THE HORSE. - 67 



upon which horses travel so rapidly and well, resist- 

 ing that internal concavity in proportion to the tough- 

 ness and natural goodness of their feet, is certainly 

 nevertheless a form of shoe not entitled to recommen- 

 dation. Even many of the London smiths, it seems, 

 yet fit the shoe on red hot, and cut away the bars 

 of the hoof. Osmer's seated shoe, which I have 

 known, almost as long as I have known any, though 

 ever so little used, appears to me to be the best, as 

 most congenial with the nature of the hoof, and the 

 best preservative of the wall or crust on which the 

 shoe must depend. The seat of this shoe consists of 

 a flat surface, adapted to the surface of the crust ; 

 and if in the change tow T ard the heels, there may, 

 according to Mr. Goodwin, result some inconveni- 

 ence, which, however, I never experienced, that gentle- 

 man no doubt could easily provide a remedy, and 

 improve the Osmerian shoe. Its ground surface may 

 be hammered somewhat concave. With respect to 

 Mr. Goodwin's hobby-horsical obliquity in his shoe, 

 after the French model, probably for want of experi- 

 ence of its effects in practice, I cannot agree with 

 him. I never saw a horse's foot in its natural state 

 with the toe raised ; on the contrary, the toe seems 

 intended by nature, whilst the animal is in action, to 

 have a fast hold upon the ground ; and, it appears to 

 me, that the obliquity, or turning upward of the toe 

 of the shoe, places the horse in an unnatural, and on 

 many occasions, an unsafe position. 



After all, nothing can be more plain and level with 

 common sense, which we trust has, in these latter 

 days, something in common with farriery, than the 



