AN APPEAL TO HORSEMEN. 685 



Utmost to remove from its path any pain or discomfort 

 which this exaction may entail. I can conceive no 

 greater torture man can inflict on this m.ost willing 

 servant, than that induced by ignorance or neglect in the 

 application of shoes to its feet. 



Let every one who can, strive to prevent the unscien- 

 tific and ruinous mutilation of the hoofs by paring and 

 rasping. It is a practice which is only worthy of a bar- 

 barous age, and was a fit accompaniment to the hideous 

 fashion of cropping the horse's ears, amputating his tail, 

 and curving the miserable stump remaining over the 

 poor animal's back — a fashion which, though it made a 

 burlesque of nature's handiwork, was yet far less injurious 

 and torturing than a vicious system of shoeing. 



THE END. 



