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
<r
PEEEACE.
IT is a generally acknowledged fact that large
numbers of horses are worn out in the feet and
legs at a premature age, whilst nearly all are
frequently laid off work by lameness ; and these
two misfortunes for the poor animals appear to be
accepted as unavoidable for them. To combat
this belief, these papers were written. On their
first appearance they excited a certain amount of
interest, and several gentlemen put to practical
experiment the principles advanced. The results
obtained by three of them are given, by their kind
permission, in the Appendix.
It is not attempted to palm off any patent upon
the public, as the author has nothing to sell, and
can be neither benefited nor prejudiced in any
way by the adoption or rejection of his principles.
He has written from disinterested motives ; and he
has been rewarded, before the book is published by
the knowledge that many horses are already reaping
benefit from his efforts in their favour.
LONDON : August 30, 1880.
M37C304
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Springs and Brakes to Vehicles 1
CHAPTER II.
Douglas on Horse-shoeing Street Accidents and Brakes
Lord Pembroke and Mayhew on Servants . . 10
CHAPTER III.
Nostrums Arsenic and Antimony Hoof-ointments
' Stoppings ' 17
CHAPTER IV.
Litter Xenophon and Lord Pembroke on Bare Paving
for Stalls Physicking and Blistering the Bearing
Rein 22
CHAPTER V.
Shoeing Lord Pembroke on Servants Lupton on
Farriers Fitting the Foot to the Shoe Calks In-
jurious Effects of fitting Shoes by burning them on
Douglas on Cold Fitting Shoeing in Spain
Brushing 29
Vlii CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER VI.
Youatt on the Weight of Shoes American Trotting
Horse * St. Julien ' <An Ounce at the Heel tells
more than a Pound on the Back' Lunette Shoe or
Tip of Lafosse Douglas on the Structure of the
Crust Miles on Expansion and Contraction . . 41
CHAPTER VII.
Expansion entirely prevented by present Mode of Shoe-
ing, but favoured by ' Tips ' Mayhew and Professor
Percival on 'Tips' < It is the Shoe, not the Road,
that hurts the Horse ' l Impecuniosus ' says there is
too much sameness about all existing Writings on
the Horse's Foot, and ' Original ' Ideas are wanted . 48
CHAPTER VIIL
The ' Charlier ' Shoe ' Impecuniosus ' and ' Kangaroo '
on the Charlier System Sole Pressure India
Rubber Cushions and Pads Pumice Foot St. Bell
on l Imitation of Nature ' in Shoeing Mayhew,
1 Nature is a strict Economist ' Douglas on the
short average Life of our Horses 'One Horse
could wear out four pairs of Feet ' Philip Astley,
' He who prevents does more than he who cures '
The Charlier < Short ' Shoe, and the Charlier < Tip '
Stanley saj r s Navicular Disease is impossible with
the Charlier System Experience of Messrs. Smither
with Charlier Shoes American Experience of Char-
lier ' Tips ' ' Four' inches of Iron curled round the
Toe' 54
CONTENTS. iX
CHAPTER IX. PAGH
Description of Frog and Sole, by Douglas Russell on
Hot Fitting, and ' Clips ' on Shoes Facility of ' Back-
ing' when a Horse stands upon his feet Strength
of the Horse's Toe Excessive Growth of Horn on
Toes of Unshod Donkeys in Ireland All Shoeing only
an Affair of Routine, and is quite unnecessary
Mayhew, ' Veterinary Surgeons cling to the Practices
in which they have been educated ' Retreat of
Napoleon from Moscow with Unshod Horses . . 70
CHAPTER X.
Unshod Horses in the Indian Mutiny Unshod Horses in
the Zulu War Farriers in the Army are Tailors, etc.
' Daily Telegraph ' on Frozen Streets Compara-
tive Inutility of Cogs and Studs Unshod Horses in
Mexico, etc., and their remarkable Freedom from
Lameness and Diseases of the Feet and Legs . . 83
CHAPTER XI.
Brittle Hoof and the Treatment it gets The ' Water-
cure' more effective Brittle Hoof often leads to
Sandcrack, Seedy Toe, and Pumice Foot Hard
Roads are favourable to the Unshod Hoof . . 01
CHAPTER XII.
Letter of ' Aberlorna ' in * Farm Journal ' Lieut.-Col.
Burdett on Hot Shoeing 1 , Greasing, ' Stopping,' and
Paring the Hoof Cold Shoeing North Metropolitan
Tramway Horses are shod cold with the Seeley Shoe
Gradual Breaking in of Horses to go unshod
Different Characteristics of Countries where Horses
are bred Ancient Writers on bare Stone and Wood
for Stalls Osmer has known Unshod Horses go
Sound in England 'Our moist Climate and hard
Roads ' Mayhew and Douglas on Opposers of Pro-
gress 100
a
X CONTENTS.
PACK
CHAPTER XIII.
' 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 Eng-
land of the Nature of a Horse's Foot ' The Lancet '
on the Indefensibility, in a Physiological Light,
of the Use of Horseshoes Success of two Gentle-
men in working unshod Horses in England News-
paper Complaints, about the Slipping of Horses, and
Stoppage of Traffic on Ludgate Hill The false Light
in which Slipping is looked at 110
CHAPTER XIV.
Ludgate Hill only rises about four feet in every hun-
dredSocieties The Bearing Rein only required on
Cripples 129
CHAPTER XV.
Brittle Hoof Ignorance of Farriers l Impecuniosus '
says 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 r 135
CHAPTER XVI.
Custom of H. Jennings of training Racehorses unshod,
and running them in their Races with Tips on their
Fore Feet, with the Hind Feet bare ( Evening
Standard/ instance of impaired Sight in a Young-
Lady from wearing high Heels on her Boots
CONTENTS. XI
PAGR
Many Diseases of Horses may be attributable to Ill-
treatment 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 ' Daily Telegraph '-
His favourable Experience of Tips and Unshod
Horses 143
CHAPTER XVII.
The Hunter considered Experience of * Impecuniosus '
with Tips on Hunters Miles on Unilateral Nailing 1
Col. Anstruther Thompson's Experience with Gutta-
percha Soles Natural Transpiration continually
going on in the Horse's Foot 150
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Lady's Horse Must not be exposed to Stumbling
Light Tips will wear as long as heavy Shoes Horses
as Hacks for Elderly Gentlemen Park Hacks
Carriage Horses Abnormal Action and graceful
Action Concussion through the Iron Shoe Bear-
ing Rein for ' Screws ' It ' pulls them together '
Cruelty thereof ' Docking ' a Horse's Tail is Vivi-
section ' Cutting ' caused by Shoeing Cruel Mode
of Cure at present employed Coachmen . . . 165
CHAPTER XIX.
