82 THE horse's foot, 



even bearing was then restored to the foot, and the horse 

 thereby placed in comfort. 



Cutting with the fore foot is almost always to be prevented 

 by one-sided nailing, and keeping the shoe a little within the 

 edge of the crust on the inner side; but as this is generally 

 overdone, by placing the shoe so much within as to depri e 

 the crust of its requisite support, it will be advisable to as- 

 certain, by the use of pipe-clay, the exact point with which 

 the shoe strikes, when the part needing alteration at once dis- 

 closes itself. 



The practice of shoeing horses in the stable, away from the 

 forge, where there is no possibility of correcting any defect 

 in the fitting of the shoe, is so utterly opposed to reason and 

 common sense, that I should only have adverted to it as a 

 custom of bygone days, exploded with the use of the but- 

 tress, and the notion of chest founder, if I had not actually 

 witnessed its perpetration four times within the last year, and 

 that too in the stables of gentlemen by no means addicted 

 upon other matters to yield their judgment a ready captive to 

 other men's prejudices. Now if either of these gentlemen 

 had happened to ask the smith "what he was doing?" the 

 answer would in all probability have awakened him to a sud- 

 den conviction, that he was giving his countenance to a most 

 unphilosophical proceeding ; for the smith would have told 

 him, that he was fitting a shoe to the horse's foot, which the 

 gentleman would at once perceive to be impossible ; inasmuch 

 as he had no means at hand whereby to effect the smallest 

 change in the form of the shoe, however much it might re- 

 quire it ; and the truth would instantly force itself upon him, 

 that the man was fitting the foot to the shoe, and not, as he 

 supposed, the shoe to the foot. To fit the shoe to the foot 

 without the aid of anvil and forge is impossible ; and any 

 one acquainted with the exactness and precision necessary 

 to a perfect fitting, would not hesitate to declare the attempt 

 to be as absurd as it is mischievous. Suppose, for example, 

 the shoe to be a little too wide in any particular part ; this 

 will throw the nail-holes rather further out than they ought 

 to be ; but as there are no means of altering it, there the 

 nails must be driven, and a constant strain outwards will be 

 the inevitable consequence : if on the contrary it be too nar- 

 row, the strain will be inwards, and press upon the sensitive 

 parts of the foot : in either case producing uneasiness, and 

 causing the horse to move with a feeling, undecided step. 

 Again : if the crust have not an even bearing everywhere 



