IM SHOEING. 



most The spring or rebound is to it of most value. But that function 

 is destroyed. Many a fine animal has, doubtless, been condemned for 

 having "no go in him," which, could it have exerted all its natural 

 power, would have been declared winner of every race for which it was 

 ever entered. 



The late William Percivall, the respected author of Hippo-pathology, 

 many years ago informed the author that he had long ridden a young 

 horse about town with no greater protection to its forefeet than tips 

 could afford. He showed the hoofs of the animal to the writer, and 

 more open or better examples of the healthy horse's feet need not be de- 

 #sired. Why could not tips be employed by racers, instead of the present 

 ridiculous pretense at a shoe ? If any greater protection is imperative, 

 or is thought to be needed, the shoe proposed by the author would give 

 all security, while it left the pedal structured free to exercise their import- 

 ant uses. There can be no doubt as to the safety of tips ; in which, if 

 Mr. Percivall could for years take his quadruped through the streets of 

 London, another animal might, surely, scamper over the well-kept turf 

 of a race-course, where the heels merely touch the earth during the 

 intervals of leaps, and then only for an instant. 



Were tips more generally employed, this form of shoe would be more 

 highly valued. They are, however, now thought only to be of service 

 when the animal is, "for a season," thrown up; but there can he no. 

 reason why the racer — trained, exercised, and worked always on choice 



turf — should ever be crippled by any more 

 regular form of shoe. Most horsemen, how- 

 ever, like the warriors of old, place their great 

 dependence on the accumulation of iron. The 

 nearest approach they ever make toward a tip, 

 and then only when guarded by a veterinary 

 surgeon's advice, is a three-quarter shoe. The 

 tip is a protection to be worn only during the 

 run at grass, and to be discarded so soon as 

 the stable is entered. Is not the racer always 

 A THBE.-QUARTEK SHOE, WHICH ^t grass, siucB the Tail or the van generally 

 oNi,T LEAVES ONE-QOAKTER UN- garrics it ovei thc roads ? How often do the 



FETTERED. 



feet of the thorough-bred fail, though there 

 must be further cause than the work they have undergone ? But no one 

 is silly enough to suspect the shoeing can be at fault ! 



The three-quarter shoe is but an enlarged kind of tip. Most horsemen 

 appreciate the unilateral naiUng, which was revived some years ago by 

 that excellent veterinary surgeon, Mr. Turner, of Regent Street. They 

 can understand the advantages of leaving one-quarter without nails so 



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