The * Ride and Drive ' Horse Omnibus, Van, Tramway,
and Cab Horses Tramway Mules Mr. Fearnley on
Calks Unscientific Shoeing of Mules Mr. Fearnley
on the Charlier Shoe Bracy Clark Mayhew on the
various kinds of Shoes 17fi
Xll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX.
Question in the ' Field ' as to an unshod Horse working
in London No Roads too hard for an unshod
Horse Xenophon on hard, rough Stable Floors, etc.
Erroneous Idea of ( something nice and soft ' to
stand upon Flint Roads of Hertfordshire ' You
cannot treat an organic body as if it were an in-
organic one ' Bracy Clark, ' the miserable, coerced,
shod Foot ' Bracy Clark on Difference of Growth of
Horn in the shod and the unshod Horse Failure
of Bracy Clark and Miles to produce a perfect Horse-
shoe .... 187
CHAPTER XXI.
Asphalte Paving, and different Opinions concerning it
Dissatisfaction that reigns with regard to the
ordinary Method of Shoeing Transmission by
Parents, of Diseases produced by Shoeing French
Statistics as to Diseases of the Feet and Legs of the
Horses in the Army Shoeing, a National Question . 198
APPENDICES 210-224
INDEX 225
HOUSES AND EOADS;
OR,
HOW TO KEEP A HORSE SOUND ON HIS LEGS.
CHAPTER I.
SPRINGS AND BRAKES TO VEHICLES.
IN the crisis through which agriculturists are at pre-
sent passing, economical improvements of all kinds
are being sought after. Much has been written about
the horse ; but the field he affords for writing is so
extensive and fertile, that much still remains to be
said ; indeed, he will afford a theme for a very long
time to come, to say the least.
To begin with, let us consider the vehicles
he is often obliged to draw. Mayhew, an emi-
nent veterinary surgeon, formerly demonstrator at
the Royal Veterinary College, states, in one of the
various works he has written upon the horse, that
' it is a disgrace to the intelligence of the pre-
sent age that any cart should be built without
springs ; the real question being whether living
2 f HORSES AND ROADS.
thews and sinews should endure the burden, or
whether this shall be imposed upon inanimate
metal ? Eeducing the matter to s. d., which is
cheaper ? Fact pronounces " iron " to be the
answer.' Thus much for springs, upon which
nothing more is necessary than to give full and
hearty assent to Mayhew's opinion.
But there is another subject connected with
carts, waggons, and all other vehicles upon which
Mayhew has not touched, but which may be here
introduced. Those who have been on the Continent
may (or may not, according to the use they made of
their eyes) have remarked that all vehicles, whether
two-wheeled or four-wheeled, are fitted with brakes,
which not only serve for down-hill work, but are also
applied when horses run away, or when they are left
to stand. It will be said that our four-wheeled
heavy waggons are fitted with a chain, or a skid.
Granted ; but these cannot be put to various uses
with the same celerity and utility that a proper
brake can ; in fact, in the case of runaway horses,
they are of no use at all. Even in the other cases
they afe far behind the brake, as they necessitate
a stoppage of the team to apply them, and another
to remove them. They mostly stop only one wheel ;
which wheel, in the case of the chain, is exposed to
injury by having the tire worn into facets at the
corresponding distances from whatever spoke the
chain may be put against, while the spoke some-
times breaks; the violent jerk thrown on the
next spoke carrying away that one also, as well as
THE BRAKE, 3
those that come after, and so on, until the axletree
comes down on the ground and is either broken or
bent, the shaft horses being generally injured, and
sometimes the driver also.
The brakes used on the Continent are always
applied to both wheels on the same axle, and they
are not screwed up tight enough to effect an entire
stoppage of the wheels, as it is found that wheels
with smooth tires skidding on a smooth road do not
break momentum as much as when the wheel is
almost stopped, and biting, by friction, the blocks
of the breaks. These brakes vary in form. For
horses driven from a box or dickey they are generally
worked by means of a screw with a cranked handle,
sometimes by a lever and a toothed rack ; and for
such vehicles as are driven by carters that walk
alongside their teams, or even a single horse, they
are most commonly a lever which has a ring at the
top, to which is attached a rope, the other end of
which passes through another ring in the shaft,
enabling the driver to pull down the lever. He
then makes a fast knot, but a slip one, which he
can easily pull loose, and thus throw off the action
of the brake without stopping his horses to either
put it * off ' or 'on.' As being safer, the lever is
sometimes placed behind the vehicle. Two-wheeled
vehicles, with half a dozen horses, with one of these
horses only in the shafts, are thus safely used.
A horse should not have to work when going
down hill ; but, on the contrary, it should be so
managed for him that at every descent, however gentle,
B 2
4 HORSES AND ROADS.
he should have some respite from work, as a sort of
set-off against the hard labour he endures when
drawing a load up hill. There are very many
reasons for this besides this most apparent one.
Even with our four-wheeled heavy trucks and wag-
gons, the chain or skid is not always put on for
every slight descent, as the brake is on the Con-
tinent. The approaches to London Bridge, for
instance, are bad in certain weathers especially so
but frequently skids are not applied on account of
the necessity for stopping to put them on and off
which stoppage the traffic does not always admit
of and so the poor horses pay in a direct way, and
their careless masters in rather a more indirect one.
Unfortunately they only pay out of their pockets,
whilst the horse pays with his frame.
It is astonishing that the railway companies,
above all others, being such large horse owners as
they are, have not paid attention to brakes on their
street vans, because, as they employ the best mecha-
nical skill attainable for their other rolling stock,
they might have easily appointed an engineer
to see what he could do for their horse trucks ; but it
looks as if no engineer ever went near the horses or
trucks, or even noticed them in the streets, where
mechanical skill ought to see that there was room
for improvement. It appears as if this branch were
left entirely to the surveillance of ignorant, preju-
diced drivers, horsekeepers, and farriers, who have
no emulation, but are quite satisfied to go on like
their predecessors. It must be understood that
INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF SLIPPING. 5
railway companies are only cited because they have
actually in their employ the men who could see thi^
at a glance, if their attention were directed to it,
and almost as soon remedy the evil. But no they
continue in the same old groove, and squander
thousands yearly upon horseflesh, at the same time
that they are also cruelly working a noble animal,
by many considered the most noble and useful ever
designed by Nature for man's use.
