PREFACE 



'T^HE present work, we trust, the reader zvill find simply what 



it professes to be, namely, a plain, practical treatise on the art 



of Horse Shoeing — an art which, long as it has been pursued in 



England, and much as it is talked of and discussed, the public are 



yet strangely in ignorance of the true principles respecting it. 



ht the present treatise we have all but entirely avoided entering 

 into any question relating to the Physiology of the Foot ; we have 

 avoided all inquiries as to whether the foot of the living horse 

 expands or contracts during locomotion — a question not yet settled 

 either amongst professionals or amateurs ; and, we may add, 7iot 

 likely to be for some time to come; and we may also further add, if 

 settled in favour either of the ''"expansionists" or ^^ contractionists," 

 would not in all probability be productive of any valuable result to 

 the animal in the practice of Horse Shoeing. 



