STABLE REFORMS. 227 



and those diseases wliich are caused by tlie slioe are not 

 likely to attack him. The sole must never be pared, nor 

 the frog; they will wear down of themselves. The 

 number and situation of the nail holes depend on indi- 

 vidual tastes. I shall not describe the adaptation of the 

 shoe further_, as a little illustrated pamphlet is published 

 which gives every detail — some of which require illus- 

 trating — but will merely give my experience of the article. 

 Towards the end of the seaon ^68-69, I found myself 

 with a stud of five hunters much the worse for wear. 

 No. 1 was ten years old, very good legs, and strong (too 

 strong) feet ; she went rather short on the road, and had 

 a most hateful trick, which had come on in the last two 

 seasons, of knuckling over on her front fetlocks, and in 

 fact she had fallen on the road twice, but without hurting 

 herself. Being a strong-footed one, I shod her a la 

 Charlier one day, and hunted her the next. Having her 

 feet on the ground made little or no difference in her 

 going; but the first difference I perceived in her was 

 that she galloped much lighter through plough, " dirt '^ 

 having been previously her weak point. This is easily 

 accounted for, as the common shoe comes out of the deep 

 ground with a " suck,^^ which is absent when the shoe 

 lies close into the foot. The common shoe makes 

 the ground surface of a foot so shod something like a 

 cup. The hacking improved slightly, but not much. In 

 August, ^69, I shod this mare with Charlier shoes behind 

 also, and after the first few days she never made a 

 '^ peck ^^ on the road, and felt quite different under me — 

 so much more springy. The fact is, I don^t think we 

 attend enough to the hind feet. They don^t show the 

 effects of bad shoeing like the fore feet, and so they 

 don^t get attention ; but what is bad in front can^t be 



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