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no THE HORSE: ITS TAMING, 



smith, and knows more than anyone else how it 

 ought to be done. Yet horses are lamed and crippled 

 daily by the bad shoeing of careless and ignorant 

 smiths. The navicular disease, as I have before said, 

 has been on the increase for years past in this country, 

 and " contraction " is more prevalent now than it ever 

 was. To prove this, examine a horse's foot at fifteen 

 years of age, and another's that has never been shod. 

 Yet all the smiths are clever (?) — at least, they say 

 they are so themselves. (Mind you, reader, I don't 

 mean the smiths of Great Britain ; it's the Australian 

 shoe-smiths I refer to.) 



I have had something to do with smiths in both 

 countries, and there is nae sae muckle difference 

 between them. That is my first verdict ; but if there 

 is any, it is certainly to the credit of the home smith 

 — he^ as a rule, will do what he is told, even if it is 

 against his own belief; but the Australian smith won't 

 — he'll do it as he likes, and he tells you so ; and as 

 you do not, as a rule, carry a forge in your saddle 

 valise, you have to put up with what you get, and go 

 away thankful that it's not worse. During all my travel- 

 ling in Scotland, there was only one smith who deliber- 

 ately acted in opposition to my orders, and when he came 

 to be paid, I was so vexed, he got it. There was no 

 change given ; he had had enough of my custom, he 

 said. We never saw each other after, but my little 

 mare " Butterfly," that had never been lame in her 



