ARTISTIC HORSE-SHOEING. 39 



dollar I was worth and made an effort to learn how to shoe 

 horses. I sought the best instructors I could hear of and 

 found out that I had been all wrong* in what I had been 

 doing. 



No man should be permitted to shoe a horse who has not 

 passed an examination by a competent board appointed for 

 the purpose. He should be compelled to study the horse's 

 foot and understand it before being permitted to set a shoe. 



A great man^^ horse owners ruin their horses b}^ taking 

 them to men who know nothing whatever about the 

 anatomy of the foot. The main idea of the average horse 

 owner seems to be to seek out and patronize the man who 

 will shoe the cheapest and make the shoes stay the longest, 

 and they don't hesitate to call such a man a good horse- 

 shoer. Very few probably know that a valuable horse 

 may be completely ruined by an incompetent man in two 

 or three shoeings. Some horses will stand poor shoeing 

 for quite a while, but in the end they are sure to be injured. 



"Ko frog, no foot; no foot, no horse," is a true saying. 

 I claim that no horse should go over four weeks without 

 having the shoes removed and the dry feverish growth of 

 the hoof rasped away; that portion that Avould wear out 

 naturally if the horse was not shod at all. 



GETTING THE ANGLE OF THE FOOT. 



When I have a horse to shoe I try and ascertain the cor- 

 rect angle of the foot to start with. Then dress the foot 

 perfectly level in all cases, aiming not to have one side an^^ 

 higher than the other. T do not cut away the bars or 

 braces as I did in the days gone by, neither do I cut the 



