118 UNASKED ADVICE. 



THE CHARMER, SHOE. 



THAT horseshoes are necessary evils has long been a 

 conceded fact, and it needs no great knowledge of the 

 subject for anyone to assert, without fear of contradiction, 

 that without shoes all horses working on hard ground 

 would be lame. A little further study brings to light 

 the fact that, with shoes, a very large percentage of 

 horses are lame, and lame in their feet. It is not fair to 

 jump at once to the conclusion that all these horses are 

 lamed by their shoes, there being causes of foot lameness 

 quite unconnected with shoeing, of which high keep is 

 perhaps the principal one. This, when aided and abetted 

 by fast work and hot stables, and not kept in check by 

 good stable management, is quite competent to lay the 

 foundation of disease, and lameness is the consequence. 

 Not that all diseases of the foot lame the horse as a 

 matter of course; we have all seen horses going sound 

 with seedy toe, thrushes, and even canker, though of 

 course a day will come when these diseases, if allowed to 

 run their course, incapacitate their victims for exertion. 



But, though the unshod foot is not of necessity free 

 from disease, there are disorders peculiar to the foot 

 which has been armed by the blacksmith, the most 

 generally known being corns. An instance of an unshod 

 horse with corns is, I fancy, unknown. Horses used 

 on the road, especially in towns, are more frequently 

 lame in the feet than hunters, though the work of the 

 latter is the most severe while it lasts ; and it seems only 



