549 



heads more in the execution of their very important and by no means 

 easy duty, our horses Avould be the better for it, and so won hi tlieir 

 owners. There is no great mystery surrounding the subject, and the 

 application of ordinary common sense, in lieu of the barbarous routine 

 which has been so long handed down from generation to generation 

 nntil it has actually become a portion of the blacksmith's creed, would 

 go a long way towards obviating many, if not most, of the cruel wrongs 

 to which our horses' feet are day by day needlessly subjected. 



The outside, or horny wall, and that portion of the sole which is in 

 immediate contact Avith it, on which the shoe should rest, are the 

 only portions of the foot which require to be interfered witli in prepar- 

 ing the foot for the shoe, and all the trimming that is necessary can 

 and ought to be effected by means of the rasp. The frog and sole 

 should on no pretext whatever be meddled with, save to the extent I 

 have indicated. Their presence in their entirety, and in their natural 

 state, is essentially necessary to the well-being of the foot, and neither 

 brooks the touch of the steel. 



There may be differences of opinion auiong authorities as to minor 

 details in shoeing, but there is at all events one issue on which it is 

 satisfactory to know that there is absolute unanimity; one practice 

 which all alike utterly condemn; and that is the irrational treatment 

 of the frog and sole, to which I have already alluded. There is, how- 

 ever, no particular in which the thinking horse-owner finds himself 

 more frequently at variance with his blacksmith, for there is no detail 

 in all the latter's misconceived procedure to which he clings with such 

 colossal obstinacy, which is not open to argument, and which sets com- 

 mon sense at defiance. 



It is a strange fact, but none tlie less true, that all the world over the 

 farrier is the one among all our artisans who is least amenable to sug- 

 gestions from his employer. Other mechanics permit their patrons at 

 least some discretion as to the size, shape, and structure of the article 

 desired, but when the ordinary horse owner takes his animal to the 

 shoeing forge he has usually to place himself absolutely in the black- 

 smith's hands, and give him carte blanche to cut and carve at his 

 unholy will, or else take his horse elsewhere, and there probably find 

 himself no better off. The result is that his horse's feet are merci- 

 lessly mutilated instead of being left as nearly as possible as nature 

 in her ineffable wisdom made them. 



Plate XXXXII, Fig. 1, shows the only parts which should be re- 

 duced when a foot is properly prepared for the shoe. Sufficient care is 

 not always given to shortening the hoof so that its angle should conform 

 exactly to the inclination of the limb. It would be misleading to lay 

 down any arbitrary degree of obliquity. The angle differs in differ- 

 ent cases, and the natural bias of the superimposed structures is the 

 only safe guide to follow. More than one instrument has been devised 

 for ascertaining the correct degree of obliquity, some of them simple 



