GROOMING — SHOEING. ^ 7 



other, the equilibrium between them becomes destroyed, and 

 health eventually must give way to disease. 



Grooming will also come in for a share in rendering the 

 animaPs condition in the stable a still more artificial one. 

 The very act of cleaning works a change in the skin it never 

 probably would of itself have experienced ; added to which, the 

 A^arious trimmings that are practised, and the fair proportions 

 that are too often curtailed, are all more or less concerned 

 in altering the animaFs condition. 



Shoeing. — More than all this, however, is to be dreaded 

 the farrier^s interference. Shoeing is a necessary evil, and 

 all our study should be directed towards its application in 

 a manner that can effect the least possible harm. Nature 

 has made a horny case for the foot, which is adequate 

 so long as the animal treads upon the soft verdure, that at 

 the same time affords him nutriment : as soon as art, how- 

 ever, removes him from his native fields, to hard and gravelly 

 roads, this defence is no longer sufficient protection, there- 

 fore it becomes necessary to guard even the hoof. This we 

 do by nailing upon^it the rim or half-circle of iron, which 

 we denominate a shoe. The essential difference between 

 the natural defence and the one art has invented is, that 

 the former, while it is sufficient for ordinary protection, 

 is yielding and elastic ; while the iron shoe puts a total stop 

 to all that play of the horny case with which Nature has 

 endowed it. 



