ROBERT BONNER ON SHOEING 



Bracken, Captain Burden, William Gibson, Solley- 

 sell, Markham, and James Clark, farrier to his 

 Majesty for Scotland. But I shall not weary you 

 with extracts from them. Since the college was 

 started we have had works of more or less value on 

 the foot from St. Bel, its first professor, from Cole- 

 man, who succeeded him, and from Bracy, Clark, 

 Freeman, White, Youatt, Goodwin, Percival, Flem- 

 ing, Colonel Fitzwygram, of the King's Hussars, 

 James Turner, and others too numerous to mention. 

 Of these I consider Fitzwygram's * Notes on Shoe- 

 ing/ and Turner's treatise on * Navicular Joint Lame- 

 ness,' the most valuable. Colonel Fitzwygram de- 

 votes considerable space to the elementary principles 

 of shoeing, but the leading feature of his book is the 

 part in which he advocates turning up the toe of the 

 shoe out of the line of wear, giving it the appearance 

 of a shoe that is nearly worn out at the toe, which 

 allows the foot to glide or pass gracefully over the 

 toe as it leaves the ground. This shoe, I believe, will 

 work well on nine horses out of ten, but especially 

 on those with strong cup feet and contracted heels. 

 He sums up the evils of the ordinary straight shoe 

 as follows: a tendency to produce contracted heels, 

 and shrivelling up of the frog from the absence of 

 wear at the back part of the foot; stumbling and 

 loss of speed from the resistence of the toe against 

 the ground, and undue strain on the flexor tendons 

 whose office it is to flex and raise the leg. 



" Turner was a member of the Royal Veterinary 

 College and a veterinary surgeon in the British army. 

 He was the first man to use the phrase * navicular dis- 

 ease,' to which reference is so often made at the 

 present time. He directed attention to it in a com- 

 munication that he sent to the Veterinary College in 



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