66 



THE HORSE. 



I have already said (p. 42) a few words on shoe- 

 ing the horse, and that which I have yet to say must 

 be stated in general terms, for I am not a professional 

 man, but having been set on horseback in infancy, 

 and having conceived so intense an affection for the 

 horse, that during the season of youth, and of the 

 middle more especially, I might almost have been 

 said to have lived on horseback, it could not well 

 happen that I should have gained no experience in 

 that most important relation to him, his shoeing. A 

 proprietor's object is to have his horse fitted accord- 

 ing to the nature, substance, and form of his horse's 

 feet, and with good solid iron, for both shoes and 

 nails, and not with that cheap substitute of cast iron, 

 in such general use for the purpose. His first duty 

 then, towards himself and his horse, is to find a skil- 

 ful farrier, and not to deny him some extra price for 

 his superior shoes, far the cheaper at an advance, and 

 the more safe. Mr. Goodwin finds much fault with our 

 general system of shoeing, the errors in which are in 

 great measure attributable to the owners of horses, 

 for certainly of late years there have been a consider- 

 able number of capable smiths in the metropolis and 

 dispersed throughout the country : but in provincial 

 districts, where that may not be the case, the landed 

 gentlemen or the yeomanry would do a patriotic act, 

 useful both to the community and themselves indivi- 

 dually, by the substitution of capable for incapable 

 hands, in which they might succeed by an application 

 to the proper quarters in the metropolis. The pre- 

 sent common English shoe, externally inclining to 

 the convex, and internally, or next the crust, concave, 



