SHOEING. 79 



nails are carried completely round, with the addition of 

 sharp calkins being turned on the heels of all four feet, 

 and sometimes also short spikes or cogs turned down 

 from the toes ; but the latter are common only in severe 

 climates, though their use is quite as desirable in Eng- 

 land, especially to assist horses in ascending slippery 

 hills, where the cogs on the heels have little or no hold 

 in the ground. Cogs or calkins should be rasped by 

 the smith, to sharpen them, every couple of days. 



Although it may be inconvenient and expensive to 

 have horses prepared in frosty weather, it is highly 

 necessary to do so where work is required of them. 

 The very extraordinary exertion that is needed on the 

 part of the animal to keep his feet when unprepared, 

 as well as the fret to his energies, takes a vast deal 

 more out of him in one day's work than a month's 

 daily use would do under ordinary circumstances, not 

 to speak of the risk of pecuniary loss from accident. 



It is a most pitiable thing to see the poor beasts 

 struggling in their high courage and good temper to 

 do their best, for what I can only call cruel or thought- 

 less masters, to say nothing of the liability of the 

 animals' breaking their knees and bringing their riders 

 or drivers to serious trouble, smashing harness and 

 vehicles, &c. 



I have always found servants most ingenious in 

 making objections to having their horses prepared for 

 frost, the grand secret being their anxiety to keej) them 

 in the stable the whole time the frost lasts, that they 

 may be saved from the trouble of cleaning either them 

 or their caparison, carriages, (fee. They will alarm you 

 with the stereotyped objections, "tearing the horses' 

 feet to j)ieces," "driving fresh nail-holes," "ripping off 



