158 HORSES AND ROADS. 



It has been well said in a work entitled ' The 

 Eights of an Animal : ' * In the history of thought, 

 that which is to-day's laughing-stock becomes to- 

 morrow's doubt, the wisdom of the third day, and 

 the child's lesson of the fourth.' 



To return to the hunter : his foot is constructed 

 upon a principle which prevents it from picking up 

 and retaining dirt ; but shoeing does away with its 

 architecture and mechanism. Unshod hunters would 

 be free of the drawback of carrying about the weight 

 of iron and dirt. When they put their feet dovni in 

 ploughed land, expansion would cause them to make 

 a big opening, and as, on withdrawal, the foot would 

 become smaller by contraction, it would slip out 

 without ' sucking,' whilst there would be nothing on 

 the bottom of it that could pull out dirt with it, as 

 the shoe does — always excepting the Charlier. 



Youatt says : ' An ounce or two in the weight of 

 the shoe will tell sadly before the end of a hard 

 day's work ; ' and an old proverb says : ' An ounce 

 on the heel tells more than a pound on the back.' 

 If people would reflect that this extra weight has to 

 be swung at the end of a lever which is not of the 

 first order, they would understand how ounces re- 

 present pounds. The leverages in the horse's leg 

 are largely of the second and third orders. There- 

 fore, the shod hunter is more heavily handicapped 

 than any other horse, except the steeplechaser. Add 

 to this, the absence of disease and pain which must 

 detract from weight-carrying power, and we should 

 find the thirteen stone hunter of the present day 



