118 HUNTING 



rubbing the legs look out for thorns, etc. 

 Many hunting men contrive to visit their 

 hunters in the evening after hunting. It is 

 but common kindness to see how the horse 

 has borne the fatigue of the day. 



4. Farriery. — From the poet's point of view, the 

 village blacksmith is so replete with pastoral 

 morality as to deserve to live in a better 

 sphere than on this wicked earth; from the 

 point of view of the owner of hunters, he 

 is an ignorant man, who does not know his 

 trade, while the village forge is often a 

 favourite lounge for grooms, in which to waste 

 their time, and, not improbably, bet and 

 drink. The village blacksmith's idea of shoe- 

 ing is to cut a horse's hoof to fit his shoe, 

 instead of making a shoe to fit the horse's 

 hoof. It is impossible for us to examine the 

 system of farriery ; volumes have been already 

 written upon the subject. We can only say 

 that most veterinary surgeons have a forge, 

 and it is far better to send hunters to one 

 of these forges than to allow them to be ex- 

 perimented upon by the local blacksmith. 

 If it should be necessary to patronise the 

 blacksmith's forge, the groom should watch 

 the smith throughout the whole of the opera- 

 tion. He can, at least, warn him against 

 pricking the horse, or paring off too much 

 of the horn. The groom should always 

 examine a horse's shoes carefully on the day 



