32 THE PRACTICAL HORSESHOER. 



a bo3^ out for a quart of apples, and takes a couple of them 

 and gives one to the horse. 



Well, now, that is a surprise party to that beast. He 

 doesn't think best to give up yet, so George gets some 

 sugar and more apples and gives them to him, and shoes 

 iiim, not without some trouble, but with nothing like what 

 John experienced. He says the next time he shoes that 

 horse he will stand first-rate, and w^e think he will. 



That man is worth two like John for work. Customei'S 

 that love their horses like to see them used well, and those 

 are the men who usually pay w^ell for having their horses 

 shod, and no man ought to have a horse who will abuse it 

 himself or allow others to do so in shoeing or an^^ other 

 way. 



George was shoeing another horse afterward. He went 

 to work and trimmed his feet carefully where thej^ needed 

 it, and in trimming he found one hmd foot broken and torn 

 away, so he couldn't trim it much. Well, he didn't go to 

 work and put on a pair of great heavy shoes which took 

 spikes to hold them there, but he got a nice pair of steel 

 ones which were lighter and 3'et stiff and wouldn't bend and 

 give way every time the horse started up. Then he fitted 

 them up neatly, and cooled them off when he fitted them to 

 the horse's feet, not hot enough to burn anywhere, but just 

 to mark for his clip-cutting. Then he filed those shoes, the 

 edges especially, so there wouldn't be anything rough to 

 cut his legs with. In punching those shoes he did it very 

 fine and small, so when he got ready to drive them he could 

 drive a ver^^ small nail and hold his shoes on until they were 

 worn out. He commenced with the toe-nails and worked 

 back. He didn't work as if he were driving those nails into 

 a block of wood. He seemed to feel that he could hurt that 

 horse if he wasn't careful. When he had them driven on, 

 the horse stepped down on that foot as if he liked the shoe 

 and knew it was put there for his benefit. Then he finished 



