528 SHOEING. . 



our hard roads, or to protect the foot by means of a cir- 

 cular piece of iron. This truth was ultimately suspected 

 by the owners of horses, and some persons began to turn 

 their attention to the form of a shoe. Certain people took 

 out patents for particular shoes, which were to cure all 

 diseases ; but which in the end were found to aggravate the 

 evils they were designed to remedy. The little piece of 

 iron was beat and battered into an endless variety of shapes : 

 it was pierced in this place, and punched in that, hoping to 

 make it change its nature. But, nevertheless, it was found 

 to remain iron ; and so long as it is esteemed imperative to 

 have horses shod, we must put up with the evils attendant 

 upon the metal, for the sake of enjoying those advantages 

 which it can bestow. 



Among those evils inseparable from every kind of metallic 

 shoe, is the severe battering upon hard roads, rendered yet 

 more severe, by the interposition of an unyielding sub- 

 stance, like to iron. Every step the horse now takes is 

 made upon iron, and the wonder should be, not that a foot 

 occasionally gives way, but that any part of a living frame 

 should be able to withstand such treatment. Then, not 

 only are the roads hard, and the pace at wdiich the horse is 

 driven along killing, but we have also to weigh properly 

 the treatment the horse receives within the stable. Here 

 he stands often for days together, crimped up in a stall 

 where he can only stand, frequently he cannot turn round, 

 and very seldom can he lie upon his side and stretch out 

 his limbs. It is infinitely worse than a sentry-box is com- 

 paratively with a man. He stands here generally for twenty 

 hours out of the four-and-twenty. Here he stands with 

 iron upon his feet, resting upon wet stones or damp bricks. 

 No wonder if the feet should become cold ; and those who 

 are accustomed to bleed horses from the foot, can tell how 

 unnaturally cold the first drop or two of blood flows from 

 the part. 



Nor is this all. Blood for its circulation requires mus- 

 cular action. It ascends with difficulty against gravity. 

 But what assistance can the circulation receive, when the 

 wretched animal must stand motionless throughout the 

 day. If the creature hangs back a little to relieve its flexor 

 tendons, the groom sits behind to bid him "come up." 



