I J-NRLF SB 171 bt,S THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID BIOLOGY HOESES AND ROADS *The most humane of modern horse-owners is an ignorant tyrant to his graceful bondservant ' MAYHEW 'The history of almost every horse in this kingdom is a struggle to exist, against human endeavours to deprive it of utility ' MAYHEW ' The eye soon gets accustomed to deformity, and then does not perceive it ' BRACY CLARK 'Certainly he who prevents does more than he who cures' PHILIP ASTLEY ' No foot, no horse ' Old Saying HOESES AND ROADS OB HOW TO KEEP A HORSE SOUND ;ON HIS LEGS BY FKEE-LANCE I o BEING A SERIES OF PAPERS REPUBLISHED FROM 'THE FARM JOURNAL' LONDON LONG-MANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1880 All rights reserved LOS DON : FEINTED BY SrOTTISWOODK AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARB AND PARLIAMENT STREET Bll LOST made shoes.' Mr. Douglas says of horse-shoers : * They think they can stand, as it were, with their backs against the door of the world, in order to prevent novelties which might interfere with their opinions from coming in. But the world's walls are 118 HORSES AND ROADS. wondrous ones, and its side doors numerous ; so, whilst these opposers of progress manage to keep the main gate closed, the truth contrives to scale the walls, or slide in by side doors.' The writer is of opinion that these defenders of the main gate keep a sharp look out over both the side doors and the wall's summit, and allow nothing to pass by either if they can help it. They con- tradict every statement that is likely to interfere with their gains. Prince Bismarck is credited with saying that ' he never believed anything until it was officially contradicted.' Those who derive, either directly or indirectly, gain from shoeing cannot be expected to help to make any breach in this wall, but, on the contrary, to defend it to their utmost every time any assault is attempted upon it. 119 CHAPTER XIII. f ABERLORNA'S '$ SECOND LETTER IN ' FARM JOURNAL ' HIS SECOND HORSE SHOD WITH TIPS PUTTING ON TIPS HIS EXPERIENCE IN SOUTH AMERICA OF THE EXUBERANCE OF GROWTH OF HORN AND ITS TOUGHNESS, IN UNSHOD HORSES SHOD HORSES GO LAME OVER GOOD ROADS, WHILST THE UNSHOD ONES GO SOUND OVER THOSE OF THE VERY WORST DESCRIPTION IGNORANCE OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND OF THE NATURE OF A HORSE'S FOOT ' THE LANCET ' ON THE IN- DEFENSIBILITY, IN A PHYSIOLOGICAL LIGHT, OF THE USE OF HORSESHOES SUCCESS OF TWO GENTLEMEN IN WORKING UNSHOD HORSES IN ENGLAND NEWSPAPER COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE SLIPPING OF HORSES, AND STOPPAGE OF TRAFFIC ON LUDGATE HILL THE FALSE LIGHT IN WHICH SLIPPING IS LOOKED AT. THE second letter of ' Aberlorna ' is most interest- ing. 1 This gentleman is evidently thinking things out for himself faster than these chapters can carry him. In the common interest it may be well to go over his letter somewhat in detail. His successful, although rather severe, trial must ' set a good many people thinking,' especially when they see that within the fortnight he has been so encouraged by the result obtained that he has subjected another horse to similar treatment, only using this time a three-quarter shoe, with the intention of reducing 1 See Appendix C. 120 HORSES AND ROADS. it to a tip later on. Most likely he will bring it to that at the second shoeing ; but he is able to take care of himself and his horse, and stands in no need of advice. * Hot shoeing will become unnecessary by the use of tips, which any person ought to be able to put on with very little practice, and thus save the time and trouble ' (and, in his case, a twenty mile journey) ' of having to send their horse away to be shod.' The writer is under great obligation to ' Aberlorna ' for having made this remark : he would have already made it himself had he not feared to see it scouted. If owners would interest themselves so far as to accompany their horses to the forge, and carefully watch the process of shoeing, they would see distinctly that the nailing on of a shoe has no great mystery attached to it, and that any carter or groom could do it as well as a farrier, if he tried in earnest. The pointing of the nails is the chief thing. Nails as they come from the manufactory have, of course, a certain kind of point ; but it will be seen that farriers always give it a modification by hammering it on one side only, which is on what is intended for the inside, with a view of giving the nail an inclination to drive, in a slight degree, out- wards, and so avoid pricking the inner crust. Whilst driving a nail, the operator will be remarked to be feeling, with a finger over the place, where he wishes the point to come out ; and, should the slight bulging out, which the nail carries before it, not appear to him to be in the right place, he will QUALITIES OF HORSE-NAILS. 121 draw the nail and point another, and frequently this will be done on the face of the shoe which is par- tially fixed. Nails that have scales upon them should be rejected, because the scale will weaken the nail at the part where it exists, and may cause it to bulge in, or bend and press upon the sensitive inner parts, although the point may, at the moment when the weak part of the shank gets introduced, be going all right; also, the scale may open out in the course of driving, and cause much injury. The machine-made nails of the Seeley Company are to be recommended for their general good quality and freedom from scaliness. From Belgium also come nails superior to the English-made ones, which seem to be among the poorest. When once these minutiae are seized, the fancied difficulty is practically vanquished ; and why should not a groom or a carter learn them as easily as a farrier ? They generally spring from the same class, and Mr. Douglas tells us that tailors throw down the needle to nail on horseshoes in the army. We next discover that ' Aberlorna ' has travelled in South America, and has ridden hundreds of miles on unshod horses, whose feet c grew fast. 9 He states that ' he had often to cut the toes ' the toes only, mark ' which was done with some difficulty with a chisel and mallet.' To people who have not had his experience it might be interesting to learn from him whether he means that the only difficulty consisted in the density and toughness of the horn being so great as to render a heavy mallet necessary to drive 122 HORSES AND ROADS. the chisel through it, or whether there was any other annoyance or difficulty attached to the opera- tion; because some people may say that if the annoyance in cutting the toe is as great as that of shoeing, they prefer rather * to bear those ills they have, than fly to others they know not of.' By rasping the toe once or twice a week it may always be kept in