XENOPIION'S ADVICE. 189 



some months; and a fourth is the extremely judicious 

 character of the means which were employed. 



Let us take the very important subject of the 

 loss of services, so that the horse is ' eating his head 

 off' while his hoofs are hardening. Few owners of 

 horses can afford to keep the animal idle, arid there 

 is not the least necessity for it. 



The simplest plan is to wait until the time comes 

 for shoeing the horse, and to substitute a Charlier 

 half-shoe for that which was removed. Then, as has 

 already been mentioned, if the size of the Charlier be 

 reduced each time of shoeing, the horn will have 

 become so strong and hard, that the small tip to 

 which the shoe will be reduced about the third or 

 fourth time of shoeing may be removed altogether, 

 and nothing substituted for it. 



Next we come to the means which were employed 

 in this particular case. Nothing could have been 

 more judicious, and any one who follows the same 

 plan will produce the same result. 



The plan, however, is not a new one. It was 

 practised and recommended nearly 2,300 years ago 

 by Xenophon, who. as the reader will remember, 

 was not only a historian, but an acknowledged au- 

 thority on horses and dogs, and the general who con- 

 ducted the celebrated retreat of the Ten Thousand. 

 In so doing he was obliged to organise cavalry as 



