346 SCIENTIFIC HOKSKSHUEING. 



OUTLINE OF TIIK HOUSE. 



It should bo uiulorstood by all liorseshoers and liorst^- 

 iiKMi tlint tho balancing of the feet and legs and body of 

 tne horse is the greatest practical importance in developing 

 speed and endurance. (See skeleton on page 3G, Fig. 2.) 

 This skeleton of the horse was drawn from the natural 

 skeleton, showing the importance of the fourteenth dorsal 

 vertebrae, whicli is the center of gravity of the body. As 

 I have shown, the coffin joint is the center of gravity of 

 the foot. Readers of the several editions of my work oii 

 Scientific Horseshoeing will notice that, as a fundamental 

 principle, I have always laid great stress upon the proper 

 balancing of the foot and body of the horse. The farrier 

 should take the ijreatest care in di'essiui^ the feet and 

 making shoes of suitable style and weight to suit the gait 

 of the horse, and should so balance the feet that they may 

 swing in a true line with the bod}^ when in motion, as the 

 pendulum of the clock. The farrier requires good judgment 

 in his profession, that he may properly balance and shoe the 

 feet to suit the gait of the horse. 



Every horseshoer, or, as he should aspire to be called, 

 every competent farrier, of the twentieth century should 

 make this object lesson, thus so artistically presented, his 

 constant study ; for upon the mastery of the anatomy and 

 physiology of the horse will depend his competency in his 

 profession. The day has gone by for guesswork or routine 

 cutting and rasping the foot, with no other oliject in view 

 than that of reducing the ground surface, often to the dis- 

 comfort and positive injury of the foot and limb. The ^vorkl 



