316 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
Mr. Bonner. But her new owner, who has made a close 
study of the farrier’s art, suw at once that she did not 
stand true on her feet. Accordingly, he altered the 
position of her fore shoes, and the swelling forthwith 
disappeared from her legs. Mr. Bonner had a similar 
experience with the great Sunol. For a year after 
his purchase of her she remained at Palo Alto, and a 
few weeks before she made her fast record of 2.08} 
Mr. Bonner paid the mare a visit. At that time Sunol 
was going slightly lame in one fore foot, when first 
taken out, from some unknown cause. Mr. Bonner 
earefully examined the foot, and discovered that the 
wall was a trifle higher on one side than on the other. 
‘This was rectified, and the lameness disappeared. 
Now, if a horse can become lame at Palo Alto from 
such a cause, and the cause remain undiscovered, how 
numerous and mischievous must be the cases of bad 
shoeing that occur where nothing more than ordinary 
skill and experience in horseflesh obtain ! 
There are many horses that require the mind and 
eye of a thorough craftsman to shoe them properly ; 
and when thus shod they never interfere or over- 
reach; whereas, if wrongly shod, they can hardly 
take a sound step. When an incompetent smith has 
to deal with such a horse, he commonly begins by 
making a murderous attack on the hoof with his 
knife, and then affixes to it a shoe of extraordinary 
shape. A good workman, on the other hand, never 
makes a shoe the shape of which differs from the 
natural shape of a horse’s foot. This, I think, may 
be taken as an axiom, and it supplies a test capable 
of wide application. The competent smith corrects 
interfering or overreaching by contriving a new ad- 