good form, and then no cutting would be required. ' Aberlorna ' has happily known how to compress a large amount of useful observation into the twenty- five lines which his letter occupies ; some people cannot say more to the real point in as many columns. The next statement of this gentleman, who went about the world with his eyes open, is that 4 he does not remember seeing any lame horses except in the towns, and these were generally, if not always, / observed, shod. The (country ?) roads were for the most part sand, full of rough stones, and in some places causewayed for miles. Anyhow they were pretty rough going.' So, then, it really is a fact that in the towns, where horseshoes would have been brought into fashion by Europeans, and where the road surface would be smoother, shod horses went lame, whilst the unshod ones went sound on long journeys over worse roads. ' Truth is stranger than fiction.' Another thing which many readers would probably be glad to hear from this gentleman is, whether by ' causeways ' are to be understood roads EXPERIENCE IN ENGLAND OF AN UNSHOD HORSE. 123 that are ' pitched,' or paved with stone, somewhat like London streets, only more roughly, in parts where they would in the rainy season become other- wise impassable ; as, in certain places, such roads do exist to the writer's personal knowledge. ' People in this country seem to have no idea what a horse's foot is. They have always seen horses shod, and think they always must be shod, and never will alter the method if they are let alone.' Thanks, 'Aberlorna,' for putting the thing so plainly ; it comes so much better from you. Some who think of a horse's foot only as a lump of horn stuck on to the end of his leg for the purpose of nailing a shoe on to, will be led by you to investi- gate the nature of the foot of the horse. * As to farriers, it is useless talking to them. Take your horses to them, and make them follow out your directions through thick and thin; it is the only way.' Exactly so ; no one could give better advice. In November, 1878, a correspondent wrote in a contemporary : ' The argument against horseshoes seemed to me so strong, and the convenience of doing without them so great, that I resolved to try the experiment. Accordingly, when my pony's shoes were worn out, I had them removed, and gave him a month's rest at grass, with an occasional drive of a mile or two on the high road while his hoofs were hardening. The result, at first, seemed doubtful. The hoof was a thin shell, and kept chipping away, until it had worn down below the holes of the 124 HORSES AND ROADS. nails by which the shoes had been fastened. After this, the hoof grew thick and hard, quite unlike what it had been before. I now put the pony to full work, and he stands it well. He is more sure- footed ; his tread is almost noiseless ; and his hoofs are in no danger from the rough hands of the farrier ; and the change altogether has been a clear gain, without anything to set off against it. The pony was between four and five years old, and had been regularly shod up to the present year. He now goes better without shoes than he ever did with them ; and without shoes he will continue to go as long as he remains in my possession/ That eight months after in August, 1879 this gentleman should send a copy of this same article to a provincial paper, is proof that he had never had any difficulties after the first month, the time needed for the * thick,' * hard ' horn to reach the ground. There is one thing that he does not tell us, but which would have been interesting to know ; and it is, whether any of his neighbours found heart and brains enough to profit by his example. His silence leaves room for the conjecture that ' they had eyes, but saw not.' It is even possible they still look upon his proceeding as an eccentri- city. Such is life ; the world might stand still for all that some people care to the contrary. At the same time that this was passing, a well- known farmer and breeder of shorthorns in Cum- berland wrote : ' I had a brood mare which had been running barefooted for several years, when, EXPERIENCE IN ENGLAND OF TWO UNSHOD HORSES. 125 ceasing to breed, I took her up and used her as a shepherd's hack, where she had constant work for two years ; and, in travelling from farm to farm, she had a considerable distance of hard road to traverse daily, yet she never required shoeing. In the summer of 1877 I purchased a farm horse which had had the misfortune to get a nail into its foot, and he had been under the farrier's treatment for several months; but had made so little progress towards recovery, that I determined to try what Nature would do for him. I had his shoes taken off and turned him to pasture. In the spring of 1878, being still rather lame, I put him to work on the land ; and he is now doing all sorts of farm work, including drawing manure from the town, and drags his load as well over hard pavement as any shod horse that I have. Whether he could stand constant work on hard roads I am unable to say; but he does all that I require of him, and the experiment is so satisfactory that I intend to put another horse through the same training.' The 4 Lancet ' says : ' As a matter of physiolo- gical fitness, nothing more indefensible than the use of shoes can be imagined. Not only is the mode of attaching them by nails injurious to the hoof; it is the probable, if not evident, cause of many affec- tions of the foot and leg, which impair the use- fulness, and must affect the comfort, of the animal.' There is no dearth of complaints about horseshoes ; but people still ' cling so tenaciously to the favourite superstition ' of regarding them as ' necessary evils,' 126 HORSES AND ROADS. that the idea of fully examining the other side of the question never seems to occur to them; although, when it is brought to their notice, some are found willing to listen to argument and profit by it. A weekly, having the date of March 7, has the following paragraph : 'Whilst on the subject of animals, I should like once more to draw attention to the terrible suffering which greasy wood pave- ments entail upon the poor horses. The scene on Ludgate Hill is often heartrending. The poor beasts, struggling madly to gain a foothold on the slippery surface, strain and tremble and sweat, and often seriously injure themselves. It is no uncom- mon thing for the whole traffic to be stopped by a heavily-laden waggon, which the horse, with the ground slipping from under him, vainly endeavours to drag up the hill. Oaths, kicks, and brutal beat- ings the poor beast gets ; but it never seems to strike any one that a little sand or fine gravel thrown in the morning over these wood pavements would conquer the difficulty. Asphalte and wood require keeping clean where there