388 



SHOEING. 



He continues ( by saying,— 



" From the good that was found to arise from putting shoes on horses which 

 have naturally weak feet from being brought up on wet land, the custom of putting 

 shoes on all kinds of feet became general in some countries. Our ancestors, the 



original shoers, proposed nothing 

 more, I dare say, m their first ef- 

 forts, than to preserve the crust 

 from breaking way, and -thought 

 themselves happy that they had 

 skill enough so to do. The mod- 

 erns also are Wisely content with 

 this in the. racing way. 



" In process of time the fertility 

 of invention and the vanity of man- 

 kind have produced a variety of 

 methods ; almost all of which are 

 productive of lameness ; and I am 

 thoroughly convinced from obser- 

 vation and experience, that nine- 

 teen lame horses out of every twenty 

 are lame of the artist, which is ow- 

 ing to the form of the sho^, his ig- 

 norance of., the design of nature, 

 and maltreatment of the foot, every 



Fig. 588. — Position of the Spreaders for 

 Opening the Quarter. 



part of which is«made for some purpose or other, though he does not know it. 



"I suppose it. will be universally assented to, that whatever method of shoeing 

 approaches nearest to the law of na- 

 ture, such is likely to be the most perfect 

 method.*. * * ■ 



"The superfices of the foot around 

 the outside, now made plane and smooth, 

 the shoe is to be made quite flat, of an 

 equal thickness all around the outside, 

 and open and most narrow backward at 

 the extremities of the heels ; for the gen- 

 erality of horses, those whose frogs are 

 diseased, either from natural or inciden- 

 tal causes, require the shoe to be wider 

 backwards'; and to prevent this flat shoe 

 from pressing on the sole of the horse, 

 the outer part thereof is to be made 

 thickest, and the inside gradually thin- 

 ner. In such a shoe the frog is permit- 

 ted to touch the ground, the necessity 

 of which has already been seen. Added 

 to this, the horse stands more firmly 



Fro. 589. — The Shoe as it Appeared when on, 

 with the Quarters Opened Out. 



upon the ground, having the same points of support as in a natural state. 



"Make the shoes as light as you can according to the size of your horse, because 

 heavy shoes spoil the back sinews and weary the horse ; and if he happen to over- 

 reach, the shoes, being heavy, are all the more rapidly pulled oft. 



