264 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



There are few branches of stable management 

 which have improved more of late years than farriery, 

 though such a diversity of opinions are held on this 

 subject by different persons qualified to speak upon 

 the matter that it is impossible to make definite 

 suggestions. It may be said to have become a study 

 of itself, apart from the rest of veterinary science. 

 It seems to me that the reason why there are so 

 many discrepancies in the numerous treatises which 

 have been written about farriery is that the authors 

 have based their deductions entirely upon their own 

 experience, though it must be apparent that a horse 

 ridden over a rough, stony, or flinty country requires 

 a wider shoe than a horse ridden over a grass country. 

 In other words, we must take into consideration local 

 influences when shoeing a horse. I have heard 

 people say that the structure of the foot is completely 

 altered by a repetition of shoeing ; but when such an 

 event takes place it merely proves that the horse 

 has been badly shod. Now when even veterinary 

 surgeons of acknowledged ability are disagreed over 

 the details of farriery, and when every month 

 inventors are patenting new shoes, it is evident that 

 it would be folly to trust a valuable hunter to the 

 tender mercies of the village blacksmith. The 

 village blacksmith at his forge makes a very poetical 

 picture, but as an operator on horses' feet he has had 

 his day. I purposely use the phrase " operator on 

 horses' feet," for instead of making the shoe to fit the 

 foot, he generally used to cut the foot to fit the shoe. 



