148 Managemerit and Treatment of the Horse. 



structure of the horse's foot. When we look to 

 the rotten system in our army of making shoeing- 

 smiths of tailors, plasterers, bricklayers, and 

 labourers, is it any wonder that our shops are 

 overrun with the so-called ^'shoeing-smith ?" Mr. 

 Douglas says, '^In mj^ own regiment (the 10th 

 Hussars), just before they went to India, out of 

 fifteen farrier-sergeants and shoeing-smiths, there 

 were only the farrier- major and two others who 

 had been farriers before they joined the army. 

 One of the twelve had been a tailor, and as such 

 had worked in the regiment, a second had been a 

 collier, a third a haberdasher, the fourth a groom, 

 and the remainder clodhoppers." The writer is 

 able to prove that the 10th Hussars is not the 

 only regiment in the same fix ; indeed the Scots 

 Greys and the Household Brigade a few years 

 ago were in equally as bad a state. Yet these 

 are the men who are held up to our eyes as 

 pattern smiths. Go into the large shoeing estab- 

 lishments in London, Manchester, Nottingham, 

 etc., and inquire of the men and their employers, 

 and you will find that the principal recommenda- 

 tion of half their men is that they were farriers 

 in our army, and being so, must understand their 

 business. From these large shops emanate from 

 time to time libels upon their brother Yulcans, 

 the country shoeing smiths, who are held up to 

 ridicule by the gentlemen of large shops in town, 

 where they are under the hallowed protection of 

 having served in the army, and their employers 

 have tacked to their names M.E.C.V.S., which 

 may literally be read, " makers of rough, coarse, 



