RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN AND HORSES 



1816 regarding the discovery of the precise seat of 

 chronic lameness in the foot of the horse and also 

 in a paper that he subsequently read before the Lon- 

 don Veterinary Medical Society. He introduced 

 what was known as the unilateral or one-sided system 

 of nailing the shoe, after paring down to the quick 

 those commissures or channels between the bars and 

 the frog which are so morbidly deep in contracted 

 feet. He was recognized as the great authority in 

 his day on the nature, origin and symptoms of navicu- 

 lar joint lameness. His book can be read with profit 

 by every student of the foot. It has been of great 

 benefit to me; but Turner did not know it all. In 

 fact I have yet to hear of any man who does know it 

 all. The subject is too vast and intricate for that. 

 I certainly do not claim to have mastered it all, al- 

 though I think, from what I have learned from 

 others and from my own experience and observation, 

 I have made some progress in that direction. 



" What makes the subject of horse-shoeing so 

 difficult to master is that there are almost as many 

 varieties of feet as there are of the human counte- 

 nance. It does not follow that a shoe that may 

 suit one horse of a team will suit his mate. When 

 Maud S., for instance, made the fastest mile that was 

 ever made on a regulation track to a high-wheel 

 sulky, she carried 19 ounces on each forward foot, 

 while Sunol carried only 8 ounces when she made the 

 fastest mile that was ever made to such a sulky on 

 a kite-shaped track. One great thing to be remem- 

 bered, however, is that the shape of the hoof must 

 be made, as far as possible, to correspond with that 

 of a well-formed coffin bone, and that the shoes must 

 not be allowed to remain on the foot longer than 

 three or at the outside four weeks." 



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