SHOEING. 149 



fair sex of many neighbouring kingdoms 

 convince us they can walk equally tcpright 

 without. 



In further confirmation of the behef he 

 wishes to establish, he says, '^ we may every 

 day see horses, mares, and colts running 

 about on all sorts of ground unshod, and 

 uninjured in their feet," This is certainly 

 a truth too universally known even to be 

 questioned ; but by no means to be so far 

 strained in its construction as to be rendered 

 applicable, in a comparative view, to the 

 state of working horses upon hard or stpny 

 roads, where the constant friction in riding, 

 or the fulcrum in drawing, must inevitably 

 prove injurious, if ngt totally destructive, to 

 the foot in general ; producing sand-cracks, 

 thrush, bruises of the frog, formations of mat^ 

 ier, and other infirmities, as is very fre- 

 quently the case, (when a shoe has been for 

 some time cast unobserved by the rider;) 

 constituting a blemish or defect in the sub- 

 ject never to be retrieved. Mares arid colts, 

 or horses turned out to grass without shoes, 

 are generally kept upon low, moist, or marshy 



