478 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



'28. If a horse which has pared hoofs happens to lose 

 his shoes and walks without them, the horn is quickly 

 used and the feet damaged. 



' 29. Another defect is in the manner of making large 

 nail-holes in the shoes, etc. 



'30. The majority of farriers, in order to pare the 

 sole well, cut it until it bleeds, and to stop the haemorrhage, 

 they burn the place with a hot iron, and the horse returns 

 lame to his stable.' 



We see, then, that the curse of paring and heav^y 

 shoes was causing great evils in the days of Lafosse, as 

 much as in our own. After enumerating all the vices 

 and defects of shoeing, as it was then practised, he pro- 

 ceeds to lay the foundation for a rational method ; and 

 his remarks to this end are particularly happy. In a state 

 of nature, he observes, all the inferior parts of the foot 

 concur to sustain the weight of the body ; then we ob- 

 serve that the heels and the frogs — the parts said to be 

 most exposed, are never damaged by wear ; that the wall 

 or crust is alone worn in going on hard ground, and that 

 it is only this part which must be protected, leaving the 

 other parts free and unfettered in their natural movements. 

 These are the true and simple principles of good farriery 

 he lays down, and they are as appropriate and explicit to- 

 day as they were then. ' To prevent horses slipping on 

 the dry glistening pavement {pave sec et plombe), it is 

 necessary to shoe them with a crescent-shaped shoe — that 

 is, a shoe which only occupies the circumference of the 

 toe, and whose heels gradually thin away to the middle of 

 the quarters ; so that the frog and heels of the hoof bear 

 on the ground, and the weight be sustained behind and 