is much traffic. The present object of the authorities seems to be to keep them filthy. One would imagine they were big share- holders in a joint stock horse-slaughtering company,' For some days preceding the appearance of this paragraph the weather had been finer than usual, and the watering carts had been at work. If, then, under the best of circumstances things were thus, what must they be on some of the days for which London is so famous ? SLIPPERINESS OF LUDGATE HILL. 127 Ludgate Hill is neither very steep nor long, yet we have so often heard these stereotyped complaints about it, that we have come to regard it as a verit- able mountain. If this mountain refuses to advance to Mahomet, and there is an urgent necessity for their meeting, why should not Mahomet advance towards the mountain? Sand is, at the best, an incomplete remedy, at the same time that it is a costly one for the ratepayers ; and its use, instead of inducing to cleanliness, does the very reverse. Every time the road was swept or scraped, the sand would go with the rest, and then we should be ' as we were,' until more was put down. A better measure would be to keep the roadway clean by the use of revolving brushes worked on the end of a cart, into which the dirt should be carried by the brushes. Such sweeping carts were formerly to be seen, but have vanished. But what really wants most looking at is the revers de la medaille. On it would be seen bright, smooth, iron shoes far more slippery than the pavement. Unfortunately for the horse, this face of the coin is downwards, and people will not allow themselves to be persuaded to turn it up and examine it. If they would do so, and efface those slippery shoes, they would find under them a material, placed there by the Almighty to prevent the horse from slipping on smooth surfaces, even on ice. The horses would then give over struggling on the points of their toes, because they would find that a large, tough surface would afford them better holding and a better point d'appui, than would the 128 HORSES AND ROADS. fractional part of an inch of a bright, smooth, slippery iron shoe. Then the shouting, swearing, kicking, thrashing, stoppage of traffic, and other outrages to the feelings of humane people, would disappear ; and all this would not only not have cost anyone a penny, but both ratepayers and horse owners would have positively economised, even if we say nothing of the diminished liability to street accidents. It is true that horse slaughterers would find business slacker : it must be a good wind that blows no one any harm. Ludgate Hill, being a principal thoroughfare, falls more under notice than other streets ; but let anyone visit the small streets running up from the river. These are paved with stone more slippery than wood, and the slipping upon it, from its not being level, shakes and injures the horses more than when they slip upon wood. These streets, not being in the road of the generality of journalists, remain unnoticed. Horses must be the meekest of animals when they allow themselves to be induced to enter them a second time. Chien echaude craint I'eau froide ; the horse is even more docile and tractable, meeker, and less easily scared than the dog. 129 CHAPTER XIV. LUDGATE HILL ONLY RISES ABOUT FOUR FEET IN EVERY HUNDRED SOCIETIES THE BEARING REIN ONLY REQUIRED ON CRIPPLES. LUDGATE HILL is not Moirosi's Mountain, but, after all, is only a gentle ascent of about half an inch in the foot, over a length of about two hundred yards, up which unshod omnibus horses would trot with a full load in any weather. Yet there it must remain, a chief thoroughfare in the heart of London, a perennial cause of complaint, and of fear, disgust, and injury to man and horse. It is of no use to keep eternally grumbling at it, or proposing in- efficient remedies ; it must be tackled in a rational manner by not irrationally opposing two slippery surfaces to each other, and then the difficulty would be vanquished. Humane and well meaning, but it is to be feared not eminently practical, people have formed them- selves into various corporate bodies, either with the view of protecting the horse from injury by man, or else man from injury by the horse, when in the legitimate exercise of his daily toil. Philanthropic and philozoic individuals have taken the donkey K 130 HORSES AND ROADS. under their protection, yet in England he continues to labour under the curse of the iron shoes from which his Irish brethren are exempt. Here is a fitting opportunity for his patrons to widen out the sphere of their humane intervention in his favour. They must not say that the climate of England is so different from that of Ireland that they could not do what Irish donkeys can, for the climate of England is no moister than that of Ireland, and we have testimony that its roads are no worse. In Porto Kico, a Spanish island, horses go barefooted ; whilst in Jamaica, in the same latitude and with the same climate, English civilisation (?) demands that they should be shod. Evidently these last could as well go without shoes as the former, and, evidently also, the English donkeys no more need shoeing than do the Irish ones. Climate has nothing to do with the question. In the invasion of America, Hernan Cortes could not carry about (in a country destitute of roads) anvils, forges, and iron. Without the few dozen horses, which overawed the Aztecs so much that they took them for gods, and carved idols in their re- semblance, which they worshipped, he would have been unable to penetrate many miles from the coast. On the performance of those few horses depended the subjugation of Mexico. They did their work and survived it, and from them descends the mustang, which still goes unshod. Horses are not indigenous to America this was their first intro- duction; and here is a further proof that climate THE HORSE A COMPLETE ANIMAL. 