EXPERIENCE IX ENGLAND OF TWO UNSHOD HORSES. 125 



ceasing to breed, I took her up and used her as a 

 shepherd's hack, where she had constant work for 

 two years ; and, in travelling from farm to farm, 

 she had a considerable distance of hard road to 

 traverse daily, yet she never required shoeing. In 

 the summer of 1877 I purchased a farm horse which 

 had had the misfortune to get a nail into its foot, 

 and he had been under the farrier's treatment for 

 several months; but had made so little progress 

 towards recovery, that I determined to try what 

 Nature would do for him, I had his shoes taken 

 off and turned him to pasture. In the spring of 

 1878, being still rather lame, I put him to work on 

 the land ; and he is now doing all sorts of farm 

 work, including drawing manure from the town, and 

 drags his load as well over hard pavement as 

 any shod horse that I have. Whether he could 

 stand constant work on hard roads I am unable to 

 say; but he does all that I require of him, and the 

 experiment is so satisfactory that I intend to put 

 another horse through the same training.' 



The ' Lancet ' says : — ' As a matter of physiolo- 

 gical fitness, nothing more indefensible than the use 

 of shoes can be imagined. Not only is the mode 

 of attaching them by nails injurious to the hoof; it 

 is the probable, if not evident, cause of many affec- 

 tions of the foot and leg, which impair the use- 

 fulness, and must affect the comfort, of the animal.' 

 There is no dearth of complaints about horseshoes ; 

 but people still ' cling so tenaciously to the favourite 

 superstition ' of regarding them as ' necessary evils,' 



