5o6 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



Mr J. Clark's excellent treatise/ dedicated to the Earl 

 of Pembroke, and published twenty years later, is also a pro- 

 test against the destructive and cruel mode of managing 

 horses' feet, and the vicious character of the shoes applied 

 to them. The science of veterinary medicine was rapidly 

 advancing ; its practitioners were, many of them, men of 

 education and observation, and the gap between the shoer, 

 — the man of routine, and the man of science, was gradu- 

 ally widening ; so that farriery, properly so called, soon 

 lagged behind ; and all the teaching of such men as Blun- 

 devil, Osmer, Clark, and others, could not move it from 

 its degraded state. Much of this was due, however, to 

 the pernicious influence of ignorant grooms and others, 

 who, trusted implicitly in this matter by their employers, 

 prejudiced them against the introduction of improve- 

 ments, the aim of which they had not sufficient intelligence 

 to understand. ' However necessary it has been found to 

 fix iron shoes upon the hoofs of horses, it is certainly con- 

 trary to the original design of shoeing them, first to destroy 

 their hoofs by paring, &c., and afterwards to put on the 

 foot a broad strong shoe to protect what remains, or rather 

 to supply the defect or want of that substance which has 

 been taken away. Yet, however absurd this manner of 

 treating the feet of horses may appear, it is well known 

 that it has been carried to a very great length, and still 

 continues to be thought absolutely necessary. The de- 

 struction of their hoofs, and many other bad consequences 

 arising from it, are every day but too apparent.' So says 

 Mr Clark. The Earl of Pembroke, in his work on 



' Observations on the Shoeing of Horses. By J. Clark, Farrier to 

 His Majesty for Scotland. 3rd edition. Edinburgh, 1782. 