131 and locality have not that influence over the hoof which they are vulgarly supposed to have. It is being continually argued that the horse, as we have him, must not be looked upon as being in his natural state, but in an artificial one. Surely a little reflection should lead educated people to per- ceive that it is we ourselves who have, by continually striving against Nature, unnecessarily and insanely nursed him into an artificial state. People lose sight of the undeniable fact that he was created expressly as a servant for man, and as such was destined to become a captive and a domesticated animal. Simple domestication would not render him artificial ; but pampering, continual doctoring, and adding to, or subtracting from, his frame will do so. The Great Architect of the Universe neither made too little, nor too much, nor did he assign to the horse any inadequate members. Other quadru- peds possess both collar-bones and a gall-bladder, the horse has neither ; but no one, however sapient, can detect that this inscrutable economy of con- struction has rendered him the less powerful, the less fleet, or the less enduring. It was needful that his head should be of a certain size to lodge the many organs which it contains, to provide leverage for the jaw with its powerful muscles, &c. ; and Mr. Fearnley, formerly Principal of and Lecturer on Veterinary Surgery at the Edinburgh Veterinary College, writing, in March last year, a treatise on the structure of the horse, tells us that the head is K 2 132 HOESES AND ROADS. a model of lightness and strength, that the bones contain cavities, which ' are only there to allow of the bone being as light as possible, and as cavities are otherwise quite worthless. The upper jaw forms an arch, having substantial buttresses in the molar teeth and their bony sockets, and the span is of gigantic strength and extremely light, from its hollow construction.' The tail, amongst other purposes, serves as a rudder with which the horse helps to steer himself when at speed, and the racer gets the benefit of it as such ; but we have amongst us barbarians who amputate the end of the spinal column, and fancy that, when they have thus mutilated the animal, they have rendered it more beautiful than the Creator had been able to do ! A crusade is, at this moment, being preached against the cruelty of vivisection by people who condone the practice of vivisection of the horse, when they purchase and drive those who have been thus wantonly mutilated; and they go further against their professed creed when they pay another barbarian to subject his feet periodically to vivisec- tion and vivicremation. These people are straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel with a vengeance. They have the choice of three things either to abandon their practice, withdraw their theory, or appear as imbeciles before the world. Which road will they choose ? There is no compromise. The description of the hoof already given can scarcely fail to show that as much care has been THE NATURAL FOOT EQUAL TO ITS TASK. 133 bestowed upon it as upon the head or any other part. It is small, light, and strong, and so adapted for both power and speed. Is it possible that it can be otherwise than fully adequate to the task of carrying, not only the weight of the horse, but also that of his rider ? Religion forbids the bare conception of such an idea, which has not occurred to semi-civilised tribes and nations, who find by practice that the foot really is able to support successfully the very severe toils to which they subject the horse. Not long ago, the writer heard a luminary of the pulpit read from the Scripture : ' But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsels. Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, and I will make thy horn iron, and thy hoofs brass.' In the sermon of that day, the necessity of faith was much insisted upon ; yet the preacher was seen shortly after being drawn by a horse suffering so badly from brittle hoof that parts of the shanks of nails were visible in places where the horn had chipped away. Where was his great faith when he feared to trust the feet of his slave to the hands of its Creator, who had entrusted him with the care of it? The writer is no respecter of persons or titles when on this subject, which does not allow him to be so even if he felt inclined. Mr. Flower had to appeal to all classes, and Mrs. Flower aided him by addressing herself to the ladies, in his laudable efforts to do away with the abuse of the bearing- rein. In the ' Book of the Horse ' we find it said of 134 HORSES AND ROADS. him : ' Mr. E. Flower, of Hyde Park G-ardens, has agitated this question for some time with that exag- gerated enthusiasm which is essential if any deep- seated grievance is to be reformed. No great reform from the time of Martin Luther to Clarkson and Wilberforce has ever been effected by cautious advocates and soft suggestions.' Mr. Flower has happily succeeded in convincing many that he was right. Even some ' fashionable ' sporting men threw away the bearing-rein in their teams, rightly judg- ing that, whilst their horses thus went better, they also looked better. Managers of heavy traffic, and owners of the hardest-worked slaves, find that they have been gainers by abandoning it. They will soon make the same discovery in the matter of shoes. Mayhew says : < That cannot be right the results of which are purely evil. 9 The use of horseshoes is a sin; they are un- necessary, and * their results are purely evil : ' they torture the animal and shorten his life ; and the sin carries along with it the curse of being a continual source of worry and expense to his owner. ' Fashion ' cannot plead effectually in their favour, as they detract from action, activity, smart- ness, and speed. But then, perhaps, 'fashion' demands clatter; there is no accounting for taste. The bearing-rein would be still less needed for a horse which, having no pains in his feet, would not be shifting them about, and putting himself into slouching postures at every moment in order to relieve them. 135 CHAPTEE XV. BRITTLE-HOOF IGNORANCE OF FARRIERS ' IMPECITNTOSUS ' SATS THE EXISTING IDEAS ON THE HORSE'S FOOT HAVE SPRUNG FROM WRONG ROOTS ALTOGETHER ' FEARNLEY ' SAYS THE CHARLIER 'IS THE MOST COMMON-SENSE SHOE EVER INVENTED.' BY paying a visit to various camps of the righteous, we have again come round to that touchstone ' brittle hoof.' All shod horses suffer more or less from brittle hoof; it is only a question as to the extent of the disease in any given instance. Heavily shod horses that have to keep back heavy loads, by either slipping or knuckling-over when going down hill, and have to make that other unnatural exertion of digging in their toes to start a load, or draw it up hill, are the worst sufferers. On looking at their feet, it will be found that the farrier has had a call made upon his ingenuity to get nails into places where they would hold in the horn, by driving them either askant, or else far up into it, or both. By so doing, he is only heightening the difficulty he will have to encounter when the next shoeing comes round. At the risk of appearing tiresome, we will repeat 136 HORSES AND ROADS. the description which Mr. Douglas gives of the constituency of the crust. He is well worth hearing twice : 6 If the crust is closely examined with a micro- scope, its structure will be found to consist of a number of bristle-like fibres standing on end, but bearing diagonally towards the ground. From the particular longitudinal construction of the fibres, it follows that they will bear a great amount of weight, so long as they are kept in their natural state. The crust so viewed