SHOEING. 535 



shoeing arise not so much from want of knowledge, as from 

 carelessness and indifference on the part of workmen. In a 

 work like this, a few practical suggestions as to the best 

 mode of preparing the foot and putting on the shoe may 

 not be out of place. We shall introduce the subject by a 

 quotation from Youatt, as we could give nothing better, and 

 our views would necessarily run somewhat in the same chan- 

 nel, but shall afterward give such practical directions as are 

 adapted to our own country and the conditions and require- 

 ments of the horse with us. 



" The period when the shoe began to be nailed to the foot 

 of the horse is uncertain. William the Conqueror introduced 

 the custom into our country. 



"We have seen, in the progress of our inquiry, that while 

 it affords the foot of the horse that defense, which seems 

 now to be necessary, against the destructive effects of our 

 artificial and flinty roads, it has entailed upon the animal 

 some evils. It has limited or destroyed the beautiful ex- 

 pansibility of the lower part of the foot ; it has led to con- 

 traction, although that contraction has not always been ac- 

 companied by lameness. In the most careful fixing of the 

 best shoe, and in the careless manufacture and setting on of 

 the bad one, irreparable injury has occasionally been done to 

 the horse. 



" We will first attend to the preparation of the foot for the 

 shoe, for more than is generally imagined of its comfort to 

 the horse and its safety to the rider depends on this. If the 

 master would generally accompany the horse to the forge, 

 more expense to himself and punishment to the horse would 

 be spared than, perhaps, he would think possible — provided 

 he will take the pains to understand the matter himself; 

 otherwise, he had better not interfere. 



"The old shoe must first be taken off*. We have some- 

 thing to observe even here. The shoe was retained on the 

 foot by the ends of the nails being twisted off", turned down, 

 and clenched. These clenches should be first raised — which 

 the smith seldom takes the trouble thoroughly to do ; but, 



