138 ESSAY ON SHOEING HOKSES. 



Viscount Hardinge is aware that peculiarities in the form and na- 

 ture of particular horses' feet will cause considerable deviations from 

 these instructions in isolated cases ; but, in making this communica- 

 tion, I am directed to express his Lordship's expectation, that in 

 general, the shoeing of the horses of the regiment under your com- 

 mand may be executed in accordance with the principles herein 

 recommended, without reference to previous regimental practice, or 

 to the preconceived opinions of individuals on the subject. I am 

 only further to desire that, at the end of three months, you will have 

 the goodness to transmit to this department, for the General Com- 

 manding in Chief's consideration, a report of your opinion as to the 

 advantages or inconveniences which may be found to attend the in- 

 troduction of the system now recommended. 



To the officer commanding. 



In view of giving the reader some idea of the theory and art of 

 shoeing horses in Scotland, I here introduce a selection from the 

 "Scottish Farmer:" 



" In preparing the horse's foot to be shod, the requirement in the 

 skill of the operator above all is, that he shall know the right form 

 and required bearing surface of that particular foot ; he has, in fact, 

 as much to give the bearing surface to the foot, as he will afterwards 

 have to adapt the shoe to it ; the foot-surface and that of the iron 

 shoe to be applied are entirely dependent on the skill and under- 

 standing of the shoer, and on these mainly depends the success 

 of the whole process. We will go a little further in explanation : 

 when we have adjusted the foot, whether it be a sound or an 

 unsound one, we proceed to adapt our shoe accordingly, and if the 

 understanding and manual skill are efficient, the shoe will be brought 

 to the foot in every way moulded to its requirements. In approx- 

 imating the two surfaces, which is always done once or twice, and, 

 if necessary, more frequently, till the adaptation is complete, we 

 just as much review the foot as we do the shoe, and may in the crit- 

 ical process with as much propriety file away a little hoof as we may 

 in another case bend the iron under the hammer. In either case, it 

 is necessarily an adaptation of surfxces ; the foot in the first part of 

 the preparation being approj^iraately finished, as the shoe when first 

 tried is the same. In answer to the question, what parts of the hoof 

 are to be removed ? we should say none^ only so far as is necessary to 

 give the circumference and due proportion to the whole hoof This 

 we may say cannot always be effected ; unfortunately, as horses' 

 feet come to our hands, we find such deficiency, through destruction 

 of parts, and not unfrequently a general debility throughout the 

 whole hoof, that we can only make the best use of what remains. 



"Among the most common deteriorations in form, under the pres- 

 ent custom of shoeing, is a low, weak state of the hoof across the 

 quarters — that is, taking a transverse line across the centre of the 

 foot, immediately under the line of bearing. This low and weak 

 state proceeds from two causes — first, from the method of ])reparing 

 the feet; secondly, from the way they arc shod, so that the iron 

 gravitates, nay, is often converted into a lever, the fulcrum of which 

 is in that centre, alike in both branches of the shoe, and the hoof is 

 worn, or, as is said, ridden down by the pressure. Another com- 