resembles a number of small tubes, bound together by a hardened glue-like substance. Whoever has seen a mitrailleuse gun, with its numerous barrels all soldered together, can form a very good idea of the crust, especially if they were likewise to imagine the tubes to be filled with a thick fluid the use of which is to nourish and preserve them.' We have already seen that the driving of nails, in any form, must both lacerate and close up, either totally or partially, these delicate tubular fibres con- taining the fluid which gives life ; but when we come to consider that in driving them askant from right to left the farrier is causing a double amount of laceration, we shall easily comprehend that the further the disease spreads, the more he helps it to do so. Well may Mr. Lupton say : ' Farriers ought to go through a course of instruction pre- viously to being allowed to operate upon structures the anatomy, physiology, and economic uses of which they have never studied, and, consequently, never understood.' PROPERTIES OF THE HOOF. 137 But how about the hardened glue-like substance which binds the fibres together ? It is not difficult to imagine that this, also, must get smashed up, compressed, and its natural secretion and divinely correct distribution impaired if not ruined, by tra- versing it with nails, which push it on either side, and reduce the space which it was intended to occupy ; and this cannot fail to destroy the general adhesion of the whole, even if the whole of the prismatic-shaped portion in front of the nails (from their heads to their clinches) were not already dead which it generally is. Thus we find that we get a loose, shaky, uncemented bundle of dead fibres (like a rotten broom), easily destructible ; and the crust is deprived of its essential property of deaden- ing the shock which it must receive at each step, and of warding it off from the interior of the foot, and from the leg, aided by such important adjuncts as a soft, tough cushion (made further expansible by being cloven) in the frog, and a strong, arched sole, so made as to follow the expansion of the frog by allowing its lateral buttresses to spring out at the quarters, carrying with it, as a necessity, the crust at the quarters to which it is attached. Mr. Lupton has demonstrated that the heel and frog first reach the ground. Hence these parts were made soft and ex- pansible (although strong in the bars) to receive the bulk of the shock, when, immediately afterwards, down comes the crust, proceeding from the quarters gradually to the toe, to complete the action devised by that Omniscience which we fail to acknowledge, 138 HORSES AND ROADS. raising up in lieu thereof a hideous false deity to whom we bow down, whose behests we blindly obey, and to whose high priest, the knacker, we daily give over as sacrifice animals that are just arrived at, what ought to be, the prime of their lives. ' Impecuniosus ' remarks: 'It is, after all, no affair of mine what becomes of my neighbour's horses, but in no way is our ingratitude and hard- heartedness so apparent as in our treatment of dumb animals, and horses especially. A dog cries out if you hit him, and probably sulks ; a horse suffers in silence, and exerts himself the more.' < We ought to be ready to hail any inventions or ideas which promise to amend the treatment of that essential part of the horse's frame.' < No foot no horse ' has been long a stable proverb ; but how little the com- fort of the foot has hitherto been consulted ! The ideas on the subject have sprung from wrong roots, so to say, altogether ; or rather let us say they have been built on fanciful and insecure foundations .' 4 Owners of horses too often act as if their inten- tion was to wear out their property as soon as possible. We should think but little of the com- mon sense of the man who, having bought an expensive watch, knocked it about in every conceiv- able unfair way ; but we think nothing of such a course of action pursued towards a horse and why ? Because every one does it, I suppose ; at least, I can think of no better reason.' ' Any one, by stating his experience, at the expense of but little trouble and the wear and tear of pen and ink, hardly enough THE HORSE'S FOOT 'VEILED IN OBSCURITY.' 139 to alarm even Mr. Grreg, will assist in throwing light on a subject now confessedly veiled in obscurity, viz. the horse's foot ; and, in these days of reduc- tion, reducing our bills, and checking the deteriora- tion of horses' If it were only for the invitation thus given by 4 Impecuniosus,' how could the writer, knowing what he knows by experience, refrain from standing up for the ' rights of an animal ' ? And such an animal not a wild beast, but one ' that was created to be the friend and companion of man,' if we are to believe ' Lavengro ; ' whilst another writer has said that 6 had not custom dignified the lion with the title of " king of beasts," reason could nowhere confer that honour more deservedly than on the HORSE.' Virgil describes him as having a hoof ' that turns up the ground, and sounds deep with solid horn.' To be sure Virgil had not seen or heard of horseshoes, or he would perhaps have sung of the clatter of iron. Brittle hoof will not sound deep, like solid horn, but more like a cracked saucer, or a < shuffy ' brick it is flawed all over. It is all very well for some people to say that they do let the frog and bars alone, and thus comply with everything. They do not comply with more than a fraction. The thickness of a shoe, without calks, is not less than three-eighths of an inch. Hence the frog, to be of any use at all (and it can only be of partial use in an iron-bound foot), must make an abnormal growth to this extent ; and abnormal growths are always weak. That it will 140 HORSES AND ROADS. thus grow, only proves still more clearly that Nature is extending her help to the animal, in so far as she is allowed to do so. Here comes in the superiority of the Charlier shoe over all others. As it is let into the crust, the frog has no forced growth to make, but remains (in this respect only) as if the horse were unshod. So does the sole ; but the crust, even with this best of shoes, still gets mutilated with nails. ' Of evils choose the least.' The Charlier tip offers the least destruction to the foot, at the same time that it gives greater holding powers to the horse than anything yet invented in the shape of shoes. In his ' Lectures on the Examination of Horses as to Soundness,' published in 1878 Modern Horsey Literature Mr. Fearnley tells his pupils: ' The day will come, but perhaps it will not be in our lifetime, when the streets of our large towns will be paved rationally (with wood pavement), and then, happy day ! we shall have horses wearing on their forefeet at once the most