HOW TO SELECT A HORSJ) AKD KEEP IT. 137 



to a horse that is not driven rapidly, are comfortable, but they in- 

 duce sweating, and so are best for horses that are not pushed as to 

 speed. If the legs are wiped dry whenever the horse comes in wet, 

 and especially when there is snow or ice-water, the common disease, 

 scratches, will have less chance of making its appearance. The 

 horse's feet should be cleaned whenever he stands all day in his 

 stall, and no manure should be allowed to accumulate on which he 

 can stand. Absolute cleanliness is the price of healthy feet, a fact 

 which many learn too late, but which all good horse owners entirely 

 agree upon. 



SHOEING. 



The legs and feet of the horse are his weakest points, and noth- 

 ing is more important to their well being than good shoeing. That 

 the ordinary blacksmith or horse shoer knows absolutely nothing of 

 the structure of the foot can be soon ascertained by any one who will 

 ask the ordinary workman a half a dozen questions. Mr. Russell, in 

 the lecture before spoken of, describes the English methods, which 

 he made the subject of personal obsei-vation in their best shops, as 

 ** utterly irrational." The shoes have a thick wide web, with high 

 calks at the heels only, lifting the horse's feet as some of the fashion- 

 able so-called French heels lift the over-dressed woman. In both 

 cases, easy or comfortable traveling is out of the question. The fact 

 that some English horses, whose names are known all over the 

 world and whose value is reckoned by the thousands of pounds, are 

 shod in this senseless way, shows plainly that their owners trust too 

 bUndly to those who do not know their business. 



In America we have, perhaps, as good shoeing as the world 

 affords, because horse owners have compelled the horse shoers to do 

 as they wished. We have light, strong, well-made shoes, freedom 

 from the high calks, except in icy weather, when they are necessary. 

 Our chief fault is having the shoe fitted hot, or burnt into the hoof, 

 iistea 1 of having it put on absolutely cold throupjhout the whole 

 process of shoeing. If any man who buys his shoes ready made 

 were to go into a store and try on a pair that did not lit him at all, and 

 should be told by the attending salesman that the shoes were "just 

 right," and should insist on his buying them on the plea that "the 

 foot would finally adapt itself to the shape of the shoe," the man 

 would think him a lunatic, and seek another place at once, where 

 the foot was of the first importance, and a shoe would be found to 

 fit. But the first is in reality what is done when the horse is taken 

 to be shod. A set of shoes is found with which it is decided to fit 

 the foot, or rather to make the foot fit, and then the farce or tragedy 



