BOOTS AND ROLLS. 445 



noon will not be too much, provided his legs, or rather 

 his joints, be not swollen, and the following morning he 

 can be jogged three miles, with a brush the length of the 

 stretch. 



PUPIL. Did you observe the amount of leather one of 

 these horses wore? I counted eight boots on his fore 

 legs alone. 



PRECEPTOR. There seems to be a passion amongst some 

 men to cover a horse's legs with boots, and though there 

 are horses that have to wear them to protect some part 

 from injury, more are generally used than necessity re- 

 quires. I have known people to use them for fear a horse 

 might hit himself, although the animal had never shown 

 any cause for being thus hampered. I prefer to take the 

 pains that will guarantee safety, by looking closely to the 

 shoeing and handling, and find that in nine cases in ten 

 the result is satisfactory. Our best harness-makers now 

 keep a supply of boots, from which the most fastidious 

 can suit themselves, though I must admit a predilection 

 for more simple contrivances, which often prove fully as 

 effectual. Light buckskin rolls, stuffed with hair, or 

 circlets of India-rubber tubes, will guard the pasterns as 

 well as the heavy leathern ones. For instance, a horse 

 rarely hurts the quarters with the outside of the toe of 

 the shoe ; the injury is done with the inside of the web or 

 calking, and if this catches on a roll, in place of the heel, 

 the foot slips off without doing injury. The shin is often- 

 times better protected with a bandage than by the most 

 elaborately contrived boot that ever was made ; while 

 the knee can be clad with strips of strong cloth envelop- 

 ing the part, and fastened with an elastic tape above the 

 joint, the upper part being turned over, making a double 

 thickness for the foot to strike against. Should the 

 protection be needed above the knee, on the inside of the 

 arm, the folds are put on thicker, and the cloth not 