Besides the mere hard work taken out of horse*
in holding back a load, it must be apparent to those
who know anything about the animals, that they
also suffer severely from many diseases brought on
thereby. Either slipping and shaking over slippery
pavements, or knuckling over on roads which do not
allow them to slide, causes a great strain and vibra-
tion on the nails with which their shoes are attached,
and from them to the hoofs in which the nails are
imbedded, thence to the bones and cartilages en-
closed in the hoofs, and so on up to the hock and
knee, at the very least, besides causing severe strain
on all tendons and their sheaths. Hence they are
found to be suffering from a great variety of diseases
in one, many, or all of these parts, in a short time
after they have been first harnessed ; let us say in
the shape of corns, thrush, quittor, cutting, sand-
cracks, ring-bone, greasy heels, seedy toe, drop-sole,
or pumiced feet, ossified cartilages, which are some-
times called side-bones, splints, spavins, navicular
disease, &c. Horses are often to be seen with a pad
confined by a leather strap, or else tarred string,
6 HORSES AND ROADS.
applied to keep their hoofs together, and yet they
work them, and no one interferes. They manage to
steer clear of the law, of which it has been said that
' a coach and four may be driven safely through any
Act.' These diseases are the result of reckless treat-
ment, which is very unprofitable to horse owners, let
alone the cruelty.
It is pretty well known or, if it is not, it should
be that any of these diseases, once set up, are
extremely difficult to cure ; but, on the contrary,
mostly go on increasing under the care of ignorant
farriers. If an intelligent veterinary should be
called in, he will mostly advise a long rest and mild
remedies ; but this means loss of work, although it
means also a prolongation of the useful life of the
horse, if the warning be taken on the first appearance
of disease. In general, however, violent remedies,
such as blistering, &c., are resorted to, and as soon
as possible the horse is put to work again, without
having had even the benefit of a rest ; for a horse
with a blister on cannot be expected to enjoy as a
rest the few days he is suffering with a blister.
Kailway companies are not referred to in this case,
or in any future ones. They were mentioned only
as being a power in the land, with a special
facility for applying mechanical means to reduce the
work of their horses, which are spread over the whole
of the kingdom. Improvements on their part would
therefore be more extended, general, and useful,
than even those adopted by brewers or distillers, who,
having, as a rule, no dividends to pay, perhaps work
BIGOTRY OF SERVANTS. 7
their horses under the mark; and they are not
losers by that, as their animals last them longer.
Still, no one takes this into account ; and they are
by many considered prodigal in horseflesh. Most
likely they know to the contrary ; still they may
do even better by breaking their trucks down every
descent.
Brakes cost infinitely less than forced losses in
the shape of rests, and still more in the shape of
new acquisitions of horseflesh. It is within the
bounds of possibility that the men connected with
the care of such horses might be brought to acknow-
ledge that they were none the worse for the brakes ;
but, ignorant and bigoted as they generally are,
it might be difficult to extract from any but an
exceptionally intelligent and observing man that
they thought much of the change. They know
all about horses in their own opinion. Of course,
they should not be led to believe that all ex-
isting diseases can thus be entirely cured, especially
if in at all an advanced stage. They should, if
reasonable, be satisfied on seeing them arrested
in the case of old horses, and on having it pointed
out to them that young horses were free from
them for a longer time, and in a less degree, than
formerly under the old system ; and they may be
brought to confess that the horses generally ' did
better,' to use a phrase very common amongst this
class of men.
But agriculturists extensively use two-wheeled
carts without any means of breaking them down hill ;
8 HORSES AJS T D ROADS.
and hills in the country roads are constantly to be
met with both longer and steeper than those to be
found in London, although not always so slippery.
In these cases their horses suffer, at least, as much
deterioration as any of those hitherto mentioned.
They load the carts heavily, as they try to work
near, and so make their horses ' earn their living,'
as they really should do in their case, which is at
present a hard one; but they should consider
thoughtfully whether it is profitable to make a
horse work hard when going down hill, and so
injuring him really more than in drawing a load
up hill.
The foregoing remarks have been made to lead
up to such cases, although it is open to any other
parties to profit by them if they choose. It has been
said that * the work which kills one horse will bring
in money enough to buy another ; ' but this is a
great fallacy in fact, an immense mistake, as it is
generally interpreted. Besides, it is evident that
no horse can possibly pull over a certain weight
up a certain ascent ; yet often a single shaft horse is
expected, and obliged, to do his best to keep back,
without mechanical help, the same weight which
has required two, or often three, horses to drag
it up the same incline in a two-wheeled cart. Is
this rational, or even economical, when well con-
sidered ? There is another saying, common among
horsemen, that ' one horse can wear out four pairs of
legs ; ' but it is also rational to believe that Nature
gave the horse the same requisite number of legs
ECONOMY OF THE BRAKE.
that she gave to all other creatures designed for
the use of man. It is not in their lawful use that
they become so soon worn out, but in the abuse that
is made of them.
If Mayhew used such forcible language about
springs, it may, with at least equal justice, be said
that it is a disgrace to the intelligence of the present
age that any vehicle whatever, from the heaviest
waggon down to the pony basket of the farmer's
daughter, should be built without a brake ; the real
question being whether living thews and sinews
should endure the burthen, or whether this should
be imposed upon inanimate metal and wood. Ke-
ducing the matter to s. d., which is the cheaper ?
10
CHAPTEK II.
DOUGLAS ON HORSE-SHOEING STREET ACCIDENTS AND BRAKES
LORD PEMBROKE AND MAYHEW ON SERVANTS.
A VETERINARY surgeon, Mr. \V. Douglas, late 10th
Eoyal Hussars, was so much impressed by the
miseries, diseases, and dangers caused to horses by
their being pushed down hill by their loads, that it
caused him to write a book upon ' Horse-shoeing.'
Here is part of his preface :
4 Passing down Ludgate Hill one day [this was
whilst it was paved with stone] my attention was
directed to the pitiful condition of a horse in the
shafts of a large waggon. The poor animal was not
drawing the load, but was being driven down the
descent by the crushing weight behind ; and, utterly
unable, from the manner in which it was shod, to
withstand the pressure, it had gathered its hind
legs well under, and its fore legs well in advance of
its body, in a helpless struggle to avert the fall
which it too evidently knew was at hand. Never
did I witness such a picture of powerless terror as
that horse presented, as with eyes starting, body
shaking, and limbs stiffened, it was carried down-
STRAIN OF BACK SINEWS. 11
wards against its will, until the fore and hind feet
slipping in the same direction, it came down upon
its left side with a crash. The thought of what
agony that poor beast must have suffered, even
before it fell, has haunted me ever since, and know-
ing if the horse had been able to use the supple
elastic cushion nature has provided its feet with to
prevent their slipping namely, the frog it could
easily have controlled the pressure from behind, I
resolved if possible to direct public attention to the
present cruel and unwarrantable system of shoeing
horses.'
