322 OF SHOEING. 



I think you are perfectly in the right to 

 mount your people well: there is no good 

 economy in giving them bad horses ; they 

 take no care of them, but wear them out as 

 soon as they can, that they may have others. 



The question you ask me about shoeing, 



I am unable to answer: yet I am of opinion, 



that horses should be shod with more or less 



iron, according as the country where they 



hunt requires; but in this a good farrier will 



best direct you. Nothing certainly is more 



necessary to a horse than to be well siiod. 



The shoe should be a proper one, and it 



should fit his foot. Farriers are but too apt 



to make the foot fit the shoe.* My groom 



carries a false shoe, which just serves to save 



a horse's hoof, when he loses a shoe, till it 



can be put on again. In some countries you 



* I venture to give the following rules on shoeing, in a 

 short and decisive mannei', as founded on the strictest ana- 

 tomical and mechanical principles laid down by the best 

 masters : — The shoe should be flat, and not turned up at 

 the heel, or reach beyond that or the toe; but the mid- 

 dle part should extend rather beyond the outward edge 

 of the hoofj that the hoof may not be contracted ; the 

 outward part of which ma}-^ be pared, to bring it down 

 to an even surface, to fit it for the fixing on of the 

 shoe. If the foot be too long, the toe may be pared, 

 or rasped down ; which, in many cases, may even be 



