S62 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



in the second there was only i in 183. This enormous 

 difference would have been still greater, if the hot fitting 

 had been practised in the ordinary manner. But the 

 School was then labouring under an impression of 

 dangers which I might almost term chimerical, from 

 burning the sole, and which the theory of podometric 

 shoeing had developed. So that an order was given to 

 the farriers to apply the hot shoe lightly, and immediately 

 remove all that portion of the horn which had been in 

 contact with it ; this was almost a return to cold fitting. 

 The order was punctually executed, under the uninter- 

 rupted superintendence of the acting brigadier.' 



This evidence is in perfect harmony with that furn- 

 ished at a later period by Colonel Ambert ' of the 

 Saumur School, who was at first a zealous partisan of 

 Riquet's system. ' Out of 650 horses, the effective strength 

 of a regiment, during every month from ^^ to 60 lost 

 their shoes in marching or manoeuvering, since the em- 

 ployment of cold fitting ; or, in other terms, the regiment 

 has not marched for an hour without losing a shoe. 

 With the system of hot-fitting, the same regiment lost 

 only one shoe in a journey of eight stages.' After an 

 extensive experience, this observer arrives at the follow- 

 ing conclusions : 



' I . The hot fitting is not attended by any danger or 

 inconvenience when properly practised (that is, on hoofs 

 the soles of which are pared). 



' 2. The solidity of hot shoeing (or fitting) being 

 greater than that of cold, the workman having more 



' De la Ferrure des Chevaux. Journal de Med. Vet., p. 246. 

 18J1. 