scientific as it is the most common-sense shoe the Charlier. The stone pavior will cost the country many millions of pounds in horseflesh before the revolution comes about, but no doubt it will one day become a State question.' Think of this, ye societies who have misunder- stood your self-imposed tasks, and ye vestrymen who have squandered public funds, and ye horse- owners who have squandered your own, and ye journalists who keep upon the old track and offer questionable advice ! Remember that it comes from CHARLIER SHOES ON THE HIND FEET. 141 a veterinary surgeon and a professor of high degree and repute. But how is it that so many people recommend the Charlier shoe for the fore feet only ? The fore feet appear to have to carry more weight than the hind ones, as part of the shoulders and the neck and head are in front of them ; but certainly they were so constructed by the Almighty as to admit of this. In the case of a saddle horse or pack horse, the hind feet are called upon to share the extra weight. In the case of draught horses, the hind ones do nearly all the propulsion at the same time that (in shod horses) they take nearly all the weight, at the time of starting, which is the heaviest pull. In countries where shoeing is only partially practised the horses are shod in front, and their hind feet left bare. This is the case in Kome, as it is at the Cape, and the American farmers before cited acted thus, and so do many others ; but nowhere are horses to be seen which are shod behind whilst their fore feet go bare. There is a striking anomaly of theory about this. Of course the theory of shoe- ing is wrong ab initio, and perhaps this accounts for the various views taken of it. ' Impecuniosus ' was not the man to do things by halves. He began by using the Charlier shoes only in front, and he relates of a mare, which had twice fallen as a hack, that she was benefited by them. He then shod her behind also, a la Charlier, and he says, 6 after the first few days she never made a " peck " on the road, and felt quite different under me so 142 HORSES AND ROADS. much more springy. The fact is, I don't think we attend enough to the hind feet. They don't show the effect of bad shoeing like the forefeet, and so they don't get attention ; but what is bad in front can't be good behind. The mare's heels became much more open, and no man need desire a better hack on the road.' Not long ago a correspondent wrote that his horses were shod all round a la Charlier, yet they were quite capable of ' backing ' a load on any ordinary road, because they stood upon their feet (although they did not quite do so). Now, 4 backing ' is the most severe work a horse can be called upon to perform; and, therefore, it seems strange that every facility should not be allowed him for its performance. No valid reason has been adduced to deter us from 'going the whole quad- ruped ' that is to say, if you persist in shoeing him at all. If you do, you should go in for Charlier tips 'all round.' Nothing in the shape of shoeing can touch that form ; unless it is to let the hind feet go bare altogether, as they do in Massachusetts. When you reach this point you will soon throw away those in front also. 143 CHAPTER XVI. CUSTOM OF H. JENNINGS OF TRAILING RACEHORSES UNSHOD, AND RUNNING THEM IN THEIR RACES WITH TIPS ON THEIR PORE FEET, WITH THE HIND FEET BARE 'EVENING STANDARD,' INSTANCE OF IMPAIRED SIGHT IN A YOUNG LADY FROM WEARING HIGH HEELS ON HER BOOTS MANY DISEASES OF HORSES MAY BE ATTRIBUTABLE TO ILL-TREAT- MENT OF THEIR FEET CARIES OF THE TEETH IS KNOWN TO AFFECT A HORSE'S ACTION VETERINARY DENTISTS IN AMERICA CRIB-BITERS, WIND-SUCKERS, AND WEAVERS LETTER OF A CAVALRY OFFICER IN i DAILY TELEGRAPH' HIS FAVOURABLE EXPERIENCE OF TIPS AND UNSHOD HORSES. As a proof of the great diversity of ideas and opinions on the difference between the fore feet and the hind ones, as to which of the pairs should be most protected, or whether either of them should be pro- tected at all, we will give an extract from < Twenty Years on the Turf,' in the ' Sportsman,' in which a description of the establishment of Mr. H. Jennings, the well-known trainer of racehorses, at Bac de la Croix, Compiegne, is given : 6 Mr. Jennings has as many horses under his care as any other trainer in either France or England. One peculiarity about the horses in the La Croix stable is that the majority of them are unshod, while in training. Mr. Jennings is enabled to adopt this 144 HORSES AND ROADS. capital plan for the reason that the thoroughbreds have not to travel over any hard roads on their way to and from their gallops. They are ridden from their stables over the very short distance that inter- venes between there and the loamy soil and leaves over which they gallop on the rides in the forest, and this gives the yearlings and two-year-olds a fine opportunity to expand their heels and their feet generally, instead of contracting the natural growth by " binding " them, as it were, with iron. In fact, very few indeed of the horses trained by Henry Jennings run even in their races with plates on their hind feet, and only wear " tips " on their fore toes. The feet of all the horses in this large establishment are well cared for, and the yearlings especially derive immense benefit from the " bare- foot " system of training, as their feet are altogether broader in both the hind and fore quarters of their structure, and their frogs firmer and more healthy than the young things that are shod even before breaking.' Of course, the remark that the horses are enabled to go unshod because they have not to travel over any hard ground is only due to a popular delusion, the real fact being that it would be much better for them if they took all their walking exercise over good hard roads. Their feet would then become sufficiently toughened to enable them to dispense with the last remnant of iron, which Mr. Jennings employs in the shape of ' tips ' on the fore feet only, leaving the hind ones in their natural state. HIGH HEELS INJUEING A LADY'S EYESIGHT. 