COLD SHOEING IN SPAIN — TRIMMING THE FROG. 37 



with the butteris ; and he would on no account put 

 a calk on a shoe unless as an orthopcedic resource, and 

 even then only when ordered by a V. S. The natural 

 consequence is that Spanish horses are freer from 

 foot diseases and lameness than are ours in England ; 

 and so unaccustomed are Spanish farriers to find foot 

 lameness (as, amongst other things, they shoe short 

 behind, and so let the horse tread on his own 

 heels, thus preventing corns), that they generally 

 suspect, and test for, lameness in the shoulder, 

 when a lame horse is brought to them, before 

 referring to his feet ; unless, of course, it is pal- 

 pable or visible to their experienced eye, from the 

 outset, that the lameness is really in the foot. Most 

 English farriers always suspect the foot first, and 

 even then they cannot always pitch upon the foot on 

 which the horse goes lame : they have even been 

 known to operate first upon the three sound feet 

 in succession, and then to take the lame one ! 



Amongst the evils of paring away the horn, there 

 is one that appears to have passed unnoticed, or un- 

 commented upon, by the authorities who so strenu- 

 ously endeavour to point out the evils of shoeing 

 upon the so-called ' improved principles.' Yet it is 

 not one of the least. In trimming away the frog 

 on its sides, the farrier scores deeply with the ijoint 

 of his drawing knife into the sole, and this, added to 

 the paring to which he subjects the sole all over, must 

 necessarily and obviously further weaken the arch 

 of the foot. The letting down of the arch in this 

 way contributes to navicular disease, for between the 



