ROUGHING. 91 



the horse traffic of a large town for a day or two, and 

 many owners will sooner keep their horses in the stable 

 than go to the expense of having them roughed. The 

 loss in civil life from unpreparedness for ice and snow is 

 very serious, but the loss which has fallen upon military 

 movements from similar neglect is appalling. Napo- 

 leon's rout from Moscow in 1812, Bourbaki's flight into 

 Switzerland in 1871, and the Danish retreat during the 

 Schleswig-Holstein war in 1865 are terrible instances of 

 the frightful loss sustained when horses are unable to 

 keep on their feet at a walk, let alone drag guns and 

 wagons over an ice-covered surface. 



A well-managed stud of horses which is required to 

 face all weather and to work every day through an 

 English winter should, from December 1st to March 1st, 

 be shod in such a manner as to be easily and speedily 

 provided with mechanism which will afford secure foot- 

 hold. This may be effected by the use of moveable steel 

 "roughs" or "sharps." Of course the cost is the 

 argument against them, but this should be considered in 

 view of the probability or certainty of loss which will 

 follow from neglect. If we allow common humanity to 

 animals to enter into the consideration, economy will be 

 served by adopting a well arranged system of roughing. 

 Every good horseman appreciates the enormity of over- 

 loading, but neglect of roughing causes just as mucli 

 cruelty. A horse that on a good road can properly draw 

 a ton would be considered over-loaded with two tons, 

 and his struggles to progress would at once attract atten- 

 tion. The same animal with half a ton on an ice-covered, 

 surface would suffer more exhaustion, fatigue and 

 fright, and run more risk of fatal injury than in the 

 case of the over-loading, bat his owner, who would 

 indignantly repudiate the one condition, will designedly 

 incur the other. 



Probably this is only thoughtlessness, but it is a- 

 reflection on the prudence of a manager, and certainly 

 not flattering to the feelings or intelligence of a man. 



There are many ways of providing foot-hold for a> 

 horse on ice and snow. The most simj^le and temporary 



