ON SHOEING HORSES. 
-489 
“ A carriage without springs, moving over a rough road, has to 
be lifted over obstacles, or out of depressions, and all the power 
expended in overcoming inertia is pure loss; but the force exerted 
in elevating the weight is in a great measure compensated by the 
preceding or subsequent descent. Now, under the supposition in 
my paragraph, inertia would be destroyed; and it already is so by 
springs now at present used, and by the smooth roads.”— Gilbert. 
In the first paragraph of this sentence is shewn the consequences 
that must of necessity ensue to the feet of horses shod in the ordi¬ 
nary manner. The force exerted on the foot, and lastly on the 
hoof, in elevating the weight to propel not only the body of the 
animal but also the weight carried or drawn, is always producing 
percussion in the preceding and subsequent descent in all classes 
of horses. The power of the spring, as shewn in Mr. Gloag’s ex¬ 
periments, is incomplete, or quite destroyed. In the second para¬ 
graph is shewn what happens in a horse’s foot ridden or driven 
without shoes over unmade roads, or with springs added to the 
shoes over uneven or smooth hard roads. 
“ Now, tell us how we are to make spring shoes, as you have 
been in that line,” says the boy. 
Willingly, boy ! Twenty-four years ago I lost the good opinion 
of a much valued friend, connexion, and master, by not being 
readily able to put that in a practical shape ; for he was a prac¬ 
tical man, not a theorist; “ a skilful horseman and a huntsman 
bred.” He was a friend of Mr. Percivall’s, and thought, like 
him perhaps, that I was “ framing plans in the cabinet for the 
farrier to look through when they enter the forge.” The idea of 
applying practical mathematics to the conformation of the horse 
was not mine; I only extended it to the foot in the practice of 
shoeing; and without you cannot now, my mates, adjust the 
springs to the ordinary horseshoe ; it is only to be done scienti¬ 
fically “by calculating assumed cases,” i. e. the primary and se¬ 
condary bearings of horses’ hoofs, the latter of which shews you 
the extent of spring or action of the hoof. Do it, if you will, any 
other way, and it will only be like the other shifts, temporary 
relief. The application of a spring or two to ordinary horseshoes 
is attended with an expence so very trifling in comparison with 
the benefit to be derived therefrom, that no horse proprietor would 
object to pay it, if he saw the shoeing-smiths adopt the practice. 
Mr. Youatt received shoes of this description in 1837, the sender 
stating he would not be answerable for their application unless sci¬ 
entifically carried out; and so I say too. Since this period, I believe, 
others have published on the foot and shoeing : but to what pur¬ 
pose ] The ordinary practice of shoeing is still continued, and tem¬ 
porary and permanent lamenesses are the consequence. Mr. Per- 
VOL. XXII. 3 T 
