130 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



principle of treating them, working them with a belly- 

 ful of grass in the summer, and of hay, good or bad, 

 in the winter, with " abhorrence of physic " — every 

 other horse in it was broken-winded, yet (and I was 

 a close observer) I only remember one at all tender 

 in his feet, though they were shod by a blacksmith 

 who never heard of the principles of nature in his life 

 — who never knew there were such things as bars in 

 the foot of a horse, but who took his butteris and pared 

 hoof and frog till he was tired, and then made a red- 

 hot shoe ^ do the rest of the business ! Let not the 

 reader imagine that this was a system I approved, 

 for I think the good old gentleman had much luck on 

 his side, and only mention it to show that some horses 

 attain their twentieth year — which several of his did 

 — perfectly sound in their feet, though shod by a 

 smith who violated all the principles of nature, save 

 one — that is, he suffered the shoe to rest on the wall, 

 which is the chief natural bearing of the horse. 



However lightly I may have now spoken on this 

 subject, no man holds good shoeing to be more essential 

 than myself ; and, to prove what I assert, I some years 



1 When the late celebrated Colonel Thornton kept fox-hounds in 

 Yorkshire, he was extremely particular about the shoeing of his 

 horses. Taking up one of their feet one day, he observed that a 

 hot shoe had been applied to it. " Tell that rascal of a blacksmith," 

 said he to his groom, "if he ever dares to apply a hot shoe to a 



horse's foot of mine again, I will apply one to his ." (The 



reader must guess the rest. ) A short time afterwards, as the Colonel 

 was returning from hunting he caught poor Vulcan in the fatal act, 

 when, galloping up to him, with the assistance of two of his whip- 

 pers-in, he made good his promise, and stamped him a posteriori 

 with the insignia of his profession. It is unnecessary to add that the 

 actual cautery was in this case a sovereign remedy. 



