69 



CHAPTER V. 



The prog continued — ' Hammering ' on the roads Cause of the ham- 

 mering — King Theodore's horse ' Hainmel ' — Elasticity of the frog — 

 The ' Village Blacksmith ' — The bicycle wheel — Analogy between 

 carriage springs and the horse's hoof — Lodgment of stones — Mr. S. 

 Chapin and his bare-footed horse — Hartmann's safety pad — Spiked 

 shoes — American shoeing — Injury to the untouched frog impossible — 

 ' Greasy ' roads — Manchester ' lurry ' horses — The streets of Man- 

 chester — A doctor's horses — Shoes of lurry horses — Ludgate Hill and 

 its terrors — Lieut. Douglas's testimony — Indiarubber soles on ice and 

 on board ship — The hoof an organ of touch — Mr. J. Bellows's story — 

 1 Free Lance's ' view of the frog and its uses — Relative dependence of 

 the frog and navicular bone. 



Softness of tread is an exceedingly valuable pro- 

 perty in a horse. We know how ' it ain't the 'untin' 

 as 'urts the 'orses, but the 'ammer, 'ammer, 'ammer, 

 on the 'ard 'igh roads/ The worthy and afflicted 

 groom was perfectly right. This incessant hammer- 

 ing, which is exceedingly injurious to the horse, is 

 entirely owing to the shoe, an unshod horse treading 

 almost as noiselessly as an elephant does, and being 

 delightfully easy to the rider. 



The first adult working horse which I ever saw 

 unshod was ' Hammel,' the war-horse of the late 



