THE VETERINARIAN AND THE HORSE-SHOER. 
247 
judge honest, honorable and capable men by their experience 
with these kind of men. And it is by making it disreputable, 
and the more disreputable the better, that the business of horse¬ 
shoeing and the practice of veterinary surgery and medicine can 
be made more profitable, more honorable, and much more satis¬ 
factory to all concerned. 
jMany horse-shoers of to-day attempt to practice veterinary 
surgery, and the fact of their attempting it, with their lack of 
knowledge of anatomy, proves their incompetency. If success 
attends his efforts we are of the opinion that it is more luck 
than good management, when, if he was educated and knew some¬ 
thing of the intricate machinery that needed repair, he would 
fully understand the necessity of the employment of a compe¬ 
tent veterinarian, whose province it would be to deal with the 
case in hand. Many times, and in fact it is common, when a 
horse has picked up a nail, for the owner or driver to immedi¬ 
ately go to the horse-shoer, when the horse-shoer would know 
nothing at all of the necessities of the case, but would do some¬ 
thing to retain the customer, for the false notion often prevails 
that if he did not do it that the customer would take it as an ac¬ 
knowledgment of ignorance. I have now in mind two in¬ 
stances of this kind, which proved quite expensive to the owner, 
when by proper treatment by a veterinary, and intelligent care, 
the result would have been different. The veterinary, in addi¬ 
tion to his knowledge of medicine and veterinary surgery, should 
be able to intelligently pare out, dress properly, and level the 
horse’s foot, and the horse-shoer, in addition to being able to 
make and properly adjust and put on a shoe, should know more 
of the machine upon which he works. It certainly is not nec¬ 
essary for the veterinary student to spend three years in the 
study of horse-shoeing to try to perfect himself so that he would 
understand the science of shoeing the trotter, or be able to ad¬ 
just a shoe for the purpose of accomplishing or aiding a remedy 
where such work is necessary ; neither is it necessary for the 
horse-shoer to spend a great length of time in the study of anat¬ 
omy and physiology of the horse’s foot and leg as far as is neces- 
