REVIEW — RODWAY’S PATENT HORSESHOE. 
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appreciated by sportsmen and travellers, who have experienced 
the inconvenience, vexation, and sometimes serious loss, which 
casting a shoe occasions. Secondly, by taking away the iron 
that would fill the concavity, it is of course lighter to that extent; 
and although the difference may not appear great, yet, when it 
is considered that this weight is lifted every time the horse moves 
his feet, it will be found to add very materially to the labour of a 
hard day’s work. Thirdly, as the nails cannot become loose, re- 
moving will not be necessary, whereby expense will be saved, and 
the hoof preserved in better condition. Fourthly, the open heels of 
the shoe being pressed upon by the weight of the horse, naturally 
sink in or penetrate the substance trodden upon, and, by acting 
as hooks or wedges, enable the horse to tread with firmness and 
security upon wooden pavements, or even upon roads partially 
covered with ice: in addition to which, by bringing the foot 
nearer to the ground (as before observed), they assist in bringing 
into operation the organ intended by nature to prevent slipping, 
viz., the frog, instead of removing it more and more out of action, 
and thereby straining all the other parts of the foot, as is done 
by placing it upon spikes, or stilts, or calkins, according to the 
present clumsy and injurious practice of turning up.” 
If Mr. Rod way, by asserting that his shoe “ is not liable to be 
thrown,” means to imply that the common shoe is, we answer, that, 
providing the horse be shod in a workmanlike manner, this is 
not the fact. Who, we should like to know, loses shoes nowa- 
days, unless it be in the hunting-field ? And there, so far as 
suction is concerned, we think, as was observed to us by a worthy 
baronet, a great sportsman, that Rodway’s shoe might, from its 
groove, be sucked with more force in clay or soft ground than a 
plain shoe. 
When horses are so shod that the heads of the nails project 
beyond the fullering, or (in the stamped shoe) beyond the holes — 
which, in either case, they never ought to do — there is no doubt 
but that the continual hammering of the foot down upon hard 
pavement or roads, or the stamping of a horse in the stable, 
drives up the nails, and often starts the clinches ; and this effect 
Mr. Rodway’s groove, by protecting the heads of the nails, certainly 
tends to prevent. Over improper or bad shoeing therefore, which, 
indeed, is but too frequent, here is an undeniable advantage. 
Mr. Rodway’s shoe is “ lighter” than the common horseshoe 
by some two or three ounces ; and therein consists another ad- 
vantage. Rut, then, it will not wear so long as a common shoe ; 
nor will it, when worn thin at the toe, as the common shoe will, 
admit of being steeled afresh; and for this reason, — that the 