145 But how is it that Mr. Jennings stands alone amongst trainers in his ' peculiarity ' ? It would appear as if he had thought the thing out for him- self, and then had pluck enough to try it by experi- ment ; he was evidently not a slave to routine and fashion. Will he take this ' straight tip ' and lay out a piece of hard road, and let some of his unshod youngsters try their walking exercise upon it ? This would just make his system complete and his horses' feet perfect. The foot that is inured to hard roads can but be perfected thereby, and a perfect foot can but stand upon better terms with a racecourse, or a training- ground, hard or soft as they may be at times. Qui pent le plus peut le moins. In the Evening Standard of March 17, 1880, we find the following paragraph : 'It is a pity that nature and art should be so often, as they are, in opposition to each other, and that a theory of beauty which satisfies the demands of one should outrage the demands of the other. It was not natural that a girl's waist should be imme- diately under her arms, yet in former times that was considered indispensable to true grace. In later years it was equally unnatural that waists should be compressed to a painfully-small circum- ference, but this again became a habit ; and there exist others equally false and mischievous. Now and then, however, nature asserts herself, and gives a salutary hint that she is not to be maltreated with impunity. This, it appears, was lately the case at L 146 HORSES AND ROADS. Boston. A young lady living there found that her eyesight gradually became worse and worse, and, after a time, she adopted the sensible course of consulting the best oculist in the neighbourhood. To him she told her sad story. She had always enjoyed good health until lately ; but now she could neither read, nor work, nor play. Riding and driving were out of the question, and she was in terror of becoming blind. The oculist asked her about several things, and suddenly said, " Put out your foot." The request, strange as it was, did not seem altogether disagreeable to her, for her feet were small, and were incased in a delicious little pair of French boots with, as a matter of course, heels like little stilts. The doctor looked at it stolidly, and then said, " Yes. Gro home and take off those heels, and then come to me in a month's time, and we'll see how your eyes are." She did as she was told with a slight pang, it may be, but without hesita- tion ; and gradually the eyesight became stronger and stronger. At the end of the month she visited the doctor to report improvement, and he explained to her how certain nerves and tendons communicated with other nerves and tendons, and how injuring some injured the rest ; all of which she did not understand, but gathered enough information to comprehend that high heels develope unexpected dangers. In this girl's case Nature was having her revenge.' Here is food for reflection for us. Ill-treatment of the foot will cause disarrangement in an organ so ROARING, AND THE HORSE'S WIND. 147 remote from it as the eye ; ergo, it will do the same to other organs that are nearer to the foot, or even farther from it. Mr. Fearnley says : ' Next to the eye the larynx is the most delicate organ of the body.' ' Roaring ' is supposed to be due to the abuse of the bearing- rein, which, in some cases, is most likely to be true ; but then we have horses, such as racers and hunters, that have never become acquainted with the bearing- rein, and yet are ' roarers.' ' Whistling,' ' wheezing,' thick wind and broken wind, 'have been much thought about, and have had the fancy considerably racked to account for their existence.' It is a singular fact, that unshod horses are very rarely indeed to be met with suffering from blindness, or any of these other infirmities. Why should they be so free from them ? They work harder and fare worse than ours do. So we see that apart from the acknowledged, and most apparent, diseases caused by the falsely so-called ' necessary evil ' of shoeing, there are others more subtle which may be attributed to it ; and it needs no great stretch of the imagination, when we are let into secrets like these, to suppose that some cases even of glanders may be some day traced to ill-treatment of the foot. Mr. Fearnley deplores that the spirit of speci- alism should be wanting amongst veterinary surgeons. In America, however, they have veterinary dentists, as we may learn from a treatise already quoted from in these chapters. Mr. Russell, 'practical horse- shoer,' in his * Scientific Horseshoeing,' says : ' There L 2 148 HORSES AND ROADS. are cases, frequently occurring, where an imperfect action cannot be remedied by any kind of shoeing ; but, if we closely investigate the matter, we shall find that it originates from some other cause. This is sometimes the case when caries of the teeth is present, and the animal suffering from a continued toothache inclines to lug on the bit on one side, and in such a manner that he becomes tangled in his gait and bad in his action. If he pulls his head and neck out of line with his body, either to the right or to the left, the hind foot on that side is forced to land between the front feet and legs. The teeth must, therefore, be properly treated to obviate these difficulties. I have had Dr. E. E. Clark, the celebrated veterinary dentist of New York, operate for me on many occasions, and with wonderful success.' The man who reads us this lesson styles himself a ' practical horseshoer.' But after all, might it not have been the shoeing that had in the first place caused the caries of the teeth, and that this had reacted in its turn upon the feet or other organs of locomotion ? At any rate, Mr. Kussell's experience proves that there is sympathy between the teeth and the heels of a horse, and these are the parts of him that are the most remotely separated. Therefore it cannot be considered an exaggeration to conclude that the respiratory organs may be affected in a somewhat similar manner ; especially since they are nearer to the seat from which evil may fairly be supposed to SOME OCCULT DISEASES MAY BE DUE TO SHOEING. 149 proceed. By joining his evidence to that of the Boston oculist, whose special study, reflection, and acumen had enabled him to detect a cause concealed under a lady's flounces, it may be assumed that many puzzling infirmities in the horse may have their source in shoeing. The experiment which would prove this would be interesting, humane, in- expensive, and devoid of all risk. There is nothing in the shape of vivisection in anywise involved in it, and, indeed, there is no valid reason why it should not be made, as, in fact, it has been made, and, if we say nothing of the help which it may give us in accounting for occult infirmities, it has been found to succeed ; and it will be so found again. Mayhew says : ' The various aspects which disease can assume, of course, are multiform, and unfortu- nately these, when exhibited by the horse, are all exposed to the arbitrary conclusions of prejudice.' 