EAISING THE HEELS. 101 



be palliated by tbe use of caulkens. It may be urged in opposition 

 to this, that nature does not provide any such protection to the 

 joints, tendons, and muscles of the hind limbs of the horse, 

 when in his wild or natural state, to which I can only reply, 

 that the cases are totally different. The horse when wild, has 

 simply to take care of himself ; he has not to carry a man weigh- 

 ing fourteen stones across a stiff clayey country at a rasping 

 pace; neither is he ever yoked to a heavy cart, loaded with 

 perhaps from three to four tons of iron ; nor to a vehicle, and 

 made to trot, fourteen, sixteen, and even eighteen miles an 

 hour, upon hard macadamized roads. All these, and many 

 other performances of a like nature, the civilized horse, at the 

 bidding of civilized [ ? ] man, is made to perform. 



It is amusing to hear what these sticklers for nature have 

 to advance in matters of this kind. Certainly nature does not 

 employ a farrier for the especial benefit of the animal when 

 untrammelled, and breathing the pure air of his native wilder- 

 ness; neither does she provide a fashionable boot maker for 

 the Australian savage. It is easy to talk about nature, but it 

 is another matter to draw rational conclusions from her 

 teachings. "Wild horses from what we positively know to the 

 contrary, may suffer as much from sprains, spavins, and curbs, 

 as do horses that are domesticated. 



The value of caulkens then to the shoes of the hind feet, 

 consists in raising the heels from the ground, and that too at a 

 time when the animal may be called upon to exert its physical 

 powers to the utmost limit ; in which case, the levers of the 

 limbs, so far as it is possible, will be prevented from being 

 stretched to an extent, which otherwise might prove severely 

 injurious to the living structures. 



The Peeyentioi^ oe Cutting. — Cutting the hind fetlocks 

 is a common practice with numbers of horses, if made to travel 



