THE CARE OF HORSES. 313 
be pared only enough to keep it level, and to prevent 
undue length at the toe. The amateur may be sure 
that a blacksmith whose practice is to pare or burn 
the sole of his horse’s foot is a bad blacksmith; and 
he may almost be sure that one who does not pare 
or burn is a good blacksmith. In former days it was 
the custom to pare the sole almost to the quick, for 
absolutely no reason; and consequently, whenever a 
shoe came off, the horse was immediately disabled. 
The reader of fiction or poetry of the last century, or 
of the first half of the present century, will remember 
that, whenever the traveller’s horse cast a shoe, the 
rider was obliged to dismount forthwith, and to lead 
the animal with slow and painful steps to the nearest 
smithy. But if the foot be left undisturbed, protected 
by its cover of horn, the loss of a shoe need not be 
made good for a day or a week. On country roads a 
horse with sound feet should be able to travel for a 
week or so without shoes; and if he is driven or 
ridden only enough to keep him exercised, he may 
dispense with shoes altogether. This at least is true 
where the roads are soft, but where the roads are 
hard it would not be true. 
On the other hand, the position that no horse ever 
need be shod —which books have been written to 
maintain — is an absurdity. A city dray horse wears 
out every month an iron shoe at least one third of an 
inch thick. Would the horn of his foot last so long ? 
The ordinary growth of horn is only about one quarter 
of an inch per month; and although the unshod hoof 
may grow somewhat faster, it does not grow fast 
enough to compensate for the wear and tear of ordi- 
nary roads. Horses in the wild state, and horses 
