720 SHOEING. 



method of shoeing approaches nearest to the law of nature, such is 

 likely to be the most perfect method.* * * 



"The superfices of the foot around the outside, now made plane 

 and smooth, the shoe is to be made quite flat, of an equal thickness 

 all around the outside, and open and most narrow backward at the 

 extremities of the heels, for the generality of horses, those whose 

 frogs are diseased, either from natural or incidental causes require 

 the shoe to be wider backwards; and to prevent this flat shoe from 

 pressing on the sole of the horse, the outer part thereof is to be 

 made thickest, and the inside gradually thinner. In such a shoe 

 the frog is permitted to touch the ground, the necessity of which 

 has already been seen. Add to this, the horse stands more firmly 

 upon the ground, having the same points of support as in a natural 

 state." 



" Make the shoes as light as you can according to the size of 

 your horse, because heavy shoes spoil the back sinews arid weary 

 the horse; and if he happen to overreach, the shoes, being heavy, 

 are all the more readily pulled off. 



" Those who think it frugality to shoe with thick and heavy 

 shoes, and seldom, are deceived, for they lose more by it than they 

 gain; for thereby they not only spoil the back sinews, but lose more 

 by it than if they had been light." 



It is conceded by all the best modern authorities that the 

 French author above referred to, whose work was published in 

 1750, was the great father of a correct system of reform in 

 in shoeing. It was supposed in his day as it is in a great meas- 

 ure now, that a horse could not travel without having heavy, un- 

 wieldy shoes on, and that the greatest skill was exhibited in the 

 amount of cutting and rasping done on tho feet. 



He boldly proclaimed that all this was injurious, and tried to 

 prove it by the most convincing arguments. The principles of 

 treatment, though given a hundred and thirty years ago, are just 

 as important now as they were then. He says: 



" In the state of nature, all the inferior parts of the foot concur 

 to sustain the weight of the body; then we observe that the heels 

 and frogs, the parts said to be most exposed, are never damaged 

 by wear, that the wall or crust is alone worn on going on hard 

 ground, and that it is only this part which must be protected, leav- 

 ing the other parts free and unfettered in their natural move- 

 ments." 



In advising tips or thin-heeled shoes, he says: 



<< Thin tips extending back to the middle of the quarters, al- 

 lowing the heels to bear upon the ground, and the weight to be sus- 

 tained behind and before, but particularly in the latter, because the 

 weight of the btody falls heaviest there. 