'The diseases of the horse are not yet thoroughly understood.' Although an advocate of the use of tips, he did not go to the length of advising the entire abolition of iron, which he regarded as a ' necessary evil.' After saying that * seedy toe had been much thought about, and the fancy somewhat racked to account for its origin,' he theorised on the subject until he persuaded himself that it was caused by a debilitated and diseased state of the constitution, and prescribed entire rest in the stable (not in the field), with a liberal diet, until a cure was effected. How could he possibly have left out of account the true cause, which was staring him in 150 HORSES AND ROADS. the face in every instance the shoe ? It is true that continual suffering, which would cause nervous irritability, would in most cases have told upon the constitution, but he confounded effect with cause. He states also that navicular disease is caused by pressure on the frog a diseased frog, of course rendered incapable by the farrier of performing its functions ; and afterwards says that, as far as his knowledge extends, it is unknown in the unbroken animal. Of course it is. The unbroken animal is also unshod, yet he can gallop about amongst loose granite or over solid rocks with impunity. Mr. Douglas says that goats never suffer from navicular disease, but that he believes they would do so if they were shod. Perhaps some of those correspondents who have so kindly come forward to give their experience of unshod horses will still further favour us by saying whether or not they had found amongst them many < crib-biters,' ' wind-suckers,' or ' weavers.' The writer has never met with a single case of either of these three ; therefore he is forced into the conclusion that shoeing cannot be considered entirely blameless as to their cause. Some day a pathologist will arise who will give an account of influences now ' veiled in obscurity.' In the mean- time practical experiment will convince some that by giving up shoeing they have struck at the root of a host of diseases and vices. Sight could not, of course, be restored to the blind, nor an anchylosis be loosened, and so forth ; EXAMINATIONS AS TO SOUNDNESS. 151 but failing sight might be improved, and incipient ossifications be dispersed in some instances. The writer knows of one stable which contains only three horses valuable ones when purchased of which one suffers from false quarter and very brittle hoofs ; the second is a windsucker, and has overshot fetlocks ; and the third cuts himself behind so badly that he has no nails on the inside of the hoofs, except one just inside the centre of each toe, whilst on the outside half he has six nails ; his action is bad, as he has always a tendency to ' lift up ' behind. He knows of another stable, also containing three horses, which would be valuable if they were sound. One suffers from corns that have to be pared out fortnightly ; the second has hoofs that scarcely grow, and seedy toe, and has a confirmed habit of gnawing everything within his reach ; he has not as yet, being quite young, become a crib-biter, but he will most likely come to that ; the third has splints, for which he is periodically tortured with blisters, and after each blistering he is found to be worse. The number of such stables is legion. Veterinary surgeons, when they examine a horse as to soundness, as it is defined by law, continually find themselves obliged to add riders to their certifi- cates as to existing circumstances which may lead to unsoundness at some future date. If they could only get rid of their prejudice in favour of the shoe, how much trouble and responsibility they might save themselves, and what disgusting operations for instance in the case of quittor they might free 152 HORSES AND ROADS. themselves from performing. Mayhew says : < It obviously is folly for mortal pride to contend against those organisations which govern the universe. How- ever, in the case of exercising power over the horse, centuries of defeat and ages of loss seem incapable of causing mankind to relinquish a hopeless struggle. The strife has been going forward almost from the commencement of time ; nevertheless, human beings, though always beaten, press onward to perpe- tuate the contest. They scorn to retreat, and will suffer rather than own a victor ; they will not, to make an advantageous peace, desert a silly custom or discard an ancient usage. They can sustain punishment; they can, endure chastisement; but, like land crabs, when once upon the march, they cannot deviate from the line which they have adopted. They can abuse the master, but they can- not listen to the instructor. " Nature," men exclaim in chorus, " is very stubborn." " Horse property," respond another gang of culpables, " is particularly hazardous ! " All this noise, however, might at any moment be avoided, if the human race would only stoop to employ a little reflection. If man would not fight quite so obstinately, but merely think over the cause of combat, he might possibly be a gainer in happiness, as well as in pocket.' Thus speaks Mayhew; but, unfortunately, he does not appear to have even tried the simple and inexpensive experiment of seeing what a horse might do without shoes. He had always been told that shoes of some sort were a necessity, and he took it H. JENNINGS, AND THE RACEHORSE. 153 for granted that such was the case. He strongly condemns ' routine ' and ' prejudice,' yet he had a leaven of both still clinging to him. Fortunately we are not obliged to wait whilst scientists work out the intricacies of the problems. In thirty days people have been able to satisfy them- selves thoroughly of the error of their former ways as regards shoeing. Others will do the same ; and some of them will not even care to hear at a future date how pathologists may have succeeded in inter- preting things which are now to us virtually what cuneiform inscriptions would be to Zulus. As has been remarked by ' Santa Fe,' ! people will still shirk the trial of doing away with shoes as long as they can, by making all sorts of trivial excuses to themselves. * Santa Fe ' already divines five such probable excuses, of which the one that is perhaps the most frequently urged is, that ' they think there may be something in it, but they will wait until someone else tries it.' But there is one unmentioned by him (although he foresees that there will be others) which is scarcely less used ; and it is that many say they believe that it would answer well with most classes of horses, but that the particular kind of horse they possess it matters not of what breed he may be, or what he may have to do could not do without shoes, although all the others might do so. Mr. H. Jennings was not so narrow- minded as this. He had to do with the racer, and he found out that shoes were a nuisance, both to 1 See Appendix E. 154 HORSES AND ROADS. animal and master, and so he tried to do without them. He succeeded in cutting them down to their smallest size ; and only his fear of hard roads that bete noire of the multitude hindered him from arriving at the point of his ambition. The following extract is taken from a letter signed C A Cavalry Officer,' which appeared in the < Daily Telegraph,' of December 28, 1878.