SOUND VIEWS ABOUT HORSESHOEING. . 

 BY COL. M. C. WELD. 



Messrs. Fowler & Wells: 



Gentlemen : — I thank you for showing me the 

 essay by Sir George Cox, which I have never seen 

 entire before, and also the article clipped from the 

 Mark Lane Express (London), which so pleasantly en- 

 dorses my views upon the subject of driving horses 

 barefoot. I do not know that I can add anything of 

 special value to what you already have and propose 

 to publish, but offer the following 



NOTES FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCE. 



It is now about fifteen years since I began to reason 

 about horseshoeing. Like other people, I suppose I 

 thought shoes a necessity, of course. Of course ! That 

 is the natural rut we get into, — thinking : " Every- 

 body can not be mistaken." The blacksmith was my 

 oracle.. He is the oracle of everybody who owns 

 horses and does not have notions of his own. He 

 cut as he pleased, and burned as he pleased, and shod 

 as he pleased. The horses had thrush, and corns, 

 and contracted heels — of course. Everybody's horses 

 are liable to such troubles — they caulked themselves, 

 overreached, interfered but rarely, and then reshoeing 



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