442 COST OF SHOEING. 



surgeon who has a forge who could not tell how, in connection with large 

 establishments, this system of blackmailing holds sway, and it must be 

 admitted that masters by the line they adopt play too well into their ser- 

 vants' hands. It certainly would appear that a good many of those who 

 own horses have absolutely no knowledge of horses, their ways or treatment, 

 since they leave everything, big and little, to their coachmen and grooms. 

 If they want to buy or job a horse or carriage, it is the coachman who is 

 sent to make arrangements and give his opinion. This, of course, gives the 

 man the opportunity of making his own terms, and if those offered do not 

 suit he can easily find an excuse for recommending his master, or rather 

 his employer, for he, the coachman, is master, to deal elsewhere. 



" ' Assuming that our correspondent, " A Veterinary Surgeon," is right in 

 his facts, the coachmen of whom he complains do not stop short at robbery, 

 for their blackmail is nothing else, but they commit a wrong against the 

 horses and their owner. Every one who has to do with horses knows quite 

 well that, whatever be the state of the shoes, they should not go more than a 

 fortnight, or at the most, three weeks, without being removed, otherwise the 

 foot, by the growth of horn, becomes too big for the shoe. Yet these 

 removes, says our correspondent, though charged for, are not made, and 

 then some fine day corns appear, or lameness of another kind sets in. On 

 reference to his letter it will be seen that "A Veterinary Surgeon" alleges 

 that not unconnected with the late futile strike of the farriers is this demand 

 by the coachmen of a shilling for every set of shoes supplied. He says that 

 the men who do the work, knowing what goes on in the way of backsheesh 

 by the coachmen and charging for work which is not executed by the 

 employers of the workmen, want to participate in the plunder, and wished 

 the master to charge another shilling a set for their benefit. We never 

 heard that this was even hinted at by the strikers ; but if it really had any- 

 thing to do with it, then all that can be said is that it is ten thousand pities 

 the fact was not published to the world broadcast. If horse owners could 

 have been made to understand that their own coachmen were actually at the 

 bottom of the strike, they might then have felt inclined to bestir them- 

 selves. Of all the people who are necessary to a stable, the farrier is the 

 most important. "No foot, no horse," is as true now as the day when it was 

 first coined, and the foot and the stomach of a horse are just about the last 

 two things a coachman should seek to make money out of. Master farriers 



