SHOEING. 



723 



* The instance in which 1 was disappointed is that of a horse 

 kept entirely for that of a riding-horse, and which is consequently 

 almost daily under my own inspection. This horse has very strong 

 feet, one of which was smaller than the other, with the toe turning 

 out and the frog almost wasted. The bars of this foot, before he 

 was turned out, were scarcely visible, but upon examining them 

 after he had been out about three months, they were found to have 

 increased surprisingly. Notwithstanding this, they were not strong 

 enough to counteract the pressure of the quartei'S ; and the foot 

 itself appeared to be rather decreased, which is contrarj^ to what is 

 usual ; for after having been turned out for a certain time, they 

 generally become larger. So particular a case led me to turn my 

 mind to a particular method of cure. This I should have hardly 

 found out, if chance had not at that time put into my hands Lieu- 



FiG. 566.— The Goodenough 

 thin-heeled shoe. 



Fig. 567.— The ordinary shoe 

 as usually fitted. 



tenant Moor's Narrative of Captain Little's detachment. On page 

 93 of this book is the following passage : — 



" ' The bigotry with which all sects of the Hindoos adhere to 

 their own customs is very well known; still when these customs 

 are strikingly injudicious, and totally abstracted from all religious 

 prejudices, perseverence degenerates into obstinacy, and sim 

 plicity into 



Ignorance. 



So it is with the Mahrattas in abidina- 



by their present practice of cutting the hoof and shoeing horses; 

 they cut away the hinder part of the hoof in such a manner that 

 the pastern almost touches the ground, and the frog is suffered to 

 grow so that the hoof is nearly a circle, in which form the shoos arc 

 made, the hinder parts almost touching, and so thin that a person 

 of ordinary strength can easily twist them. Instead of making the 

 back part of tke shoe thickest, they hammer it quite thin, making 

 the fore part thickest, and the shoe, gradually becoming thinner, 

 ends in an edge.' 



" This mode of shoeing in a country where, from the nature of 

 the climate, the horse's feet probably are very strong, did not strike 

 me to be quite so injudicious as the author above mentioned repre- 



