60 CURINE— The Great 



SHOEING. 



Although the subject discussed in the present 

 chapter may not be entitled to a place in a cate- 

 gory of the ailments to which horseflesh is heir, 

 bad and indifferent shoeing are such prolific sources 

 of both disability and disease in the noblest of all 

 our dumb animals, that no excuse is necessary in 

 claiming for it equal attention at the hands of those 

 interested. No horseman questions the old saying 

 "no foot, no horse," and yet in no portion of that 

 animal's economy has he suffered so many wrongs 

 as in his feet, which is due directly or indirectly to 

 improper shoeing. We are reluctant to admit that 

 the ordinary iron or steel shoe is the best artificial 

 protection to the horse's foot. That the system of 

 horseshoeing as it obtains even in the most skillful 

 hands, is pregnant with mischief to the foot, no one 

 who is conversant with the facts will deny. Each 

 time a horse is shod— every nail drawn— means so 

 much injury to the foot. The better the job the less 

 injury. 



We have, however, to deal with the facts as we 

 find them, and as we have to impose upon our 

 horse's work of a nature that entails upon their 

 feet more waste of horn than nature can replace 

 during the ordinary interval of rest, we are obliged 

 to adopt a defense of some kind. 



Without wishing to do injustice to the rural 

 knights of the anvil, it is nevertheless a lamentable 

 truth that these votaries of the buttress and draw- 

 ing-knife are, all the world over, so wedded to a 

 number of traditionary practices, so heinous and 

 prejudicial to the interest of the horse and his own- 

 er that one mfght well be excused for wondering 

 whether their mission were not to mar instead of to 

 protect the perfect handiwork of our Creator. 



Ignorant at the anatomy and physiology of the 

 parts, they cut, they mutilate and carve as whim, 

 prejudice or time-honored custom dictates. Dis- 

 aster it may be slowly, but surely follows and the 

 poor dumb creatures' suffering foots the bill. Let 

 us glance at some of the traditional practices. 



