SHOEING. 715 



shoeing, Mr. Coleman believed it to be the wrong thing to employ, 

 and then a crooked knife and a coarse rasp were adopted as 

 weapons that might do more destructive execution than the one 

 dismissed." 



The writer has talked with several veterinary surgeons of high 

 standing, who think that Coleman did not mean, by the experi- 

 ment named, to infer that the sole should be cut away to such a 

 degree as to yield to the pressure of the thumb (which is the com- 

 mon rule), but that he wished to prove that ifc could be done 

 without breaking down the foot ; and that his followers carried 

 it to this extreme, thereby making it the cause of a great deal of 

 harm. 



A few paragraphs are also introduced from Youatt and Miles, 

 the most commonly accepted and widely read authors in this 

 country, to show that their principles of treatment are the same, 

 and have been derived from the same source. 



" That portion of the horn should be left on the foot which will 

 defend the internal parts from being bruised and yet suffer the ex- 

 ternal sole to descend. How is this to be ascertained? The strong 

 pressure of the thumb of the smith will be the best guide. The buttress, 

 that most destructive of all weapons, being, except on very particu- 

 lar occasions, banished from every respectable forge, the smith sets 

 to work with his drawing-knife and removes the growth of horn 

 until the sole will yield, although in the slightest possible degree, 

 to the strong pressure of the thumb." Youatt. 



" It would be impossible to frame any rule applicable to the par- 

 ing out of all horses' feet, or indeed to the feet of the same horse at 

 all times. For instance, it is manifestly unwise to pare the sole as thin 

 in a hot, dry season when the roads are broken up and strewed with 

 loose stones, as in a moderately wet one, when they are well bound 

 and even ; for in the former case, the sole is in perpetual danger of 

 being bruised by violent contact with loose stones, and consequently 

 needs a thick layer of horn for its protection ; while the latter case 

 offers the most favorable surface that most of our horses ever have 

 to travel upon, and should be taken advantage of for a thorough 

 paring out of the sole, in order that the internal parts of the foot 

 may derive the full benefit arising from an elastic and descending 

 sole, a state of things very essential to the due performance of 

 their separate functions. Again, a horse with upright feet and high 

 heels grows horn very abundantly, especially toward the toe, and 

 is always benefited by having the shoe shortened, and the heels 

 lowered and well pared out." Miles. 



George Fleming, who stands confessedly at the head of the 



