■2 THE ART OF HORSE-SHOEING. 



Few persons appreciate the importance of horse- 

 shoeing, whilst a small number tell us it is unnecessary. 

 Here and there an enthusiast has the courage of his con- 

 victions and is able, for a time, to exhibit animals doing 

 work without shoes. In some countries horses are regu- 

 larly ridden with no addition to their natural hoof, but 

 in such places the surface over which the animals travel 

 is grass land. In all civilized countries where good roads 

 exist shoeing is practised. The gentleman with a fad 

 who occasionally appears in England with unshod horses 

 at work is an unconscious impostor. He sets his little 

 experience against the common sense and universal prac- 

 tice of others. No man of business would pay for 

 shoeing if he could do without it. The "shoeless" 

 experiment has been tried over and over again, but 

 always with the same result— a return to shoeing. In 

 dry weather tho hoof becomes hard, and it is wonderful 

 how much wear it will then stand on the hardest of 

 roads! In wet weather the hoof becomes soft, and then 

 the friction on hard roads soon prohibits work without 

 shoes. If work be persisted in, under such circum- 

 stances, the hoof rapidly wears away and lameness 

 results. Persons trying to prove a pre-conceived theory 

 meet this difficulty by resting the horse until the horn 

 grows, but business men who keep horses for work in all 

 weathers can afford no such luxury. Shoeing has been 

 called "a necessary evil." The phrase is a misuse of 

 words, for there is no necessary evil about it. Of course 

 it is no more free from accident than other operations, 

 but its evils are fairly described as accidents, whilst its 

 benefits are fully apparent. Without shoes horses at 

 work would be more often lame than with them; without 

 shoes horses could not do half the work they do with 

 them, and so we need not further discuss the necessity 

 of shoeing. 



The value of horse-shoeing depends upon the manner 

 in which it is done. Very seldom does the owner of 

 horses appreciate the quality of the work. As a rule the 

 price charged, or the distance from the forge to the 

 stable, regulates the choice of a farrier. Not having any 



