96 UNASKED ADVICE. 



very faulty^ hack and harness horses would go lame^ as 

 indeed they often do, but our hunters would be free from 

 foot lameness. Their work being entirely on the sofb^ 

 their shoe does not prevent the sole and frog of the foot 

 from performing each its proper functions. But they are 

 lame and groggy as often as other horses ; in fact, many 

 valuable hunters, whom no money could buy, would, if 

 run out on stones, very often be found to go in a manner 

 rather surprising to the owner if he were present. The 

 fact is that hunters seldom work on hard ground at alL 

 They exercise on the soft, they go to coverts along the 

 sides of the road, and come home the same way; but 

 many of them go wrong in their feet for all that. Hot 

 stables and high keep are in great measure accountable 

 for this ; and very often hereditary unsoundness : e.g., 

 the stock of Belzoni, that prince of hunter sires, sooner 

 or later went lame — at least, a great percentage of them, 

 and all, they say, in the same foot — and this is not a 

 solitary instance. Sir Joseph Hawley's reform bill may 

 mend matters here. 



It being an undoubted fact that foot lameness is not an 

 uncommon thing in England, Mr. Goodenough comes to 

 the rescue, with something like a '' new broom. ^^ His is 

 the only " humane shoe ; ''•' his the system which claims 

 for itself every possible novelty — infallibility amongst the 

 rest ! Let us consider the advertisement : " As the 

 weight of the horse is mainly sustained by the crust of 

 the hoof, so this shoe is designed to arm that crust, and 

 preserve, though calked, the true level position of the 

 foot.^^ The old shoe is designed to do all this, and, being 

 uncalked, has perhaps a better chance of doing it. 

 " The level calking prevents that straining and waste of 

 muscular power consequent upon continual slipping and 



