1 1 8 Management and Treatment of the Horse. 



driving the nails the fibres are driven out of their 

 natural course sideways, and the hoof between 

 the nails is compressed together as if in a vice, 

 preventing the pores of the hoof from performing 

 their proper functions, hence the folly of shoeing- 

 smiths driving so many nails into the foot. A 

 well-fitted and well-made shoe will keep on the 

 horse better with six nails than a bad one will 

 with ten, yet we find many smiths are perfectly 

 contented to nail on the horse a piece of iron 

 bent round, with rough nail holes punched in, 

 and call it a shoe ; this we find often with the 

 farm or cart horse, and you can often hear them 

 say '-'- That will do for him — it's only a cart 

 horse," putting one in mind of the words of Tom 

 Hood, ^'He's only a pauper, whom nobody owns." 

 The smith does his worst for the foot of the horse 

 with bad shoes and many nails, and the groom 

 often helps him to complete the mischief, by 

 using compounds of fat and tar and other sub- 

 stances to dress the hoof, and stopping with 

 cow- dung to soften the feet. If I was asked, 

 /^'Does hoof-dressing do any good?" I should 

 say decidedly, '^ISTo;" for it stops the air-cells 

 and prevents free perspiration. Does cow-dung 

 do any good? It enables the smith, without 

 hard labour, to cut away that block of horn on 

 the sole, and pare the frog into a nice shape, so 

 that if the horse, in trotting over rough roads 

 and loose stones, puts its foot on a stone, it 

 becomes bruised, and may fall down and break 

 its knees, and sometimes its owner's neck. The 

 reader may ask, do I use hoof-dressing? I tell 



