430 HOESE-SHOEING 



to be superintendent of the shoeing smiths; and his descendants the 

 Earls of Ferrers bore six horse - shoes on the quarterings of their arms. 

 At Oakham, in Eutlandshire, the seat of the family, a singular custom 

 long prevailed. If any baron of the realm passed through the jjlace, he 

 was to forfeit one of his horse's shoes unless he chose to redeem it by 

 a fine. The forfeited shoe, or one made in its place, was fixed upon the 

 castle gates, inscribed with his name. In consequence of this custom 

 the gates became in time covered with numerous shoes, some of them 

 of unusual size, and others gilt, &c." 



From its introduction by the Conqueror, to the time of Elizabeth, we 

 Irave little recorded account of the shoeing art, but that it was not 

 neglected we may be certain, as one of the old City of London Guilds 

 — the Worshipful Company of Farriers — was founded as early as 1360. 



The first work in the English language which contains any detailed 

 account of shoeing is that of Blundeville, published in 1609. In this 

 work, illustrations are given of shoes for general and special purposes, 

 and for sound and unsound feet. These shoes (fig. 623) are very similar in 

 outline to those now used, but are heavy and clumsy, and wanting in some 

 of the little details which are necessary to make them most useful and 

 comfortable. The horse-shoe of Queen Elizabeth's time was merely a bar 

 of iron about twice as wide as it was thick, turned to the outline of the 

 hoof, and supplied with nail -holes punched through its substance. In 

 1674 the AVorshipful Company of Farriers obtained from Charles II a 

 Charter of Incorporation which gave them controlling powers over all 

 farriers within the city of London and for seven miles around. One of 

 the reasons for granting the charter was that " horses were seriously 

 injured by the operations of persons unskilled in the art". In this 

 reign farriers not only shod but doctored the horse, and were the re- 

 cognized attendants on sick and injured animals. 



In the eighteenth century further progress had been made, and more 

 than one useful treatise was published. Two of the most practical writers 

 were Osmer and Clark, who had noticed the injury done to flat feet by 

 the uneven bearings of a flat shoe. They consequently bevelled off a 

 portion of the foot surface of the shoe, so that only its outer portion 

 came in contact with the hoof. Just before the close of the century a 

 French veterinarian arrived in England and founded the Eoyal Veterinary 

 College. Charles Vial de Sainbel only lived a short while after establish- 

 ing the college, but during that time he reintroduced a shoe flat on 

 the foot surface and concave towards the ground. The successor of 

 Sainbel at the Veterinary College was a surgeon named Coleman, who 

 took great interest in the horse's foot and shoeing. He published two 



