FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



the principle that no one need ever be ashamed 

 to put his hand to an honest job. So long as 

 societies can rely upon voluntary effort exercised 

 in such a spirit we can have little fear for their 

 vitality. 



The Bath and West Society was one of the 

 first agricultural associations which recognized 

 horse-shoeing, and found a place for it in its 

 show yard, and for many years past competitions 

 of smiths have been a prominent feature of the 

 annual show. Whilst they have fostered a spirit 

 of emulation in the smiths, they have helped to 

 spread a knowledge of the correct principles of 

 shoeing by affording practical illustrations of what 

 constitutes good workmanship. Of late years 

 they have been made still more educationally 

 useful by an exhibition of horses' hoofs, illustrating 

 various methods of shoeing, good, bad and in- 

 different, and of examples of abnormal feet, with 

 an expert at hand to explain matters. 



The appreciative interest shown in the com- 

 petitions by farriers and their apprentices induced 

 the Society to formulate a scheme for providing 

 systematic instruction in shoeing. It consisted 

 of a migratory school on conditions generally 

 analogous to those in force for the Society's 

 Butter School. A travelling van was provided, 

 in which the forges, anvils, etc., were housed, 

 and the teaching was conducted by a master- 

 smith, who had previously been awarded many 

 prizes in open competitions, whilst a qualified 

 veterinary surgeon lectured to the classes upon 

 the anatomy of the horse's foot and other farriery 

 subjects, and acted as general adviser upon the 



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