558 
ON SHOEING HORSES. 
“ We are in a dilemma about shoes, we want cover, and yet, 
from the thinness and weakness of the crust, we are obliged to 
employ small nails, and there is thus danger of the shoe coming 
off. You can, in general, make the sole at the heels concave; but, 
as we said before, if you apply the long shoe, which you can do, 
you will still have concussion. You can, therefore, apply the bar- 
shoe, as the frog is always good, and, the bar resting on the frog, 
the heels are removed from pressure, the crust grows, and the sole, 
in some degree, becomes more concave.” 
Nothing can be more clear than this, that we are not to apply 
the long shoe, because thus you cannot carry out the physiology; 
the heels would still be destroyed by the action or weight of the 
horse; but the great Caliph might as well have sung, 
“ So it will be when I am gone, 
Shoes on the heels will still press on 
i. e., when the foot is off the ground. 
His mind was of this order. Look at his answer to Caliph 
Sewell: it is as much as saying, I am averse to the labour of it; 
Caliph Percivall has kindly relieved me of it. Could you have 
expected from him the drudgery of making an artificial spring 
to the long shoe 1 he left that for some of you to do, in a similar 
manner that all improvements in other machinery have happened. 
He could intuitively shew the physiology of the foot, and how 
to carry it out in practice; he took the ordinary bar shoe, which 
your fathers, mates, used to lay on the heels, and he immediately 
directed it to be applied physiologically, so that the action of the 
hoof could be duly performed. But to make horseshoes, or apply 
them commercially profitably, never entered his head. He used 
to say, “ The low prices paid for shoeing, in some places, may be 
a cause of this art not improving : as long as a horse goes sound 
from the shop, no one cares how he is shod; nevertheless lame¬ 
ness comes on gradually.” All this is too true, mates ; but as the 
public, in general, do not care, this is the very reason why you 
should all care more, and I will tell you why. He used to say, 
in regard to horses with flat feet, “ let them stand a day or two 
without shoes on flat stones with pitch, &c.—advise not to work 
these horses on pavement, or in wet weather.” Now, he knew, in 
many cases, such advice would be attended to with horses of the 
opulent; but Messrs.-and Co. seldom could be met with to 
give a horse such consideration. The horse account is in the 
ledger. Mr. Y. S., shoeing, &c. per contract, profit and loss. 
Advice is sometimes in the contract, and if not, it would in general 
be given in vain. Horses standing a day or two, in the course of 
time amounts to so much, that there is less dividend. We can 
never get over this. We must so improve the shoe, that horses 
