ON SHOEING HORSES. 
555 
their horses are pricked, but do not care so much about corns. They 
say, if he has a corn one time he will have it always; yet there is 
no disease that can be so well prevented by shoeing, none so easily 
cured by shoeing, though it is the opinion they are incurable. The 
art of shoeing does not depend upon the kind of shoe, but on the 
application of it, and particularly in paring the foot according to 
circumstances. Light horses, that go near the ground, require 
opposite treatment to heavy horses with high action. The former 
require the sole to be pared till it is thin and pliable under your 
thumb, and concave between the bars and crust; the latter, the 
crust to be preserved, so that this concavity of the sole may be 
obtained. If you wish to save this kind of horse you must pre¬ 
serve crust. A priori, we would know that Moorcroft was wrong ; 
for Nature did not make these parts level, but the crust to project 
below the sole ; for turn the horse, with feet pared level, out to 
grass, and there the feet will recover the original concave shape 
necessary for its motion or descent.” 
Now, the above quotation shews one of the consequences of 
ordinary shoeing; i. e. of not springing the heels when the foot is 
in health; also, our conduct, mates, when a horse has corns. How 
we are hereafter to reconcile our practice in the latter case to 
our neglect of it in the former one, I do not know; that is, if we 
acknowledge that we have ever seen The Veterinarian. Be¬ 
fore those experiments of Caliph Gloag we might have pleaded 
ignorance; for, in the great Caliph’s introductory remarks on shoe¬ 
ing, he said, “The knowledge of the horse’s foot is, perhaps, the 
most important of veterinary studies. The horse’s foot we have to 
preserve in health; other parts we have only to cure of disease. 
The subject of shoeing is so complicated that few understand it. 
To preserve the foot, we must have knowledge of the anatomy and 
functions of the foot, for shoeing is founded upon its physiology; 
and, from want of this knowledge, arise ninety-nine out of a 
hundred of the diseases of the foot. The foot is not likely to be 
diseased more than any other part, in a state of Nature; for, 
although lameness of the fore feet is so common, some feet are so 
formed that ignorance will scarcely injure them, except by a prick.” 
I do not know, mates, our numbers in proportion to masters, but 
taking the former at ninety-nine and the latter at one, it is fearful 
odds—functions against those that are function-less, could we plead 
it; but that knack we had of “ easing a lame ’un” has entirely pre¬ 
vented it. Besides, too, it appears we have not had the credit of 
shoeing well in the ordinary manner others that did go, as they 
did for years, sound: as far as we were concerned they went so, 
nolens volens; they sprang their own heels, because we would not 
do it for them. In other cases we are accused of depriving the 
