124 TIPS AND TOE-WEIGHTS. 



horses) that carried the knights of okl, was ckimsy in the extreme. 

 Its great width, however, allowed some pressure to the sole, which 

 was so far good, as experience shows that an unpared sole can stand 

 pressure. I can only account for the horses of our grandfathers 

 standing work at all, shod as they were, firstly, by their being nearer 

 to their Arab ancestors, and consequently more sound in themselves 

 than our horses ; and secondly, by the custom of turning them out 

 to grass on every available occasion. They lost condition, went 

 broken- winded, etc.; but their feet had a chance, or rather nature 

 had a chance of restoring their feet ; and, all the world over, there 

 is nothing like dew and night air for anything like fever in the feet. 

 Harness horses had no weight on their backs ; those belonging to 

 rich men were not unreasonably worked ; the mail coach horses 

 did their stage in the allotted time, and the number of legs which 

 they used in progression was optional with them. In many ways 

 our horses have certainly deteriorated, and in nothing more than in 

 unsoundness of wind. 



The fii"st cart-horse I ever heaixi roaring caused me to turn round 

 and make a mental note of the circumstance. Now I often hear 

 them, and, more remarkable still, last summer a pony of the polo 

 description cantered by me, roaring like Prince Charlie himself. 



The greatest errors in the matter of shoeing history are to be found 

 in veterinaiy works of a compai-atively late date — say sixty years 

 ago. What countless horses have been ruined by the theory about 

 the descent of the sole ! Our gi-eat-grandfathers and gi-andfathers 

 had plenty of horses lamed by tbeir shoeing, but they ascribed the 

 lameness to every cause but the light one. Chronic laminitis they 

 called " chest founder," and many a horse lame in his feet was tor- 

 tured by having his legs fired and blistered. Nor is all that practice 

 quite changed in the present day, though much improved. To return, 

 however, to the descent of the sole. Youatt, in " The Horse," page 

 418, says that, unless the sole be pared, "that portion of horn which 

 in the unshod foot would be worn away by contact with the ground, 

 is suffered to accumulate until the elasticity of the sole is destroyed, 

 and it can no longer descend, and foundation is laid for corns, con- 

 traction and navicular disease I " Fancy a man calling himself a 



