THE GROOM 131 



repletion are the principal causes of illness, and when bleeding 

 and physicing fail, let not a master persevere, but send for the 

 " vet." Horses sometimes fall lame without any one, not 

 even the "vet," being able to discover the seat of the lame- 

 ness, and will as suddenly get well and disappoint all the 

 prognostications of the learned. Physic is then the thing — it 

 can do no harm, if it does no good — given in moderation, of 

 course. 



Shoeing is a thing that the green-horns of service are little 

 acquainted with the importance of. They are always "just 

 going" to get their horses shod, let the shoes be ever so thin, 

 when they are asked about them. Foot lameness, that curse 

 of good horseflesh, whose origin "no one knows nothing of," 

 may be all traced to indolent, ignorant stablemen — Grooms 

 we will not call them — and clumsy, unskilful blacksmiths. 

 Some men make a fuss about seeing their horses fed ; we 

 would rather see them shod. Shoeing is a thing upon which 

 doctors differ, as well as upon other points. One man will 

 tell you that the shoe should be made to fit the foot, and not 

 the foot burnt with the hot iron to make it fit the shoe, while 

 others will say that if the shoe be not burnt and fitted well, 

 the crust breaks and shivers up. Both these statements may 

 be found in " printed books." Perhaps it may be enough for 

 us to observe that a horse should be shod every three weeks or 

 a month, and that it is better to get them shod every three 

 weeks, than removed at that period, and shod at the end of 

 the month. The less wrenching and country-smith working 

 there is about a horse's foot the better, as we well know. 



On this point, however, we shall enlarge when we come to 

 treat of our friend Elijah BulKvaist, the blacksmith, whose 

 rubicund visage now greets us as he enters the hunting field 

 on his shaggy white pony. 



Instead of seeing a saddle-room shelf studded with bottles 

 and bo.xes, we would rather see a good assortment of combs. 



