[ 93 ] 

 blood, and then in order to flop it, have re- 

 courfe to a red hot iron. 



When this operation is finilhed he returns 

 lame to the liable : the owner aflcs the reafon 

 of it, but cannot be informed, becaufc both 

 farrier and groom are either equally ignorant, or 

 rather equally difcreet upon this article. 



I will venture to fay, as a fad, that if a horfe 

 lofes Ihoes ten times a day, a farrier will as of- 

 ten pare his foot, fo exceffively obflinate is the 

 cuftom, and fo pofitively thought necefTary by 

 the generality of the farriers. 



I do not take upon me to inveigh againft 

 able and fkilful farriers, I have refpe6l for thefe, 

 and do them all the juftice imaginable •, I only 

 flrike at that ignorance alone, which has re- 

 duced a method of fhoeing, which is in itfelf 

 fimple, eafy and ufeful, in its principle -, to a 

 work which is pernicious in its life, and meerly 

 a mark of dexterity and neatnefs in its execu- 

 tion. 



From what has hitherto been faid, it is plain 

 that our kind of fhoeing, and the manner of 

 our application of it, far from being ferviceable 

 to horfes, ruins, fatigues, and renders them 

 unwell dy and hobling -, expofes them to flreet 

 nails, makes them take up their limbs aukward- 

 ]y, fubjects them to comprefiions of the fole, 

 callous excrefcences, tender- fqotednefs, and ob- 

 ftru61:ions and fwellings of the tendon. But by a- 

 new manner of fhoeing, which will make them 



more 



