H. JENNINGS, AND THE RACEHOESE. 153 



for granted that such was the case. He strongly 

 condemns ' routine ' and ' prejudice,' yet he had a 

 leaven of both still clinging to him. 



Fortunately we are not obliged to wait whilst 

 scientists work out the intricacies of the problems. 

 In thirty days people have been able to satisfy them- 

 selves thoroughly of the error of their former ways 

 as regards shoeing. Others will do the same ; and 

 some of them will not even care to hear at a future 

 date how pathologists may have succeeded in inter- 

 preting things which are now to us virtually what 

 cuneiform inscriptions would be to Zulus. 



As has been remarked by ' Santa Fe,' ^ people 

 will still shirk the trial of doing away with shoes 

 as long as they can, by making all sorts of trivial 

 excuses to themselves. ' Santa Fe ' already divines 

 five such probable excuses, of which the one that is 

 perhaps the most frequently urged is, that ' they 

 think there may be something in it, but they will 

 wait until someone else tries it.' But there is one 

 unmentioned by him (although he foresees that 

 there will be others) which is scarcely less used ; 

 and it is that many say they believe that it would 

 answer well with most classes of horses, but that the 

 particular kind of horse they possess —it matters not 

 of what breed he may be, or what he may have to do 

 — could not do without shoes, although all the others 

 might do so. IVIr. H. Jennings was not so narrow- 

 minded as this. He had to do with the racer, and 

 he found out that shoes were a nuisance, both to 



* See Appendix E, 



