Il8 HORSES: 



heel. This wretched victim to fashion was then re- 

 garded with the utmost satisfaction by the farriers 

 and his groom ; and all this heathenism was perpe- 

 trated in the forge of a veterinary surgeon. But, per- 

 haps, he was shoeing to order." 



Amongst the reformers of these great abuses M. 

 Charlier occupies a prominent place. His shoe in its 

 first shape was not successful. Starting rightly on 

 the assumption that nature intended the horse to 

 walk barefoot, and that the bottom of his foot was in 

 every way fitted to stand all wear and tear, he ex- 

 cepted from these self-sufficing parts the outer rim, 

 that is, the wall or crust. '' He, therefore," " Free 

 Lance " tell us, " made a shoe of very narrow iron, 

 less than the width of the wall, which he let in, or 

 imbedded, to the crust, without touching the sole 

 even on the edge, so that, in fact, the horse stood no 

 higher after he was shod than he stood when bare- 

 footed. He urged that such a narrow piece of iron 

 would not interfere with the natural expansion and 

 contraction of the foot ; and in this he at once went 

 wrong, for malleable iron has no spring in it. Then, 

 in spite of his theory, as he expressed it, he carried 

 his shoe right round the foot into the bars, beyond 

 where the crust ceases to be independent of them. 

 He then got a very narrow, weak shoe, about a foot 

 in circumference (if circumference can be applied to 

 that which is not a complete circle) ; and, as he ought 

 to have foreseen, the shoe then twisted or broke on 

 violent exertion." Still, as freeing the horse from a 

 large amount of the weight usually attached to his foot. 



