6i,6 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



the integrity of the foot will vary with the requirements of 

 the animal, i. e. with the services demanded from him. 

 For instance, we would not shoe a race-horse like one for 

 draught, or a hunter like one for carriage-work ; the shoes 

 must be varied more or less in form and weight, to suit 

 different purposes and degrees of wear. It will be under- 

 stood that no fixed shape, size, or weight can be deter- 

 mined for all horses. It may be laid down as a rule, 

 however, that the properties of a good shoe, no matter for 

 what service, must be lightness and durability — opposite 

 qualities which require skill to combine, but which are 

 nevertheless of some moment, more particularly with 

 horses required to move quickly, and for long periods, 

 over paved roads. 



One of the great evils that has accompanied the art of 

 farriery for many centuries, in addition, and in immediate 

 relation, to the mutilation of the hoof, has been the excess- 

 ive weight of the shoes attached to the feet. The most 

 primitive specimens of shoes were only a narrow band of 

 iron, plane on both faces, and were, in all probability, fast- 

 ened on uncut hoofs. With the introduction of the paring 

 fallacy, more iron was necessary to cover the parts made 

 tender and sensitive by being robbed of their horn, and the 

 lateral expansion and sole-descent theory perpetuated, if it 

 did not exaggerate, the mischief. Not only is a wide surface 

 of metal urgently required to shield the greater part of the 

 sole, as we see in Mr Miles's directions, but it is regarded 

 by only too many men, who ought to know better, that in 

 addition to width, shoes should also possess a good thick- 

 ness, to protect the foot from jar. The absurdity of this 

 plea does not need demonstration ; it may be sufficient to 



