104 SCIENTIFIC HORSESHOEING. 



CHAPTER V. 

 SHOEING YOUNG HORSES. 



TO BALANCE AND BEGULATE ACTION AND GAIT. 



Conditions of Action. — Not to go too deep into the liter- 

 ature of the subject, it seems that the walk, trot, and gallop have 

 always been the natural gaits common to horses, influenced by 

 their environments and the nature of the ground over which 

 they traveled. On the other hand, the ingenuity of man has 

 evolved various breeds and given them difterent phases of ac- 

 tion, in order that certain demands not naturally existing, but 

 arising in a later day civilization, might be fitted. This shows 

 that the quality or characteristic of action is, in a measure, ar- 

 tificial, because as soon as the natural necessity for any specified 

 gait ceases to exist, the gait ceases with it, unless training by 

 man is substituted for the original demand. At the present 

 day, therefore, we notice that all breeds of horses are distin- 

 guished by some special method of action, which is an essential 

 factor in determining the intrinsical and fancy value of any of 

 their representatives. The trotter that can not trot, or the 

 hackney that can not lift his knees and hocks, is generally an 

 unsalable commodity. It would serve no special purpose to go 

 more fully into the details of this section. What I am most 

 anxious to show is that the natural conditions of the ground 

 over which horses must travel should regulate their gaits, and 

 that for any given method of progression the proper style of 

 shoes must be adapted and applied with a nice intelligence so 

 that the exercise of their legs and feet may be fully sustained 

 without violent waste of eftbrt. In animated beings, soundness 

 of parts and liberty of movement constitute the perfection of 