His book is full of valuable remarks on the horse's
foot and on the evils of shoeing as commonly prac-
tised ; but he missed the mark in failing to recog-
nise (even supposing that the shoe he proposes
might not admit of so much slipping) that the
horse would still injure his feet and legs by the
immense strain put on them in his violent exertions
to hold back the waggon a work that should be
done for him. Perhaps he was not acquainted with
the brake, and was labouring under the delusion that
all that mechanical skill could effect towards the
breaking of momentum by friction had been done
by making one wheel skid. Mayhew, in the chapter
which he dedicates to ' strain of the flexor tendon,'
says that * this is chiefly present in the shaft horse
that has to descend a steep declivity, with a load
behind it. The weight would roll down the descent ;
this the horse has to prevent, and the chief stress is
then upon the back tendons.' Elsewhere he states
12 HORSES AND ROADS.
that ' the frame of the horse is stronger than
machinery; but it cannot resist the wilfulness of
human misrule.' Yet, strangely enough, this gentle-
man, energetically as he speaks, has also failed to
seek in mechanics a means of saving the shaft horse
excessive and superfluous labour when going down
hill, whether over slippery paving, or over rough
country roads.
Amongst the societies which we rejoice to
possess in England, there is one to prevent dangerous
driving. How many of those who form this society
have this sensible appendage to any of their own
carriages, even those to which they daily trust their
own necks? Accidents are not always the faults
of drivers. About a year and a half ago, a brougham
horse took fright at the engine whistle, and bolted
down Ludgate Hill at a gallop. The weather was
dry, and the hill not slippery. The coachman suc-
ceeded in turning into Farringdon Street (although
it looked as if that was the way the horse wanted to
go) ; yet, up the street, it ran into another carriage,
and both were wrecked, and both horses very much
hurt. Fortunately, no person was seriously injured
on the occasion; but the pecuniary damage was
great. If the coachman had had, close to his right
hand, the handle of a brake which he could have
instantly applied firmly to both wheels, he could have
diminished the speed from the outset, and have stopped
entirely before he came to the spot where the collision
occurred ; or, at least, he might have brought the
speed down sufficiently to enable himself and the
LAWRENCE ON MASTERS AND SERVANTS. 13
other driver between them to avoid it. It was not
the slippery shoes (objectionable as they undoubtedly
are) that did the harm in this case ; but the want
of a controlling power more efficient than the man's
arms, which only control the mouth of the horse
under any circumstances ; and, even then, only as
long as the horse chooses to submit, or is able to do
so. A man cannot ' pull a horse up ' with the reins
used as a mechanical power, any more than he can
get into a basket and raise himself from the ground
by lifting at the handles, as the principle is the
same ; but resistance thrown against the collar will
soon tell upon the horse's speed, and the means of
throwing it there by the application of* friction to
both hind wheels (just short of making them
6 skid ') would do away with a great deal of the
present losses of life, and deterioration of valuable
property, put down to ' dangerous driving.'
Conservatism is proverbially strong amongst horse
owners, and still more so with grooms and others
that surround the horse. In the last century,
Lawrence wrote : ' There are some toils to which
even the rich must submit. True knowledge
is not to be acquired, or the acquisition to be
enjoyed, by deputy ; and, if gentlemen and large
proprietors of horses are desirous to avoid the diffi-
culties, dangers, and cruelties perpetually resulting
from prejudice, ignorance, and knavery combined,
they must embrace the resolution of making them-
selves so far master of the subject as to be able to
direct those whom they employ.'
14 HORSES AND ROADS.
The Earl of Pembroke held very similar senti-
ments. Mayhew, one of our most modern authorities,
says : ' Of all persons living, grooms generally are
the worst informed : here is the curse of horses. No
other servant possesses such power, and no domestic
more abuses his position. It is impossible to amend
the regulation of any modern stable without remov-
ing some of this calling, or overthrowing some of
the abuses, with a perpetuation of which the stable
servant is directly involved.' But, of the master,
he says : * The most humane of modern proprietors
is an ignorant tyrant to his graceful bondservant ; '
to this he might truthfully have added that the
most intelligent amongst masters was but a narrow-
minded bigot. Tel ma'Ure tel valet. Betwixt these
two classes stands the helpless horse! not to
mention their natural chosen ally, the farrier.
It is not meant to imply that farmers are guilty
of overloading or overworking their horses, in the
general acceptation of these terms ; but that they
neglect taking precautions which would enable the
horse to do at least the same amount of work, with
comfort to himself, greater freedom from disease,
prolongation of life, and economy all round for his
owner, besides removing from the latter very fre-
quent anxieties resulting from mismanagement of
the animal. The advice or opinion of servants should,
therefore, not be asked for. They will immediately
object to the brake and all other economical im-
provements: it is upon principle that they object
to everything new. The way to begin all economies,
MAYHEW ON SERVANTS. 15
therefore, is for owners to escape from the thraldom
in which their servants, at present, hold them. Their
fetters are self-imposed, and they carry about with
them, at all hours, the key to enable them to cast
them off; apathy, only, prevents them from doing
so. Any man, with determination, could walk into
his stable free of them for ever, whenever he chose,
and at a moment's notice. It is humiliating for an
educated owner to admit tacitly that such a low
class should be his superior, which he is really doing
when he asks, or acts upon, their advice ; or, which
comes to the same thing, when he leaves them to
do as they like.
At this point, nine out of every ten readers will
throw down the paper, remarking that all this may
be true as regards their neighbours ; but, as to their
own 'man,' he does understand horses, and keeps
them going without any bother. This is the great
mistake. Is it rational to suppose or infer that
sweeping dung out of a stable is conducive to the
acquirement of even a rudimentary knowledge
of anatomy and physiology ? Mayhew passed a
long career as a veterinary surgeon in continually
passing from the stables of one proprietor to those
of others ; and yet he is unable to cite a redeeming
instance of a servant. He appears to have felt this,
as he says that he ' deeply regrets those comments
which a regard for correctness has compelled him
to offer upon the present race of grooms. He can,
however, with sincerity deny that the indulgence of
dislike, or the gratification of malice, has induced
16 HORSES AND ROADS.
him to travel beyond the limits of his subject* So,
upon his authority, supported by that of so many
others, right away back to the last century, every
one is safe in coming to the conclusion that his
' man ' knows nothing about horses, and that it is
high time that he should take the thing into his
own hands ; for, unless he does so, the prevention
of mismanagement is impossible. If he lack
confidence in his own knowledge of the animal,
which in any case should not be less than that of a
carter or horsekeeper, let him read. The subject is
replete with interest and entertainment ; but he
should choose modern works if he wishes to march
with the age.
