178 HOUSE AND MAN. 



CHAPTEE XI. 



Hardening and renovating the hoof — Variety in hoofs — Thrush concealed 

 hy shoe — Dr. Brierley's horses — Horses in Italy — Mr. Theodore E. 

 Williams's horse ' Prince ' — Lame when shod — Experiment on another 

 horse, and result — Mr. Herbert Smith's experiments — Altered shape 

 of hoof — Need of perseverance — Xenophon's rules for hardening the 

 hoof — General summary of the subject. 



We will close this portion of the work with a more 

 detailed description of the process which a horse's 

 hoof must undergo in order to enable it to do work 

 upon our roads without any artificial ' protection.' 



It seems rather curious that we should want to 

 protect exactly that part of a horse's structure which 

 Nature has triply protected. It is still more curious 

 that the means which we employ for this purpose 

 are such that it is impossible to use them without 

 injuring and mutilating the very structures which 

 we are trying to protect. 



If all roads, and all hoofs, and all horses were 

 alike, the process would be comparatively easy. 

 But, as everyone knows, there is a vast variety in 

 roads, and there is still more variety in hoofs and 

 horses. 



