16 RATIONAL HORSE-SHOEING. 



heavy and stiff, and the unhappy brute ex- 

 periences the evils partially described in the 

 previous chapter. 



To restore the natural action of the foot by 

 putting the bearing on the frog, is the chief 

 object of the system we advocate, and the 

 Goodenough shoe is designed especially to 

 provide for that first and last necessity. If this 

 is accomplished with a sound horse, he will 

 avoid the thousand ills that arise from the 

 usual method, and, so far as his feet are con- 

 cerned, he will remain sound. 



If the shoe is adopted as a cure for the un- 

 soundness already manifested in animals that 

 have been deprived of the proper use of their 

 feet, it will cure them, not by any virtue in the 

 iron itself, nor by any magic in its application, 

 but simply by giving beneficent nature an op- 

 portunity to repair the ruin that the igno- 

 rance of man has wrought upon her perfect 

 handiwork. 



This part of our subject is so important that 

 we shall return to it again in subsequent 

 chapters, and enforce it at every point. 



