TIPS AND TOE-WEIGHTS, 



CHAPTER I. 



Necessity for a Better System of Shoeing, 



The domestication of the horse, and the purposes he is used for, 

 have necessitated the protection of the foot. In those nations the^ 

 people of wliich could forge iron, or some kindred metal, into the 

 proper shape, shoes of that material have been used. Different peo- 

 ple have had various patterns, from the sheet of iron, merely perfor- 

 ated with a central hole, svich as the Arabs put on their horses, to 

 the elaborate ai-ticles which some smiths delight in fashioning, I am 

 under the fii-m belief that all the systems, all the shapes, are more or 

 less pernicious, and that a shoe which will j>reserve the natural func- 

 tions of the foot has yet to be invented. Simple as the subject may 

 apj)ear to those who have little . acquaintance with the horse, it has 

 troubled the minds of acute observers more than any other portion 

 of stable management, and though many have cried Eureka, they 

 have been pi-emature in their claims. 



It is difficult to find two who will agree in eveiy particular as to 

 the pro])er shoeing of the horse, and now that the trotting-horse 

 represents such an immense capital, greater efforts are constantly 

 being miule to get a pedal appendage which will meet the require- 

 ments of' trainers and owners. 



