measuring from the same point at coronet back along an 

 imaginary line drawn straight through the center of the foot, 

 from the point of commencement at the coronet, back to a line 

 drawn across the heels, and the judgment of the intelligent 

 owner and breeder must come in now to govern. He must get 

 the foot of the proper depth and length in front and proper depth 

 at the heels, so that to his eyes it shall look as though it was set 

 under the limb in artistic comfort. 



When the feet are apparently well balanced and in proper 

 proportion and angle to the limbs, i-asp off the edge of the wall 

 at surface and drive the horse a few days barefooted. It will not 

 hurt him or hurt his feet, for the feet when sound and healthy 

 (if the soles have been left intact, as they should be) do not need 

 any protection of iron nailed on to them, it matters not how hard 

 the road-bed may be. If his gait is smooth and even at the trot 

 without shoes you have got him balanced. 



Now, then, shoe him with exactly the same weight of iron on 

 each of the four feet. That is, make the hind shoes of the same 

 bar of steel (it is better than iron for shoes for many reasons) 

 that the fore ones are made of. Then if the hind feet are a little 

 smaller, as they sometimes are, the shoes will be all right. Why 

 should you put more weight on one foot than on the other if 

 your trotter is perfectly balanced in his gait barefooted? There 

 is no reason why you should do so, and I have balanced a great 

 many trotters and pacers in just this way, and always success- 

 fully. 



I trued and balanced the feet of a colt recently for a friend 

 of mine near Chicago. This colt is a yearling, a good, strong one, 

 speedy, and after I fixed his feet, pure gaited. I told this young 

 man not to put any shoes on him at all, for what little driving I 

 wished him to give him he would not need them. I wanted him 

 walked, and walked fast, very fast. It is the best muscle- making 

 exercise that can be given to a horse or colt. Well, there was a 

 smart smith down at this place, and he bet he could shoe this colt 

 so that he would pace. 



My friend had implicit confidence in my ability to true and 

 balance his colts, and he knew also that all their irregularities of 

 gait had disappeared entirely after I had done so, so he bet the 

 blacksmith, and how do you suppose he shod this colt so as to 

 make him pace? He put some eight-ounce shoes on the hind 

 feet and three-ounce shoes on the fore, and he could not make 

 him do anything but trot. He then took off the fore shoes, left 

 his fore feet bare, and still kept the shoes on the hind feet, and 

 yet he would do nothing but trot. 



The smith paid his bet and gave it up, but he said : "That 



man Hall beats anything I ever saw. I never saw a horse before 



I could not make pace by shoeing him that way." He couldn't 



this one, because the horse's instinct, which guided him to go at 



the easiest gait, demonstrated to him that that gait was the trot. I 



have always claimed, and do still claim, that the pacing gait is 



not the natural one. I will grant that the instinct of action at 



the pacing gait may be, at times, inherited, but it more often 



comes from the articulation being unbalanced. The reason we 



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