STABLE EEFOEMS. 225 



of their natural lives." This is tall talking; but it is 

 easy to talk. In theory this shoe is defective, as being 

 nailed too near the heels, in making the crust sustain the 

 whole weight of the horse (for, though a model is sold of 

 a foot and Goodenough^s shoe on it a la Charlier, it is 

 an absurdity, the frog of the model foot being such as no 

 horse ever possessed), and because the toe calkins would 

 naturally make the horse stumble. In practice I found 

 the following faults : A hack shod with them on the fore 

 feet, previously a good goer, stumbled shockingly until 

 the calkin was worn away. Theory and practice agreed 

 here for once. Two harness horses got along pretty well 

 so shod all round ; but '' forged," as the phrase goes — 

 that is to say, hit the toe of the fore shoe with the toe 

 calkin behind, until the latter was worn down, thereby 

 making a constant noise most unpleasant to the driver, 

 and not unattended with danger of falling. They 

 stumbled, but, having no weight on their backs, did this 

 less than the hack. A hunter went much as usual on the 

 soft — neither better nor worse, for calkins are of no good 

 in soft ground, the whole foot being then choked up with 

 mud j but in his first gallop a shoe broke in two. So did 

 a shoe apiece of both of the harness horses. The hack^s 

 did not, but were an exception in not doing so. Of 

 course no sane man would put shoes with a toe calkin on 

 a hunter^s hind feet ; we have overreaches enough with- 

 out that. But the mishaps enumerated above are 

 only what might be expected from the make of the 

 shoe. The calkins speak for themselves, and the great 

 size of the nail holes must make the shoe very liable to 

 break close to them when at all worn, and even, as in the 

 case of the hunter, when not worn, that being a very 

 weak point. The advertisements stated that the shoes 



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