CHAPTER I. 



EVILS OF COMMON SHOEING. 



EVERY horseman finds his chief difficulty 

 in the fact that he has to protect the 

 natural foot from the wear incident to the arti- 

 ficial condition in which the horse is placed in 

 his relation to man. In those important indus- 

 tries where great numbers of horses are used, 

 and the profit of the business depends upon 

 the efficiency of the animal, the question be- 

 comes a very serious one, and the life term of 

 the horse, or the proportion of the number of 

 animals that are kept from their tasks by ina- 

 bility, make the difference between profit and 

 loss to the great transportation lines that 

 facilitate the busy current of city life. But 

 notwithstanding the importance of this sub- 

 ject, upon the score equally of economy and 

 humanity, the world is, for the most part, just 

 where it was a thousand years ago, possibly 

 worse off, for the original purpose of shoeing 

 was only to protect the foot from attrition or 

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