192 HORSE AND MAX. 



heavy carriage, and that they can work upon the 

 roughest, hardest, and most trying roads in England. 



It is said that because a horse goes lame if he 

 casts a shoe, the necessity for shoes is proved. 



Not at all. If the hoof were left uninjured by 

 the shoe and its adjuncts, such a theory might be 

 tenable. But if, in order to put on the shoe, the 

 farrier weakens the hoof with his knife, rasp, and 

 nails, the argument falls to the ground. 



It is said that some horses which were worked 

 unshod went lame. 



Very likely they did, but not if the hoof had been 

 allowed to harden to its natural consistency. Mr. 

 Astley, for example, failed at first with his horse- 

 6 Tommy,' and was on the point of giving up the 

 experiment in despair. But the fault lay not with 

 the horse or the hoof, but with the owner, who was 

 too impatient, and did not give the artificially 

 weakened hoofs sufficient time to harden. As the 

 reader may remember, the experiment did finally 

 succeed, although the hoofs were in a very enfeebled 

 state when the shoes were first removed. 



Do shod horses never go lame ? And when they 

 do, it can scarcely be accepted as a proof that every 

 horse must have its shoes pulled off. Neither, when 

 a barefooted horse goes lame, is it a proof that every 

 horse ought to be shod. Moreover, there are many 



