joints of the legs. 

 They thinned the sole until it would yield to the pressure 

 of the thumb, and to show their skill at carving, they pared 

 away the frog. To further aid in the softening of the sole 

 and frog, the grooms and ' strappers ' used to keep the feet 

 of the horses during the night stuffed with cow-dung, or 

 some other favourite filth. The result of such practice was, 

 I need hardly say, that the majority of the cart and harness 

 horses were more or less footsore ; that they were liable to 

 fall if they happened to tread on a stone ; that they frequently 

 ' picked up ' stones ; and that their feet were hardly ever free 

 from thrush. The evil effects of this bad method of shoeing 

 were not so apparent in hunters, whose work was on softer 

 ground than that over which animals in shafts had to travel. 

 This pernicious system was less the outcome of ignorance 

 than of an endeavour to shoe horses according to wrong 

 principles laid down by veterinary surgeons. The gross 

 faults in the construction of the shoes were slurred over, 

 as much as possible, by the free use of the rasp on the 

 outside of the hoof, and by making the heated iron burn 

 a bed for itself in the ' wall.' The real trouble and danger 

 began when the smith proceeded to ' drive ' the nails, which, 

 being hand-made, were of various patterns, sizes and textures. 