17
CHAPTER III.
NOSTRUMS ARSENIC AND ANTIMONY HOOF-OINTMENTS
' STOPPINGS.'
IT is well known that all stablemen keep by them
' nostrums ' and ' receipts ' of their own. First
amongst these are generally to be found arsenic and
antimony two active poisons but they are great
favourites with the men ; they administer them in
secret. These drugs are cheap, and they can afford
(or will afford) to buy and pay for them themselves.
It is true that occasionally they administer an over-
dose all round, generally on a Saturday night, and
the next morning a stableful of dead horses is
found ; postmortems are held, and the poison is
discovered, and the horsekeeper finds himself before
a magistrate. He sometimes gets imprisonment, it-
is also true ; but this neither brings compensation
to the owner, nor seems to act as a warning to
others, for cases of drugging are constantly recurring
at intervals. But, even if he does not kill the
horses at a single dose, he is doing so by degrees.
These very active remedies are but seldom employed
even by veterinaries, and then only in extreme cases,
and in small doses. Nitre is also cheap, and is
18 HORSES AND ROADS.
secretly administered to an alarming extent not
sufficiently to kill the horses right off, but sufficiently
to undermine their constitutions.
If veterinary authorities should be read, the fol-
lowing dicta will be found having reference to the
foregoing remarks: 'Acute gastritis: cause
poison ; ' ' inflamed bladder : cause abuse of medi-
cine ; ' ' diabetes : cause diuretic drugs ; ' c inflamed
kidneys : cause nitre.' The innocent (?) and
phlegmatic owners either are ignorant that their
men are making use of these agents, or else in-
dolently satisfy themselves by remarking that their
6 man ' understands horses very well and that ' if he
does not bring them round, no one else can ; ' until
things get serious and the vet. has to be called in.
When this gentleman is sent for, he has gener-
ally a serious case to deal with, and one that usually
lasts a long time, and, consequently, entails a severe
loss.
Besides this, many owners knowingly allow their
men to order powerful medicines in the shape of
' balls ' called ' physic,' ' condition,' ' diuretic,' &c.,
and allow their men to give them to the horses,
having, at the same time, very little or no control
as to when or why they should be given. Now
these cost more than arsenic, &c., and could be more
easily accounted for, because the men rarely go so
far as to lay out their own money on them, and
the owner thinks some medicine must be necessary
in a stable ; yet even then he is generally guilty of
allowing or even asking his man an unmerited
HOOF OINTMENTS AND 'STOPPINGS.' 19
opinion as to its use, besides being in the dark as
to what drugs, secretly given by the said man before,
may have caused the disease, which, however, will
be attributed to anything but his own act.
There are yet other fi remedies ' kept by all stable-
men. They are used more openly, and are even
highly approved of by some owners. First amongst
these rank ' hoof-ointments,' be they either a ' secret'
with the stablemen, or a ' patent ' it does not make
much difference which, as to their nonutility, or,
rather, their positive insalubrity. They almost
always consist of admixtures of some or all of the
following ingredients : Tar, bees-wax, train oil,
tallow or suet, and honey. Mr. Douglas says that
if applications of this kind were made daily instead
of occasionally ', no horse would have a morsel of
sound horn at the end of six months to nail a shoe
to : ' for it shuts up the pores in the horn, prevents
the natural moisture from reaching the surface out-
wardly, and the air from circulating inwards conse-
quences which act upon the horse with ruinous
results.' ' If you tell a groom this, he will either
refuse to listen to your arguments, or laugh at them
as being the height of absurdity.' How many
horse owners are on a level with their servants in
this matter !
Cowdung, mixed sometimes with some of the
above-mentioned abominations, is firmly believed in
by servants, and its use condoned by their masters,
for ' stopping ' that is to say, stuffing the hoof with
up (or down) to the level of the bottom of the
c 2
20 HORSES AND ROADS.
shoe. Cowdung is supposed by these ignorant people
to be emollient, because it is soft ; but everything
that glitters is not necessarily gold, and cowdung
instead of being an emollient, is a powerful irritant ;
and so between ' ointment ' and * stopping ' they are
using their utmost endeavours, in surrounding the
hoof on all sides with everything that ignorance and
stupidity can devise (up to the present time), to
render it brittle and otherwise diseased.
As soon as the horse is taken, as a colt, from his
natural state into bondage, every one seems to con-
sider that his mother Nature has nothing more
to do with his future career. Everything then
is carried on by them without once casting a thought
on the dominion which she still maintains over him,
equally with all her other creatures. Some others
of the servants of man are less meddled with than
this one, who is, at the same time, the most costly
and the most generally useful here in England, at
least. It has been well said that ' the history of
almost every horse in this kingdom is a struggle to
exist against human endeavours to deprive it of
utility.' This is forcible language, but it is the
naked truth. Another authority says : ' Strange to
say, he frequently suffers as much from ill-advised
kindness as he does from cruelty.' This last obser-
vation applies to the English farmer, only in so far
that, whilst wishing to be excessively kind to his
horses, he is often unwittingly laying himself
open to censure from want of having duly considered
how to treat them. No one can possibly accuse him
APATHY OF OWNERS. 21
of ivanton cruelty far from it ; but he might avoid
inflicting upon them much suffering, with gain to
himself, if he would turn part of the attention he
bestows upon ' rotation of crops,' &c., to his teams
and those to whom he entrusts them.
22
CHAPTEK IV.
LITTER XENOPHON AND LORD PEMBROKE ON BARE PAVING
FOR STALLS PHYSICKING AND BLISTERING THE BEARING
REIN.
SERVANTS are apt to be very exacting as to the quan-
tity of straw for litter, and they keep some all day
long under the horse's feet, ignorantly believing that
it is a comfort and a benefit to the horse. Here,
again, they are wrong ; and upon both points. Let
any proprietor go to his stable, upon returning on
a Sunday from morning church service, when the
horses will, perhaps, have been left to themselves for
three hours, and he will find that his horses have
been trying to get rid of it by scraping holes in it,
in which to stand in ease and comfort on the bare
floor, having pushed as much as they can back into
the gangway. It is probable, also, that instinct
takes part in their dislike to it, on the score of its
being unhealthy, as well as uncomfortable to them.
