j56 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



with a mode of shoeing I have adopted, as well as in the 

 French method of Lafosse, and a modification of it which 

 will be noticed presently, the sole does support more or less 

 of the strain and wear, and not only with impunity, but to 

 the advantage of foot and limb. The horse's sole, in com- 

 mon with that of every quadruped, was destined by nature 

 to sustain more or less weight and wear, and if it is not 

 cruelly deprived of what nature has wisely given it for 

 that purpose, it will do so perfectly. 



Colonel Fitzwygram's method of shoeing does not 

 appear to have gained much ground. The difficulties in 

 rounding or curving-up the toe of the shoe to a proper 

 degree, and the objection of farriers and grooms to allow 

 the foot to remain in a healthy unmutilated state, will, it 

 is to be feared, operate, more or less, against its adoption. 



The treatise, however, should be in the hands of every 

 horseman, not only because of the excellent advice it con- 

 tains relative to the preservation and defence of the foot, 

 but also for the clear and philosophical discussion of the 

 various predisposing causes of disease in that organ. 

 Miles's method of nailing, and Colonel Fitzwygram's di- 

 rections for maintaining the sole and frog intact, mark, 

 perhaps, the greatest improvements in shoeing in England 

 during this century. 



In 1862, Mr Mavor, a veterinary surgeon in London, 

 patented a form of shoe and method of shoeing intended to 

 serve several useful and important purposes. The shoe was 

 made of iron rolled by machinery into a particular shape ; 

 so that when formed it appeared as a narrow, though some- 

 what thick rim of metal, slightly concave towards the 

 ground, the lower margin being thin ; while the foot-surface 



