76 TIPS VERSUS SHOES. 



and tliat every ounce we add to the weight of the foot requires a 

 power to lift it equal to four hundred ounces at the loins. 



140.— The farm horse, with oood sound feet that can be kept 

 •constantly working in fields, is very much better without any shoes 

 at all. He is less liable to accidents, Avill not injure his mates or get 

 injured himself in turning round amongst them, or standing in the 

 stable, or running in the field. He will never get corns, and hardly 

 ■ever go lame from any cause. He will work longer and faster every 

 <lay of the week, if he is not called on to lift one hundred and twenty 

 thousand times a day, at the utmost mechanical disadvantage, an 

 iron ring, enclosing more or less clay, mud, or dirt at the bottom 

 •of each foot. If the frog, bai-s, and soles of his feet have never 

 been cut away, he will do all the carting necessary for the harvest, 

 or manure hauling, and even bear an occasional day on the roads. 

 The Southland teams, of six horses each, that plough five acres a 

 day, and draw their driver behind them (20) never have any shoes 

 to lift on their feet. 



150. — For any work that makes shoeing necessary, let there 

 be as little departure from nature as possible. If tips will do, don't 

 nse shoes, but whichever are used take care that the frog, sole, 

 bars, and enamel are never cut away, nor the horse made so that 

 he will not stand without shoes afterwards. 



For city work, on rough paving stones, or on roads formed 

 with very cutting flints, the common shoe may possibly be 

 necessary ; but for all ordinary work, on ordinary roads, with iin- 

 mutilated feet, light, narrow, steel tips, not exceeding two or three 

 •ounces, are very much to be preferred ; leaving the heels, bars, and 

 frog in a state of nature. But don't try these for the first time on 

 a horse whose frog, bars, heels, and soles have been hacked away, 

 •and then jump to the conclusion that toe tips are not a sufiicient 

 protection for a natural foot. Thousands of horses have worked 

 Tvell in them, and not a few which could work in no other way. They 

 •cure contraction of the feet, or the opposite mischief of a sinking 

 centre, either of which may be caused by cutting away the frog. 

 Corns, thrush, and sand crack, generally disappear when nothing 

 more than tips are used, and when the frog can be got to do 

 ■the work it was designed to do it will take off the strain and jar 



