520 
ON THE UNILATERAL OR 
had not only taken the step I was taking, but had taken it with 
such a desperate stride, that he had walked into cases I never 
thought of ; so that, if there were no written documents to refer 
to, I was at once convicted of non-originality, or as a sailor would 
say, of “ catching a crab.” 
It is now more than a twelvemonth since I commenced this 
mode of shoeing. The first subject was a light post mare, with 
two of the worst corns I ever saw. She had been shod with bar 
shoes and leathers the preceding two years, and, in spite of every 
care that could be taken, was almost constantly lame. I at once 
left off the bar shoes and leathers, and put on a pair of unilateral 
shoes, paring the parts of the feet to be covered by the shoe, but 
leaving the inside quarter untouched. The shoes and nails were 
precisely the same as would have been else used with the inside 
thirds cut off and the ends rounded and bevelled away. She 
never went lame from the day she was so shod to the day of her 
death, which was occasioned by an accident nine months after. 
“ On this hint I worked,” and with the exception of the two 
cases before alluded to, where the heels were weak and the soles 
thin, but which I am persuaded would have done with a little 
more time, 1 have not met with a single annoyance. Posters, 
stagers, carters, hacks, and chaise horses have been subjected to 
the same process since, and all with uniform success. 
Oh, but the crust will break away, the heel will be worn thin, 
the foot will become tender, and the horse will be lame. Will he ? 
If you want to see a brittled-crusted, thin-heeled, thrushy- 
frogged foot converted into one with a tough, elastic crust, a firm 
springy heel, and a frog like a piece of India-rubber, shoe with 
the three-quarter shoe, and I will answer for the transformation. 
The growth of horn on the exposed part of the foot is extraordi- 
nary, for, in the course of a single shoeing the sole will not only 
not be worn thin, but have become so thick and firm, that more 
horn might be removed therefrom than from that part of the foot 
protected by the shoe. I merely, however, leave it level with 
the crust. The outside heel should be kept rather low, to allow for 
the thickness of the shoe, and the heels opened or not, as may 
be considered most desirable. In old horses I have them well 
opened, but in young ones I allow them to remain undisturbed : 
in either case the paring of the frog should be limited to its being 
cleared from u shreds and patches.” I am not aware that there are 
any other directions necessary, nor are any precautions required, 
with the exception, perhaps, of avoiding, as much as may be, 
the McAdamized stones, for a day or two, on its first adoption. 
One circumstance should not be overlooked : in several cases bad 
