PART FIFTH. 



PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS ON SCIEN- 

 TIFIC HORSESHOEING. 



There is no subject before American horse owners 

 to-day that should interest them more than the sub- 

 ject of 



HORSESHOEING. 



The force of this statement will make itself felt when 

 we consider that there are in the United States at the 

 present time over thirteen million head of horses, 

 and that fully half of them are badly crippled, almost 

 spoiled by the sheer ignorance of the ordinary horse- 

 shoer. I even claim that more lame horses are made 

 so by this " botchery" than by any other cause. For 

 the simple reason that the majority of blacksmiths in 

 this country have not had the experience necessary to 

 do the work as it should be done; because they have not 

 thoroughly mastered their profession, in the first place. 

 The following is the way our blacksmiths generally 

 deem it proper to shoe a horse, and I will also give 

 you some of its consequences: Any shoe is selected, 

 and the bars, as well as a large part of the frog, are 

 removed by the knife. This removal they term 

 opening the heels. When the hoof is thus prepared, 

 the shoe is applied, generally thicker at the heel than 

 at the toe, and broad in the web, having its upper sur- 



