ON SHOEING HORSES. 487 
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and I make no doubt some of you will be able to supply what is 
wanted. It is your turn now, Jack. 
Some years ago, I worked at the shop near Smithfield that has 
“Expansion” marked outside, like the barbers that had “ Shave for a 
Halfpenny,” while the business inside went on as usual for a penny; 
and we had, from its situation, a deal of heavy work; such 
horses as the carriage horse I. mentioned. These machiners are 
large bony horses, some of them fast goers; and to shoe these 
horses so as to go without intermission, which is necessary, over 
the stones of the metropolis, is probably the most difficult of all 
for the shoeing-smith to accomplish. Now, had master lived at the 
West-end, he might, during the season, have had some thorough¬ 
breds, whose feet he might have thought the better, if they had 
been wider at the bottom, by any means ; but, blow me (except¬ 
ing a few belonging to some of the young gentlemen), if ever I 
saw horses of this description in the vicinity of the city. The bell¬ 
shaped hoof is more common than any other: the upper part of 
the hoof only retains its original form : the foot is sunk backwards, 
the heels have all manner of forms; sometimes upright, in other 
cases bent inwards, in all narrower than they should be; yet the 
toe is shelving out like a bell, as if it did not belong to the same 
foot, while the lower surface presents, upon being lifted up, a 
strange combination,—the toe excess of spread, and the heels con¬ 
tracted, and sometimes, if what has been mentioned was not enough 
to perplex the shoeing-smith, the sole is flat or convex, and, instead 
of the bell-shaped, a thin crust that will barely admit of nailing 
any how to keep on a shoe, and the horse cannot be kept in work 
over the stones; these are the difficulties, Bill, in my opinion, 
we have to overcome: but how, in the name of fortune, are we to 
do it 1 Many a hard day’s labour have I had of it, and what I 
have done another mate has sometimes undone. There is no 
doubt that what we want is knowledge among us workmen. It 
is not want of knowledge in masters, I believe, but, as Mr. Gloag 
says, “sound, positive, and settled opinion.” It is very clear that 
in light horses there is little action of the foot—in others there is 
more; and in heavy horses with high action the action of the 
foot is so great, that the spring of the hoof is completely de¬ 
stroyed. Now, it is a deceitful argument to require expansion 
in the foot of a light horse, naturally having little action, while all 
others do not require any widening, even at the heels and quar¬ 
ters, although these may be narrow: what is required is, alteration 
of deformity of the hoof; the replacing of parts, as Mr. Per- 
civall describes it, in their relative position. The attainment of 
this can only be accomplished through us workmen. The blame, 
therefore, I see plainly, from Mr. Gloag’s experiments, will hence¬ 
forward be thrown upon us. 
