THE horse's foot, AND HOW TO SHOE IT. 273 



shoeing. In this respect it may very properly be said 

 that we make the shoe to the foot, and not the foot to 

 the shoe, as is but too much the case in the concave 

 shoes, where the foot very much resembles that of a cat's 

 fixed in a walnut-shell. ... I would observe, upon the 

 whole, that the less substance we take away from the 

 natural defence of the foot, except on particular occa- 

 sions which may require it, the less artificial defence 

 will be necessary ; the flatter we make the shoe, we give 

 the horse the more points of support, and imitate the 

 natural tread of the foot ; therefore, the nearer we follow 

 these simple rules, the nearer we approach to perfection 

 in this art.'' 



I have made these quotations — taken almost at ran- 

 dom, from perhaps, on the whole, the three wisest teach- 

 ers of the principles of correct shoeing and preserva- 

 tion of the horse's foot that the world has ever had — 

 principally for the purpose of impressing those who 

 could be impressed in no other way than by the accu- 

 mulated testimony of other men with a sense of the 

 great mischief and evil that is done in cutting and filing 

 away the frog, sole, and bars of the horse's foot, by the 

 retention of which, in a natural state, the foot can be 

 kept either strong or healthy. No form of shoe can be 

 so vicious as to do such mischief and injury to the foot 

 as the present paring and cutting system ; nor can any 

 shoe be so good in its conformation as to remedy those 

 ills that knife and buttress have occasioned. 



The truth is, we should do little or nothing to the 



18 



