108 PRACTICAL HORSESHOEING. 



In default of this, veterinary surgeons properly quali- 

 fied for the duty, and possessing the necessary conve- 

 nience and opportunity, might be induced to receive and 

 instruct apprentices in farriery, granting them authorized 

 certificates when judged to be fit to practise the art. 



Agricultural meetings should also be made the means 

 of instructing farriers in shoeing, and of stimulating com- 

 petition in the districts in which they are held. Of course 

 it is a sine qud non that the instructors and judges should 

 themselves understand the subject thoroughly. 



These are the only means by which, I believe, the art 

 of farriery can be improved in this country, where nearly 

 all improvement is left to private enterprise. A profound 

 knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the horse's 

 foot is not absolutely necessary to the farrier. What I 

 have sketched out on these subjects in this essay, I have 

 generally found sufficient to enable my farriers to com- 

 prehend the character of the organ they were called upon 

 to protect and preserve, and this much was easily taught 

 them in a short time. I have always had more difficulty 

 in making them unlearn their unreasonable practices than 

 acquiring those which were novel, though easier ; and my 

 chief antagonists in all improvements have been the igno- 

 rant grooms and coachmen — the lovers of well pared and 

 rasped hoofs, oiled or blacked like a boot ; hot stables ; 

 physic ; bearing-reins ; blinkers ; cruppers ; powerful bits ; 

 and every thing, in fact, unnatural and injurious to the 

 horse. 



THE END. 





