274 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



horse's foot, save to level it for the reception of the 

 shoe. Nature, it should be remembered, works after a 

 perfect model, — for I am not speaking of disease, — and 

 the perfect cannot be improved by any assistance from 

 us. Were it not for the fact that our roads are too 

 hard for the foot to endure service on them unprotected, 

 it were well not to shoe at all ; and, if we must shoe, 

 shoe only so much as is absolutely necessary. The cres- 

 cent shoe, or " tips " as they are commonly called, will, 

 during the summer months, be sufficient for country 

 service. These tips are thin, narrow plates of iron 

 or steel, of some three ounces in weight, shaped to 

 fit the toe of the foot, and to reach round a little on 

 either side. The object of these tips is simply to 

 protect the front portion of the foot from being 

 too rapidly worn away. They leave the quarters, 

 sole, frog, bars, and heels entirely unprotected, save as 

 Nature provides. They are a most excellent form of 

 shoe. I speak from experience, and not from theory 

 alone. I have used horses of eleven hundred pounds 

 weight, in farm-work and ordinary fxmily service, on 

 the road, for months together, with no protection to 

 their feet save these tips, and found that their feet, 

 which, at the beginning of the experiment, were in a 

 most unsatisfactory condition, grew strong and well ; 

 and I recommend this form of shoeing to all my read- 

 ers whose horses are exercised or worked in the coun- 

 try. Indeed, I am under the impression that the feet 

 of many horses would need no other protection even 



