idO EDUCATION OF THE SMITH. FOREIGN SMITHS. 



slioe^ though it stand most in need of defence. Again, the horn of some 

 horses' feet is so well-tempered and stout, that they might be permitted to go 

 without shoes without danger, if not worked upon stony roads. Time, how- 

 ever, and hard work, occasion brittle hoof, and distortions, with numerous 

 disorders that attach to the foot generally, or belong to the sole only. 



When these ailments begin to show their eflects, the shoeing-smith must 

 adapt his work according to the new pattern thus cut out for him, and here 

 begins his ingenuity ; in some cases he will even have to adopt a different 

 shaped defence for the same set of feet; but in all cases, and under every cir- 

 cumstance, he nm.st fasten them on lirmly to the horny wall of the foot by 

 nailing and clencliing. By paring the sole inordinately, the bones within are 

 pressed out of position, and the wall having now no resistance in the horny 

 sole to keep it expanded, it contracts and becomes shapeless and diseased. 

 Partial parings overmuch produce partial accidents from without, and engen- 

 der diseases within, which have received a great number of names according 

 to the situation, but all having their origin in this or some such injury, and all 

 producing contracted hoof and sole. The importance of avoiding this baleful 

 practice may be deduced from the great anxiety of our ancestors to particu- 

 larize, by so many different names, this single disease of the sole arising from 

 contracted hoof For whenever constitutional diseases fall into the foot, they 

 never aliect the sole, or any part of the bottom, unless attracted thither by 

 accidents or contraction of the hoof, by reason of this paring and rasping away 

 of the natural defence. 



Under each of these heads of information, I shall presently place before the 

 operative reader a few plain and intelligent precepts, accompanied by some 

 admonitions; for most assuredly, that teacher who contents himself with tell- 

 ing the learner what is necessary to be done has but half performed his duty, 

 if he leave uncorrected certain long standing errors, which he knows to exist, 

 and to have received the sanction of ages that were confessedly working in the 

 dark, as regards horse-shoeing above all other operations. But the method of 

 performing this operation is avowedly not to be taught in its rudiments, upon 

 paper. Practice is indispensable, manual labour requisite ; and much of it, 

 conducted by an intelligent mind well versed in books, is necessary towards 

 forming the proficient shoeing smith. Hitherto, however, from the nature of 

 the black-smith's trade, its laboriousness, and the deficiency of general educa- 

 tion down to a late period, most of the operatives in this branch of mechanical 

 labour were precluded from acquiring the additional information that books 

 contain, after they had once adopted their future calling. Error and prejudice 

 laid fast hold of our ancestors, for ages; !»ut the prevailing national desire of 

 acquiring the minor school endowments promises a different result at the pre- 

 sent day, and on this occasion, when Science has been disrobed of her cloak 

 and the niceties of Art are sought in language that all can comprehend. 



The shoes affixed to the feet of their horses by the continental farriers diflfer 

 materially from our own and from each other ; which proves that no fixed 

 principle is acknowledged by either of them; though the English and the 

 French assimilate together the nearest of any, and are those, 1 apprehend, 

 that approach nearest to perfection ; notwithstanding the controversies and 

 bold assumptions of superior wisdom, and the "patents" that enabled a few 

 persons here to give themselves airs, and to set up pretensions they have mi- 

 serably failed to substantiate. The jointed shoe, for instance, of Goldfinch, 

 and of B. Clark, which is the best modification of the old semi-oval defence 

 for healthy feet, was preceded a whole century by the French author of "Lg 

 Chi,i'al " a folio French work, noticed by Mr. Bee in the Annals of Sporting, 

 fox 1823. 



