LIFE WITH THE TEOTTBES. 311 



replied: "Oil-meal would be too drawing, what you want 

 in this case is something to cool the parts and not draw 

 them." After a few days of this treatment he took the 

 horse to the shop and asked me how much weight I thought 

 he ought to have in his shoes. I told him sixteen ounces 

 ■each. He turned to Charley Huie, the blacksmith (a man 

 than whom no better friend the trotting horses of America 

 «ver had), and told him to make a pair of twelve-ounce 

 shoes, and shoe my horse with leather pads. I watched the 

 operation closely, and I think it has been of as much benefit 

 to me as any one thing I ever learned about training horses. 

 After the foot was properly prepared and the shoe fitted, 

 Huie took a piece of soleleather and riveted it to the heels 

 of the shoe and trimmed it off the exact size of the shoe. 

 Don't cut your leather smaller than the shoe; have it flush 

 all the way around, then take a sponge about as thick as 

 your hand, and after covering the bottom of the foot with 

 tar lay the sponge on and nail your shoe over all. As near 

 as I can remember that is about the way Huie treated this 

 particular horse. He shod him behind in the same manner, 

 and the result was so satisfactory to me that from that time 

 on I tried it, and if there is any one thing about shoeing a 

 horse that I stand ready to recommend to the public and 

 horse trainers it is that mode of shoeing. You will find 

 that in shoeing a horse with leather pads the shoes can be 

 made from two to four ©unces lighter than without. When 

 you take into consideration the fact that our race-tracks are 

 made very hard and smooth, and see a horse that weighs 

 ten or eleven hundred pounds going over them better than 

 a 2:20 gait you may be able to form some idea of what the 

 concussion to a horse's foot is. Some people use oakum 

 instead of the sponge. I like the sponge best as it is more 

 ■easily applied and keeps its place better. I have been asked 

 how long I thought it could be used on a horse' s foot with- 

 out detriment. I have tried it on horses for years and never 

 yet have had one instance where I could find the least harm 

 arising from it. If I have a horse whose feet trouble him 



