CHAPTER VIII. 



t 



"Roughing.'* 



In winter, ice, snow and frost render roads slippery,. 

 and it is necessary to provide some arrangement whereby^ 

 horses may have the greatest security of foot-hold. In 

 countries such as Canada or Russia, where a regular 

 winter sets in at a tolerably uniform date and continues 

 without intermission for some months, it is easier to 

 adopt a good system of "roughing'* than in Great 

 Britain. There, on a thick layer of ice or snow, sharp- 

 projections on the shoes cut into the surface and afford 

 foot-hold. The edge of the projections is not soon 

 blunted, and when once properly placed, their duration 

 is as long as the time desirable for retaining the shoe. 

 Here, very different conditions obtain. Sometimes a 

 week or two of frost and snow may prevail, but more 

 frequently the spells of wintry weather are counted by 

 days. Two or three days of frost and then two or three 

 days of mud and slush, to be followed by either dry, 

 hard roads or a return of ice and snow, is our usual 

 winter. We require during this time to provide for 

 occasional days, or more rarely for weeks, of frost-bound 

 roads. Our horses' shoes wear about a month and then 

 require replacing by new ones. When roads are hard 

 and dry, we want no sharp ridges or points about our 

 horses' shoes, and yet we must always be able at twenty- 

 four hours' notice to supply some temporary arrange- 

 ment which will ensure foot-hold. 



The necessity for "roughing " and the evil effects of 

 continuing to work unroughed horses on slippery, frost- 

 bound roads is demonstrated in London every winter by 

 a very significant fact. If, after three days of ice and 

 snow, anyone will visit a horse-slaughterer's yard, he 

 will find the place full of dead horses which have fallen 

 in the streets and suffered incurable or fatal injury. A 

 sudden and severe attack of ice and snow half paralyses^ 



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