18 THE horse's foot, 



can render myself more intelligible. The first recommenda. 

 tion I have to offer concerning the shoe itself has reference, 

 not to its form, but to its weight, and is suggested by the 

 prevailing idea that shoes cannot well be too light. A very 

 little reflection will convince us that this notion must be 

 founded in error, involving as it does two most objectionable 

 properties in a shoe, viz., liability to bend, and insufficient 

 covering. The inconvenience to a horse of an ounce or so 

 of increased weight in each shoe is not worth a moment's 

 consideration, compared with the discomfort to him of 

 travelling upon a hard road with a bent shoe on his foot, 

 straining the nails, and making unequal and painful pressure. 



The other evil arising out of light shoes, is a deficiency 

 of width in the web,* which robs the foot of much valuable 

 protection, and leaves the sole and frog exposed to numberless 

 injuries, that a wider web would effectually prevent. 



For my own horses I not only have the web made wider 

 fnan is usually met with, but I take especial care that the 

 same width of web is continued throughout the whole shoe, 

 back to the heels, giving increased covering and protection to 

 the sole of the foot. The common practice is to get it narrow- 

 er and narrower, until it dwindles at the heels into about half 

 its original width ;-\ and the only reason assigned for this in- 

 jurious practice is, " liking to see the shoe well set off at the 

 heels."t 



I know that I have a very prevalent and deep-rooted preju 

 dice to contend with in this manner ; still I do not despair of 

 convincing some, at least, of my readers that it is both unphilo- 

 sophical and detrimental ; it imposes upon the understanding 

 by deceiving the eye, and is in the last degree hurtful to the 

 horse's foot. When a shoe is thus set off at the heels, it im- 

 parts to the foot an appearance of greater width than it really 

 possesses ; but if the shoe happened to be made of glass, oi 

 some other transparent substance, the deception would be ai 

 once detected ; for then the outer edge of the foot would be 

 seen to rest on the inner edge only of the shoe,§ and the whole 

 of the remaining width of the web would be seen projecting 

 beyond the hoof, forming a convenient clip for another horse 

 to tread upon, but utterly useless as affording support to any 

 part of the foot itself. A common observer, on taking up a 

 foot with a shoe so fitted, looks only to the space between the 



* Page 52, fig. 8. t Page 60, fig. 15. 



I Page 53, fig. 9. § Page 54, fig. 10. 