Xenophon wrote in praise of a bare stone pave-
ment : * It will cool, harden, and improve a horse's
feet merely by standing on it.' Lord Pembroke
says: 'The constant use of litter makes the feet
tender, and causes swelled legs ; moreover, it renders
LITTER. 23
the animals delicate. Swelled legs maybe frequently
reduced to their proper natural size by taking away
the litter only ; which, in some stables where ignorant
grooms and farriers govern, would be a great saving
of bleeding and physic, besides straw. I have seen,
by repeated experiments, legs swell and unswell, by
leaving litter, or taking it away, like mercury in a
weather glass.' It has also been found in the army
that the troopers' horses, which are not bedded
down during the day, never suffer so much from
corns, contractions, thrush, and grease as the officer's
chargers do, which have straw to stand upon when-
ever they are in the stable.
Some owners, with a view to economy, substitute
sawdust for the straw, and they leave it for weeks
without changing it. This is a still greater mistake ;
it gets saturated with acids and alkalies, and is most
injurious to the feet as well as to the general health
of the animals. Veterinary surgeons assign, as one
of the causes of cough, ' rank bedding.' It is a fre-
quent source of seedy toe ; yet, not many weeks
since, a groom to whom this remark was made
laughed it to scorn, saying that it was the best
possible preventive to the disease, and was, moreover,
the very best cure for it in a horse already affected
with it ; and, he added, the older and more rotten
the sawdust the more effective. His horse did have
seedy toe shortly after this, and the veterinary had
to be called in. He, of course, had all this rotten
muck immediately removed. The use of sawdust is
no economy at all, when considered from the right
24 HORSES AND ROADS.
point of view. The problem to be solved is, how to
keep your horse in health and get the most work
you reasonably can out of him. Straw, used with
judgment, will be found as economical as anything
else ; it should only be put under the horse the last
thing at night, and it should be removed the first
thing in the morning. The horse will dirty it but
little in the night ; the dirty portion should, of
course, be carried out of the stable, and, in this
manner, no alarming expense of straw is incurred.
It is well known to many travellers that in coun-
tries quite as cold as England straw is so scarce
and valuable that horses even sleep by night on
the bare floor ; and the horses from some of these
countries are imported to England with a great
reputation for possessing hardiness and sound con-
stitutions. But they do not dwell with us long
before we improve them down to a level with
our own breeds (in this respect), by hot stabling,
foul atmosphere, and many other fanciful crotchets
which come under the headings of < mistaken kind-
ness,' or ' mistaken economy ; ' and economy well
understood is specially in demand, and should be
sought, in the present ' hard times.' In the case of
straw a double economy is very visibly to be found
in using it sparingly, as the outlay upon the article
itself is reduced ; and the horse, by being freer from
ailments, can do more work in the course of the
year.
Certain classes of horses get, in the course of the
year, a diminution or cessation of labour. This is
PHYSICKING AND BLISTERING. 25
looked forward to by the owner with an inane kind
of idea that the horses will receive benefit from their
6 rest ; ' as, indeed, they really ought to do, if they
were sanely dealt with during that time. The stable-
man looks forward to the same period with ferocious
satisfaction, as then he will have an opportunity of
giving swing to his cruelties. Beforehand he is re-
joicing in projects of 'physicking' (i.e. purging) and
blistering, and then ' conditioning,' his hapless and
helpless horses, and counting on the empire he has
over his master and he is seldom wrong on that
head for carte blanche. Mayhew says 'the pre-
judices of ignorance are subjects for pity: the sloth-
fulness of the better educated merits reprobation.'
4 No slave proprietor possesses the power with which
the groom is invested.' In Brazil the slave-owner
is not allowed by law to flog his slaves himself;
if they are judged to merit flogging they have to be
sent to an official specially appointed in each district
for that purpose, which official is, of course, free
from anger and vindictiveness, and only lays on the
regular strokes, which the owner would be likely to
exceed both in force and number.
Aloes, as being the most violent and irritating of
purges, is the favourite one with the groom. It
frequently remains inside the horse a couple of days
before it ' sets ; ' it often thus causes inflammation or
irritation of the kidneys, and terribly weakens him.
Its operation has hardly ceased when the man is
applying blisters to the horse's legs ; and the most
powerful of ' patents ' and ' vesicants ' are his greatest
26 HORSES AND ROADS.
favourites. A horse first weakened by a drastic
purge, and then tortured by one of these infernal
inventions, is more injured than if he had
continued at hard work instead of having his
6 rest.' A modern professor of veterinary science
says : ( Let all gentlemen discharge the veterinary
surgeon who proposes to blister the legs of their
horses. The author has beheld hundreds of blisters
applied to the legs, but he cannot remember one
instance in which such applications were productive
of the slightest good.' Youatt said : ' Agriculturists
should bring to their stables the common sense
which directs them in the usual concerns of life.'
Youatt wrote half a century ago, and for farmers ;
yet it is doubtful whether things have not got worse
since then, in spite of his advice. Mayhew says that
the administration of three or four bran mashes is in
general a sufficient purge ; and he further says that,
' during the years he was in active practice, he does
not remember to have given a dose of aloes ' (pre-
sumably only then on an emergency) ' that the
symptoms did not afterwards cause him to regret
the administration. They are at present chiefly
employed in accordance with the dictates of routine.'
Koutine seems to be having a long innings in
most respects as regards the horse. After long and
energetic representations and arguments on the part
of Mr. Flower, some of the horse proprietors in
London finally discovered, upon trial, that their
horses could actually do more work without bearing
reins this was a severe blow to routine and now
THE BEARING REIN. 27
most, or nearly all omnibus, van, car, cab, and tram-
way horses are driven without them in London.
Many gentlemen have also done away with them
for their horses ; even four-in-hand drags are fre-
quently seen without them but cart horses, say for
instance (and only because they happened to turn
up first on the surface of memory), those working
in the carts belonging to the vestry of St. George's,
Hanover Square, are still hampered with them.
They are to be seen with their chins drawn up to
their breasts, thus having their stride shortened,
and thus making many more steps than natural to
each mile they travel ; and every step, short as it
may be, entails a putting in motion of the flexor
and extensor muscles and their tendons. But
Nature has determined the real economical swing
of these muscles and their tendons in each direc-
tion; and so it results that, by depriving her of her
will, such horses are prevented from exercising their
powers to the full, and at great inconvenience to
themselves, and prejudice to their lasting power
also ; for something is bound to suffer undue
wear and tear when natural extension and flexion
are interfered with even if it should be only the
sheaths of the tendons, to put it in a very moderate
light.
