92 TIPS AND TOE-WEIGHTS. 



appears singular that so little progress is made. The trouble has 

 been that a large majority of those who have been given advice 

 have been themselves misled by the idea that protection to all parts 

 of the foot was indispensable. The few who have advocated the 

 natural method, so far as domestication would permit, have been 

 forced to meet this obstacle, aggravated with the tendency of horse 

 owners to let others think for them, and an unwillingness to give a 

 fair trial to so simple a remedy. When the groom and the smith 

 told the owner that bruises of the sole would surely result if there 

 was not an iron barrier to protect, it appeared reasonable, as it may 

 have been that when a boy he had endured the pain of " stone 

 bruises " from running barefooted, or " stubbed his toe " on a pro- 

 jecting rock. The remembrance of sitting in agony, rubbing the 

 foot in a grip as hard as he could make his fingers clinch it, swaying 

 his body and gritting his teeth as some relief, gave emphasis to the 

 claim, and though he may have gone to the shop, firm in the deter- 

 mination to try the method he had read of, the words had weight 

 and his good intentions were overcome ; overcome by dogmatic opin- 

 ions without ai-gument or logical reasoning to sustain them. 



If he remembered as well the acute pain caused by a small pebble 

 or even a kernel of corn getting between the foot and the shoe, he 

 would know that there were other casualties beside bruises to guard 

 against. But there is nothing analogous between the foot of the 

 biped and quadruped, and the stone bruise on the bai-efooted boy, 

 and that which causes corns in the horse, are widely difierent. No 

 matter how thick the skin on the heel may have become, it is a 

 slight protection in comparison to the walls, bars and sole of the 

 horse. That is, when all parts of the foot of the horse are in a 

 natural condition. When the smith has pared away the natural de- 

 fenses so that it will " yield to a strong pressure of the thumb," as 

 is recommended in the essay which drew the $500 prize in England, 

 forty or fifty years ago, the only plan is to raise it so that it will not 

 perfoi-m the duty it was intended it should. A little more paring 

 and the sole would be entirely cut away, for when it will give to the 

 pressure spoken of there is a very thin layer of horn left. 



I have astonished quite a number of visitoi's by showing them the 



