80 THE HORSE. 



brought nearer to the centre of the shoe than they 

 ought to be. As a necessary result, the shoe, at the 

 front nail-holes, is too narrow for the foot, and, when 

 it is nailed on, the crust presses injui-iously on the in- 

 ternal sensible parts of the foot. 



It is difficult to convince smiths of the possibility of 

 laming a horse, by having the shoe too naiTOw in front. 

 They generally think the whole difficulty lies about the 

 heel. I once had a horse with small feet. He usually 

 went very tender. When I complained to the smith 

 that the shoes were not sufficiently wide across the 

 front nails, and that they were di'iveu and clenched a 

 great deal too tight on the foot, he merely laughed at 

 the matter as being visionary. He would not be per- 

 suaded that this was the cause of lameness. He always 

 insisted that the legs must be at fault, as the feet ap- 

 peared to be quite right. From this opinion I begged 

 to dissent. I thought the complaint must be in the 

 feet, as there was no possible trace of disease in the 

 legs. The smith's opinion, however, could not be 

 changed, and, right or wTong, he followed his own 

 plan of shoeing. The horse at length became so use- 

 less, that I was going to sell him for whatever he 

 would bring. About this period, I fortunately had a 

 conversation with a smith who entu'cly coincided in my 

 OTNTi views. He asked me to give him one trial with the 

 horse. I did so, and accompanied him to the forge. 

 I saw the operation of shoeing perfonned, and ap- 



