SHOEING. 719 



hot, the soles are dry and stony, and become unnaturally concave. 

 The animal goes tender after each shoeing, and it is not until the 

 horn has been regenerated to a certain extent, that he steps with 

 anything like ease. Until the new material has been formed, each 

 papillae experiences the same amount of inconvenience and suffer- 

 ing that a human foot does in a new, tight boot. 



"This tenderness is usually ascribed to the nails and other 

 causes; and the horse, in the stable, rests on one foot, then on 

 another, as if he- suffered uneasiness or pain.* * * 



" All the preparation any kind of foot usually requires for the 

 shoe may be summed up in a few words; leveling the crust in con- 

 formity with the limb and foot, and removing as much of its mar- 

 gin as will restore it to its natural length, rounding its outer edge 

 at the same time, and leaving the sole, bars, frog, and heels in all 

 their natural integrity." 



Osmer, an old writer of good standing, in 1751, says: 



" I believe there are many horses that might travel their whole 

 lifetime unshod on any road, if they were rasped round and short 

 on the toe; because all feet exposed to hard objects become thereby 

 more obdurate, if the sole be never pared; and some, by their par- 

 ticular form, depth, and strength, are able to resist them quite, and 

 to support the weight without breaking; and here a very little re- 

 flection will teach us whence the custom arose of shoeing horses in 

 one part of the world and riot in another. In Asia there is no such 

 custom of shoeing the horse at all, because the feet require a very 

 obdurate and firm texture from the dryness of the climate and the 

 soil, and do really want no defense. But every rider has a rasp to 

 shorten his horse's feet, which would otherwise grow long and rude, 

 and the crust would most certainly split." 



He continues by saying, 



" From the good that was found to arise from putting shoes on 

 horses which have naturally weak feet from being brought up on 

 wet land, the custom of putting shoes on all kinds of feet became 

 general in some countries. Our ancestors, the original shoers, pro- 

 posed nothing more, I dare say, in their first efforts, than to pre- 

 serve the crust from breaking way, and thought themselves happy 

 that they had skill enough so to do. The moderns also are wisely 

 content with this in the racing way. 



" In process of time the fertility of invention and the vanity 

 of mankind have produced a variety of methods; almost all of which 

 arc productive of lameness; and I am thoroughly convinced from 

 observation and experience, that 19 lame horses out of every 20 are 

 lame of the artist, which is owing to the form of the shoe. His ig- 

 norance of the design of nature, and maltreatment of the foot, 

 every part of which is made for some purpose or other, though he 

 does not know it. 



"I suppose it will be universally assented to that whatever 