Farmers plead that cart horses, driven by a man
on foot, must have something for that man to catch
hold of at certain times, and they also parade and
make much of the fact that when they have a hill
to ascend, the bearing rein is loosened ; therefore
28 HORSES AND ROADS.
they admit that a horse should have ' the use of his
head ' at certain times, yet they do not know where
to draw the line, although nothing is easier to draw,
if common sense were appealed to.
The cart horse should always have the free use
of his head at a walk, as it should and does govern
his stride ; and if a rein of some sort is necessary
for carters to lay hold of occasionally, the measure
of the length of that rein is easily found. It is just
the length that will allow a horse to use his fullest
exertion up hill without bearing upon it. To
this they object again that a rein of that length
would hang unequally on the sides of the horses'
necks and be troublesome and unsightly. This only
shows them to be short of inventive faculties. They
have only to sew on a ring just at the double of the
reins, at their determined length, and hitch this
ring on the hames, when they would find the reins
to hang equally and gracefully, and always ready to
be caught hold of; although the best carters lay
hold of the cheek strap, above the bit, and thus
manage their horses better than those who take
their hold below the bit.
We won't quarrel over the last point; but, in
the name of common sense, let a horse always have
his natural stride it is essential to his economical
work. Yet cart horses are to be seen, in town and
country, pegging away with reduced strides, expend-
ing on a four-mile journey the same exertion that
they would, if allowed, only use on a five-mile one.
Their owners handicap them.
29
CHAPTER V.
SHOEING LORD PEMBROKE OS SERVANTS LUPTON ON FARRIERS
FITTING THE FOOT TO THE SHOE CALKS INJURIOUS
EFFECTS OF FITTING SHOES BY BURNING THEM ON DOUGLAS
ON COLD FITTING SHOEING IN SPAIN BRUSHING.
AN old saying amongst horsemen is, ' No foot, no
horse ; ' and another, ' Whoever hath care of a horse's
feet hath care of his whole body.' From time
immemorial it has been recognised that the foot of
the horse is the part of him which calls for the
utmost care and attention ; yet it is actually the one
that at the present day receives the least attention,
and is subjected to the worst malpractices. To whom
is the care of it confided ? Why, to the stableman
and farrier two of the most ignorant blockheads,
as a class, that could be picked out. Lord Pembroke
wrote, more than a century ago, of the first-named :
' It is incredible what tricking knaves most stable
people are, and what daring attempts they will make
to gain an ascendant over their masters, in order to
have their own foolish projects complied with. In
shoeing, for example, I have more than once known
that for the sake of establishing their own ridiculous
30 HORSES AND ROADS.
and pernicious system, when their masters have
differed from them, they have on purpose lamed
horses, and imputed the fault to the shoes, after
having in vain tried, by every sort of invention and
lies, to discredit the use of them.'
Mr. Lupton, M.K.C.V.S., only three years since
approved the opinion that 6 the master who makes
the welfare of his steed subservient to the idle
prejudices of his groom, is fitly punished in the
lengthened period of his animal's compulsory idle-
ness, appropriately finished by the payment of a
long bill to the veterinary surgeon.' And, of farriers,
he says : 'Farriers ought to go through a course of in-
struction previously to being allowed to operate upon
structures, the anatomy, physiology, and economic
uses of which they have never studied, and, con-
sequently, never understood.' When people have
been having this kind of thing continually impressed
upon them for such a length of time, it seems
strange that they have not long since taken the
management of the part of the horse that requires
the greatest supervision and intelligence out of the
hands of two such ignorant sets of people.
fi One horse can wear out four pairs of feet.' That
is because the feet are ill treated. Mr. John Bright
has discovered, through thirty-four years' experience,
and a loss of 300Z. in the shape of printing, that
4 farmers do not buy books ! ' One would hardly
have thought that. We know that they not only
buy papers, but that they are also extensive con-
tributors to them.
SEEDY TOE. 31
What percentage of horse owners accompany their
horses to the forge and see them shod? and, what is
of great importance, see their feet when the shoes are
removed? They would be astonished, for instance,
to find amongst many horses that, when the toe had
been pared and rasped, they would be able to discover
that the outer layer of the wall or crust did not make
one body with the inner layer, as it should do if the
foot were healthy, but is separated from it by dry
fibre. This is the way in which seedy toe begins ;
and the joint causes of it are, standing on dirty
litter, the use of hoof ointments, stopping with cow-
dung, &c., burning the seat of the shoe with a hot
shoe, slipping down hill, &c.
If the owner makes a remark thereon to the
farrier, he will be told that 'many good horses are
naturally like that ; but it does not hurt them if
they are well shod.' Let them look at the feet of
a colt, or of a brood mare, that has been running
unshod at grass, and see whether they can find any-
thing like it. They certainly cannot ; for no unshod
horse was ever known to have such a thing, any
more than corns (from which unshod horses are also
entirely free). Remarking on this separation of the
outer and inner horn of the wall, Mayhew says:
' Pathology has indirectly recognised the intention
of their function, by acknowledging that condition
to be a state of disease, wherein the two kinds of
horn are separated. Such a division is known as
seedy toe, and as false quarter; and the foot is
recognised as weakened when such a want of union
32 HORSES AND ROADS.
is discovered. But in the forge, the application of
such facts is by most smiths utterly ignored/ We
may add that to most owners its existence is utterly
unknown in the beginning, as, when the shoe is on,
its first appearance is not to be detected, for of
course the iron covers and hides it. It can only be
discovered by paring or rasping the bottom of the
hoof, when the shoe is off, at the toe or quarter ; the
toe is where it is most frequently to be found.
Over nearly all country forges it is stated that
' shoeing is done here upon improved principles.'
Now, these so-called ' improvements ' consist of
mistaken theories which were conceived many years
ago. They were then considered to be improve-
ments by their authors, and were most likely only
received as such because there was a great deal of
show about cutting, carving, and paring the under
surface of the horse's foot. This was impressive for
the vulgar and ignorant, because there was some
mystery attached to it; so it became very popular
amongst them, and it remains so, to a certain extent,
up to the present time, although all modern professional
authorities have exerted themselves to explain the
immense evils attendant on everything pertaining to
the system. The owner, therefore, who should make
up his mind to see his horses shod, must not allow
himself to be impressed with the idea that the
smith is an adept operator, endowed with a know-
ledge of anatomy and physiology ; for he is always
giving striking proofs that he knows nothing of
either. He can see the outside of the foot; but
IGNORANCE OF SMITHS. 33
he has not the slightest idea of what corresponds
internally to the parts he so mercilessly destroys.
