SHOEING SMITHS 



through the wall where the heels turn inwards and form the 

 bars of the foot, as this absolutely unjustifiable act produces 

 no effect but to weaken the whole structure of the foot. In 

 short, unless the shoeing smith is known to be a capable and 

 conscientious man, no horse's foot should be entrusted to his 

 tender mercy, unless some capable person supervises the 

 shoeing operations. {S&e Hoofs, Shoeing Smiths, Shoes, Tips.) 



Shoeing Smiths. — The power of the farrier or shoeing 

 smith is far greater than many people imagine, as upon his 

 efficiency and conscientiousness the whole future of a horse 

 may depend. Unfortunately, however, a very large number 

 of shoeing smiths either are incapable or else indifferent to 

 the responsibilities of the position they occupy, and hence 

 the undoing of many a good horse. Fortunately, some men 

 are real craftsmen, and evince a genuine pride in their work, 

 which it is a delight to the practical horse owner to see 

 them engaged upon, but unhappily their number is limited, 

 and it is difficult to discover them. Far more common is 

 the semi-educated savage who by his roughness scares a 

 foal or a naturally nervous horse to such an extent that it 

 imbibes habits of restiveness which it would never otherwise 

 have acquired. This is the sort of man who hits a horse 

 with his hammer, who slices away the frog and bars of the 

 hoof, who cuts away the walls to fit the shoe instead of 

 making the shoe to fit the foot, who applies the shoe red- 

 hot for minutes at a time, who rasps the outside of the 

 walls and thereby destroys them, and who drives his nails 

 so carelessly that if the horse is not actually pricked, he 

 goes lame in the course of a day or two. The ignorance 

 and incapacity of some farriers are almost criminal, and 

 the worst of it is that the more inefficient they are the 

 more vanity they possess and the greater is the possibility 

 of their surreptitiously developing some pet theory for shoe- 

 ing their victims, which the owner only discovers when the 

 mischief has been accomplished, as it is impossible to expect 

 him to accompany his horse to the forge on all occasions. 



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