UNITED STATES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
299 
This may be attributed to the fact, that in buying these horses, 
more pains are taken in selecting them than formerly, and to a 
better system of shoeing and managing them generally. 
I have an impression, that horses are shod better, generally 
speaking, than they were ten years ago, although to-day the work 
is done imperfectly enough. But there is something connected 
with the shoeing of car horses, in which a great change has been 
made, deserving of more than passing notice. 
Five years ago, or more, all of our car horses were shod with 
shoes having toe and heel corks; now, most of them wear the 
thin-heeled “ Goodenough ” shoe. When they were shod with 
the corked shoe, certainly one in ten was lame. Now that they 
are shod with thin shoes, so that the frog comes to the ground, 
there are comparatively very few lame ones. These statements 
are made from a careful and constant observation of the two 
methods of shoeing, in their application to this class of horses; 
and the managers of roads, finding that light shoes and frog pres¬ 
sure work well, adopt and continue the system. 
Now, I do not appear as an advocate of the so-called “ Good- 
enough” system of shoeing. The shoe itself is a coarse article, 
which might be improved, and the system is older than Mr. 
Goodenough, or almost any living man. But it is my opinion, 
that horses doing this particular kind of work, do it more accep¬ 
tably, and at a much less risk to their feet and limbs, when shod 
this way, than when shod with heavier toed and heeled 
shoes. 
All members of the profession are, or should be, acquainted 
with all the arguments which have been advanced in favor of the 
frog-pressure system ; and while we recognize the utter absurdity 
of most of them, still the results cannot be ignored or disputed 
when the system is properly tried. 
Mr. Goodenough once told me, in conversation, that when the 
horse stepped on the frog, a sort of valve was opened, which 
allowed a certain oil to run down the leg into the foot, and that 
this oil kept the posterior parts of the foot in a healthy condi¬ 
tion. Also, that frog-pressure expanded the hoof at every step, 
which was necessary in a physiological point of vjew. Also ? 
