101 



CHAPTER YIL 



The shoe — Artificial roads and artificial protection — Variety in roads — 

 Straw shoes of Japan — Raw hide or 'parfleche' shoes of North 

 American Indians — Shoe nails — Their ordinary size and number 

 employed — Diminishing thickness of wall — An old Scotch law — The 

 ' unilateral ' system — A hoof prepared on the ' improved system ' — 

 A mangled hoof restored by Nature — The dangers of shoe Dails — 

 Cut nails and forged nails — A remarkable accident — Effect of a heavy 

 shoe on the horse — ' Harden ' and the dead heat — Effect of a heavy 

 shoe on the muscles — Lancashire clogs and French ' sabots ' — Cete- 

 wayo and followers in England — The ' lurry ' horses and their shoes — 

 Lieut. Douglas's calculations — Loosened hoofs. 



Having now treated of the hoof, we will pass to the 

 shoe. 



The object of the shoe is to benefit the horse by 

 protecting its hoofs against the hard artificial roads 

 of civilised countries. It is always assumed that 

 such protection is necessary, because, although the 

 horse might do very well without these appen- 

 dages in its native pastures, it must need shoes 

 when it is brought under such different conditions, 

 and has to traverse stone-paved roads when it carries 

 a rider or draws a vehicle. 



If such assumption be justified, all we should 



