124 HORSES AND ROADS. 



nails by which the shoes had been fastened. After 

 this, the hoof grew thick and hard, quite unlike 

 what it had been before. I now put the pony to 

 full work, and he stands it well. He is more sure- 

 footed ; his tread is almost noiseless ; and his hoofs 

 are in no danger from the rough hands of the 

 farrier ; and the change altogether has been a clear 

 gain, without anything to set off against it. The 

 pony was between four and five years old, and had 

 been regularly shod up to the present year. He 

 now goes better without shoes than he ever did with 

 them ; and without shoes he will continue to go as 

 long as he remains in my possession.' 



That eight months after — in August, 1879 — this 

 gentleman should send a copy of this same article 

 to a provincial paper, is proof that he had never had 

 any difficulties after the first month, the time 

 needed for the ' thick,' ' hard ' horn to reach the 

 ground. There is one thing that he does not tell 

 us, but which would have been interesting to know ; 

 and it is, whether any of his neighbours found 

 heart and brains enough to profit by his example. 

 His silence leaves room for the conjecture that 

 ' they had eyes, but saw not.' It is even possible 

 they still look upon his proceeding as an eccentri- 

 city. Such is life ; the world might stand still for 

 all that some people care to the contrary. 



At the same time that this was passing, a well- 

 known farmer and breeder of shorthorns in Cum- 

 berland wrote : — * I had a brood mare which had 

 been running barefooted for several years, when, 



