AN ACCOUNT OF TllE HORSE-SANDAL. 
29 
In putting* on the sandal, especial care must be taken that the 
straps be drawn quite tight before they are buckled, and more par¬ 
ticularly the eoronet-and-heel strap, which is to be alw ays buckled 
last, after the hoof strap. The most effectual mode of accom¬ 
plishing the necessary tightness is this :—As soon as the foot is 
set down upon the ground, after the shoe is put on, tighten the 
hoof strap by pulling, separately, every portion of it; then (when 
that is buckled) draw , w ith both hands, both ends of the coronet 
strap at once, so that the part crossing the heel may be made tense 
before it is buckled in front. The end of all this precaution is, that 
the shoe should be so tightly bound to the hoof that no motion 
exist between them; for, should any clatter of the shoe be per¬ 
ceived while the horse is going, the rider may be convinced that 
either the shoe does not Jit his horse, or that it is not strapped 
on with sufficient tightness. 
SOME OF THE USES OF THE SANDAL. 
The original intention, the purpose for which the sandal was 
wholly and solely invented , was to make it equivalent to supply the 
place of a lost shoe in the hunting field. No person, who is a sports¬ 
man, needs to be told, what a vexatious predicament that man feels 
himself in who happens to have lost a shoe, either in the middle 
of the chase, cr, w orse still, just as the hounds have made their 
first brush, and are getting clear away with their fox over the 
open country. Many a time have I heard a man declare he 
would “ give twenty guineas to have his lost shoe replaced / 1 
But the disappointment of his day's hunt is not all. He has, per¬ 
haps, bruised and broken his horse’s foot; and the only prospect 
he has before him is that of renew ing these bruises and frac¬ 
tures, by being compelled to walk his horse bare-foot four or 
five miles along some stony or rutty lane before he can arrive at 
a blacksmith’s shop; for, should he have a spare shoe and nails 
with him, still he must find a blacksmith to nail it on ; or, could 
he even nail it on himself, the time required for the performance 
would lose him the hounds. Whereas, having a sandal with 
him, he has nothing more to do than to leap off his horse, and 
speedily buckle it on; a w ork, to a practised hand, of about a 
minute: which done, he proceeds on his chase. 
No one at all conversant with the nature of the horse's foot 
and the art of shoeing, can, for a moment, imagine that any shoe 
of this description can ever be made to answ er the end of a nailed 
shoe: it would evince the height of ignorance and folly to at¬ 
tempt such a thing. At the same time I can take upon myself 
to say, that the sandal will serve as a substitute; and that it is 
