WEIGHT CONTROLS THE ACTION. 11 



thoritatively recominenJed, and between these multitudes of counselors 

 the poor horse has sadly suffered. The horse must be shod is taken as 

 an axiom, but yet we tind some of the most intelligent of the pres- 

 ent trainei-s of race-horses galloping them without any protection to 

 the foot. On the soft dirt of a carefully kept race-coui"se there is 

 little, if any, necessity for protecting the hoof; but in California, 

 where the courses are hard, the wearing away of the toe has to be 

 guarded against. 



It has been deemed essential that something should intervene be- 

 tween the foot and the gi-ound " to break the jar" consequent on the 

 weight of the animal coming with such force upon the extremities, 

 and the harder the track, the opinion of a majority of race-horse 

 trainei-s has been that a heavier shoe was required. I do not 

 think it will need much ai'gument to shoAv that the "jar" is greater 

 the heavier the shoe, and also that there is greater strain on the limbs. 

 The iron is unyielding, and without elasticity, in the sense we call 

 the foot of the horse elastic. Weight induces higher action aiul a 

 longer stride, and hence there must be greater force in the blow when 

 the foot strikes the ground. The hard metal, while it protects the 

 horn from being shattered by guarding the edge, impinges on the an- 

 gle made by the bars and wall, resulting in corns and Ijjfuises. Un- 

 fortunately, that is not the greatest injury. The expansion is ham- 

 pered, if not completely stopjDed ; the sole and frog are not permitted 

 to bear their due proportion of the weight ; the latter becomes atro- 

 phied, and the former loses its natural properties. 



Great masses of iron nailed to the horse's foot have been the weak- 

 ness of shoeing-smiths of the last two centuries, and Mr. Clark gives 

 ill ustrations of the forms which many then held to be correct. The web 

 covei'ed nearly the whole sole, there being only a small circular opening 

 at the point of the frog, and a triangular one under it. Calkins 

 were turned at the heel, and this ponderous body was fastened to the 

 foot by fourteen or fifteen nails. Horses which had gone lame Avhile 

 shod with this niyhtmare of a shoe, recovered with the narrow, con- 

 caved one which Mr. Clark used, notwithstanding the foot was fet- 

 tered from the toe to the heel. The Duke of Newcastle saw that for 

 horses of the " mannage," and for those which were used for hunting 



