20 REGISTRY OF CAVALRY HORSES* SHOES. 
In Sir J. Moore’s retreat over the mountains of Gallicia there 
was no time for shoeing horses by any method, although the 
park of artillery was in Corunna some days before the battle. 
During my sojourn in India I officiated two years with the 
body guard, which, to my knowledge, was in service where a 
forage cart could not have followed ; and it was afterwards in the 
Burmese expedition, I believe, under similar circumstances, as 
to the nature of the country. I was also three years with the 
horse artillery. It is the custom for the horses of the cavalry 
in India to be without shoes during the hot and rainy months ; 
yet, even in these seasons, horses might be required on emer- 
gency, and the cold method of shoeing has always afforded 
every facility for active service. 
The men who make the shoes are Hindoos, and would lose 
caste if they attempted to fit horses’ shoes hot. The veterinary 
surgeon proceeding thither is particularly instructed, as all other 
officers are, to attend to the prejudices of the natives in this 
respect. The mussulman who shoes the horses takes care to 
supply himself with sizes for the horses he has to shoe. He 
places a quoit in the ground, into the hole of which he thrusts 
a small hand anvil ; and on this, with a small hand hammer, he 
punches the nail -holes in a German fuller, in which there is no 
difficulty, the shoes being a little thinner than cavalry horses’ 
shoes in Europe. The horses having been bred from English 
stock, are the same as regards the feet. There is no difficulty in 
widening a shoe a little, but there is in contracting the size by 
this method, yet I never heard any veterinary surgeon com- 
plain of it. All involuntarily, as it were, allow of the system 
of having “ shoes of all sizes, to fit or not fit every foot; and tin- 
like bar shoes,” (as described in No. 24, p. 704) with which the 
irregular cavalry of India are shod cold, and in which to make 
the nail-holes is more difficult than in fullered shoes. 
As I understand only two* veterinary surgeons are now in 
the army who have been in service, and the tug of war may 
come again, I here beg leave, from my limited experience on 
service in Europe and India, to recommend to army veterinary 
surgeons the adoption of the Registry system with adult horses 
(it is of no use with colts, for the reasons stated in my paper on 
conformation as to the changes of the feet during growth, No. 28, 
p. 185). The men will then be prepared, in cases of emergency, 
to adopt the cold shoeing method. 
Insomuch as I have stated, do I beg leave to differ from M. 
Reynal, No. 34, p. 590. I have, in general, used horses without 
shoes : sometimes I have had a horse I have been obliged to 
Peninsular and Waterloo men. 
