THE 
VETERINARIAN. 
VOL. XXVI, 
No. 310. 
OCTOBER, 1853. 
Third Series, 
No. 70. 
ON THE CONFORMATION OF HORSES WITH REFERENCE 
TO THEIR FEET, AND TO SHOEING. 
By J. T. Hodgson, V.S. 
“ Veterinary Student . — The college has ordered the heart to be on the right 
side .” — Play of the Poor Gentleman. 
The Emperor Charles the Fifth found out he could not 
make men think alike, so he tried to make watches keep time 
alike, and failed. He then shammed death. The horse’s 
foot is more complex mechanism than a watch, inasmuch as 
it is animated nature. Well, experienced generals have in- 
variably been students of nature. I have nothing whatever 
to do with the subject of shoeing cavalry horses now, but I 
have been told that “ facts published in your Journal are 
public; opinions are persons,” — upon the former, I may, I 
believe, comment without fear of incurring the displeasure 
of any one. 
In the early periods of the world, generals of cavalry were 
obliged to wait till their horses’ hoofs grew. Strange ! They 
could not order nature, even, in a horse’s foot ; neither will 
the ablest generals attempt it. The Emperor Napoleon 
studied the climate of Russia, yet nature helped to ruin his 
army. The little Napolitan high-hoofed horses, only, formed 
his body guard on his return. His own flat-footed body-guard 
horses were, where lawyers place a man, in Latin, when he 
does not appear in court. 
I recollect, in Sir John Moore’s retreat, the mules and my 
own pony eould travel with ease without shoes ; not so the 
heavy fore-quartered horse, and when he lost a shoe there 
was no time to put on another of any kind. The forge-carts 
with the farriers’ tools were there, but not the using-up horse- 
shoe of London forges ; if it was required, a shoe had to be 
altered: was there time for this ? No. The park of artillery 
and waggon train were in advance, and reached Betanzos 
together. Nature had nearly done us all up. What became 
xxvi. 71 
