12 TIPS AND TOE-WEIGHTS. 



and hacks, there was an impropriety in thus loading them, and i-ecom- 

 mended a lighter shoe. For horses of heavy draught it is still 

 held to be necessary to have iron, in mass according to, and being 

 in harmony with, the size of the animal, claiming that on the pave- 

 ments a lighter shoe would soon wear out. As the wear is nearly all 

 confined to the toe, the greater part of this could be dispensed with. 

 But there is one class of horses which must have weight on their 

 feet, or some contrivance which will have the same effect on the action 

 as weight, and this is the fast trotter, or, at least, a great many of the 

 very fastest. Thus, a little mare like May Queen has to wear a shoe 

 weighing twenty-four ounces on each fore foot, and Jenny had a still 

 heavier incumbrance, with a " toe- weight" of like ponderosity added. 

 That these two mares could make " a record" of 2:20 and 2:22 while 

 thus loaded, proves that the benefit to the action offsets the disad- 

 vantages. Jenny made one brilliant season, and then had to be re- 

 tired until her legs recovered from the strain. Nettie, another first- 

 class animal which has to be burdened in the same manner, has several 

 times been troubled " with a leg," and these appliances have been con- 

 demned on account of the greater liability to the tendons being in- 

 jured when they were used. When tl\e time for the consideration of 

 the toe-weighf^iore appropriately comes, I will endeavor to show that 

 it is not a necessary sequence to their use, but results from a wrong 

 understanding of how they should be applied. If the proper action 

 can be obtained, and the foot properly pi'otected, I imagine few will 

 disagree with me, that the lighter the weight of the shoe the better it 

 will be for the animal wearing it. The pedestrian, when he has a 

 distance to go at his best pace — say a run of a mile — wears shoes 

 which are only a few ounces in weight, with spikes to prevent him 

 losing ground by slipping. If he is going to walk a long journey, he 

 wears a thick-soled shoe with light xippers. This has been offered as 

 an argument favoring heavy shoes on horses, but there is not the 

 least analogy between the two. The Indian performs great feats 

 with only moccasins to protect his feet ; those of the white man are 

 tender from always having a stronger protection to guard them, and 

 have become more sensitive to pressure and more liable to bruises. 

 But there is scarcely anything parallel in the human and equine foot. 



