mr. williams's experiment. 183 



in which, of course, there would be no nail-holes. 

 So I placed the horse in a straw yard, and fed him 

 with vetches and clover. As his hoofs grew, they 

 were pared and rasped, until the nail-holes had 

 entirely disappeared. 



' He was then transferred to the stable, and exer- 

 cised as usual, but I soon found that his feet wore 

 away faster than they grew. In trying to restore 

 the horse to its natural condition, I was asking him 

 to travel over roads almost as hard as rock, while 

 for twenty hours out of twenty-four he stood on 

 litter as soft as grass. It was like a hand accus- 

 tomed to be gloved working the ropes of a ship, 

 or an English gentleman's child trying to race bare- 

 footed on the granite roads with the shoeless children 

 of the Scotch Highlands. 



'I therefore had the litter removed by day, and 

 henceforth the horse's feet became as tough and hard 

 as oak, and he has ever since travelled with ease 

 and elasticity. My companions in the hunting field 

 are often astonished to see how readily he gallops 

 along a road, even when fresh stoned ; and when, as 

 occasionally happens, he has to jump a fence into 

 a road, he does so with much less "jar " to his legs. 

 In difficult places I am sure he is more active and 

 quicker in recovering himself than when shod, and 

 he has never been lame since his shoes were removed. 



