130 The Management and Treatment of the Horse, 



skill is required to make this shoe, and properly fit and 

 put on, yet no skill is required to cut and pare the 

 horse's foot, that being a part of the smith's performance 

 which is best left undone. ..." Free Lance," in 

 his writing, strongly advocates horses going without 

 shoes of any kind, and tells us that the Arabs never 

 shoe their horses, yet they perform long journeys with- 

 out injury to the feet. He also tells us that he has seen 

 thousands of unshod horses bringing cotton some three 

 hundred miles up the country in South America over 

 bad roads, and not one per cent, ever went lame or 

 became foot-sore. '• Free Lance " evidently is labour- 

 ing under a mistake as regards the Arab and his horses, 

 unless, indeed, they have much altered since the author 

 was in their conntry ; they do not shoe their horse unless 

 they are going long journeys, then they are not shod 

 with iron, owing to the difficulty of obtaining that 

 metal ; but they make a shoe of raw-hide which they 

 nail to the feet ; this shoe will wear for a week or ten 

 days, quite long enough to enable them to perform a 

 long journey. The pack horses again in South America 

 are certainly driven in droves to the Coast, with about 

 one hundredweight of cotton on each horse, over roads 

 bad enough for anything ; yet they have never been shod, 

 and consequently they are as Nature lormed them, and 

 on the other hand they do not travel fast, and not 

 compelled to go as men may guide them, but arc 

 perfectly at liberty to pick their way, and, sensible 

 beasts that they are, will not put their feet upon 

 anything likely to hurt them. Although horses may 

 perform long journeys without shoes in America, South 