There are very few smiths who could tell, off-hand,
for instance, how many bones are entirely imbedded
in the hoof, and how many only partially imbedded ;
so they are working in the dark.
Modern authorities tell us that no part of the
hoof should, on any account, be cut or pared, except
the seat of the shoe that is to say, the wall or crust
only, without touching the sole, frog, or bars ; as all
of these were placed there by Nature for special
purposes, and she has so ordered matters that these
parts cannot possibly overgrow themselves. Yet
smiths will not let them alone, unless a man goes to
look after them, and has sufficient strength of mind
to resist their entreaties to be allowed to take off
6 just a little bit, here and there,' in order to make
what they call 'a clean foot.' Never mind appear-
ances on the bottom of a horse's foot, especially as
this kind of neatness is taking his legs from under
him. Don't listen to their arguments on any account ;
have your own way, and see that only the seat of
the shoe is pared down on the crust.
Any amount of authorities could be cited here
in support of this advice ; so many, in fact, that it
is uncalled for to quote any of them. The shoer
will next cast round in search of a shoe, or even four
of them, that will come near fitting the horse.
Sometimes he finds that he has to alter the shape to
bring it to the hoof ; but, if it comes within a little
of that much, he proceeds to rasp and pare the hoof,
D
34 HORSES AND ROADS.
to make it Jit the shoe, just as if the hoof were a
mere block of horn, instead of every part of it being
composed of an outside, or so-called, insensitive
covering to an inside corresponding one, which is
usually denominated sensitive, because it is more
sensitive than the outside one. If he should find
that the shoe best suited to his fancy should be too
long, he proceeds to shorten it by turning up more
calk at the heel.
Now, calks are a great abomination, be they
ever so slight. They were conceived by ignorant,
unreflecting people, in order to act as brakes ; which
brakes, we have seen, should be applied to the
wheels of the cart, instead of to the horse's foot.
Nature has determined the right ' tread ' for a horse ;
calkins, by raising the heel, interfere seriously with
her designs. All the interior parts of the horse's
foot are shaped in harmony with the exterior ; the
coffin bone is wedge-shaped, and, when the foot is
tilted up behind, it is forced into the wedge-shaped
interior concavity of the toe. This is one of the
causes of seedy toe, sandcrack, and laminitis, com-
monly called ' fever in the feet,' Mr. Douglas
happily calls to mind that raising the heels also
shortens the stride.
Is it customary to put calkins on the shoes of
race horses ? From an illustration of the ' plates '
they wear, given by Mayhew in his 'Illustrated
Horse Management,' it appears that they do not run
in calkins = stride counts ; and trainers have found
out thus much, however short they may still be in
CALKS AND HOT SHOES. 35
their researches as to the right way of shoeing.
Eace horses still slip (witness the Derby of 1879) both
backwards and forwards, and trainers have not yet
arrived at the acme of treatment of the horse's foot.
They will not like to be told so, but il n'y a que la
verite qui offense in instances of this kind. Lord
Pembroke hated calks, and he lays it down as a rule
that ' from the race horse to the cart horse the same
system of shoeing, and description of shoes, should
be observed ; the size, weight, and thickness only of
them should differ.'
Nature intended the horse to serve for both
draught and saddle, and she designed for him a
wonderful foot, equally fitted for both purposes.
Man in his perversity is dissatisfied with it, and is
vain enough to think that he can alter it to ad-
vantage. And to what classes of men has the regula-
tion of such supposed improvements been abandoned,
but to the most ignorant ? To return to the forge :
when the farrier has satisfied himself that he has
cut away everything he can possibly get at, without
drawing blood although often on the sole he goes
so far as to produce ' dewdrops ' of that, which may
be seen oozing through the pores he has cut deeply
into and that he has obtained something near a fit
by altering both the shape of the shoe and the hoof,
he will then again put the shoe in the fire and give
a blow up to make it red hot ; and, in that red hot
state, he will apply it to the foot, in order to burn a
seat for it. In so doing it must be evident to every
man who will reflect, that he sets all the natural
D 2
36 HORSES AND ROADS.
secretions of the bottom of the crust into a boiling
state, and boiling means simply their entire decom-
position ; so, therefore, he actually kills the founda-
tion on which a horse is built, and it is only the
dead part that he has to cut away again (as regards
the crust or wall) on the next occasion that he operates
upon him. This burning-in business is, therefore,
another cause of seedy-toe, false quarter, and sand-
crack.
The opinion of Mr. Douglas is well worth re-
porting here. He says : ' The fitting of the shoe
can always be done better, in my opinion, when the
iron is cold, than when hot. Heating the shoe is
the quicker way, but it is also the most barbarous
one. The mischief done at times, by this custom, was
exemplified in the case of Mr. Bevan's trotting-horse
Hue and Cry, which lost both its fore-feet through
the shoes having been fitted red hot ; and many
animals, both before and since, have suffered like
misfortunes from the same cause.'
In Spain it is the custom to shoe cold, and not
one ' herrador ' in a hundred has a forge or a pair of
bellows on his premises. They even manufacture the
shoes without the aid of fire ; but it is true that
Spanish iron, being primarily manufactured with wood
charcoal, is particularly pure, soft, and ductile. The
Spanish 'herrador' or shoeing-smith only for he
does nothing else in the shape of iron forging does
not use the drawing knife (although, of course, the
veterinary surgeon does), and he never touches or
pares anything but the wall, which he pares down
COLD SHOEING IN SPAIN TRIMMING THE FROG. 37
with the butteris ; and he would on no account put
a calk on a shoe unless as an orthopoedic resource, and
even then only when ordered by a V. S. The natural
consequence is that Spanish horses are freer from
foot diseases and lameness than are ours in England ;
and so unaccustomed are Spanish farriers to find foot
lameness (as, amongst other things, they shoe short
behind, and so let the horse tread on his own
heels, thus preventing corns), that they generally
suspect, and test for, lameness in the shoulder,
when a lame horse is brought to them, before
referring to his feet ; unless, of course, it is pal-
pable or visible to their experienced eye, from the
outset, that the lameness is really in the foot. Most
English farriers always suspect the foot first, and
even then they cannot always pitch upon the foot on
which the horse goes lame : they have even been
known to operate first upon the three sound feet
in succession, and then to take the lame one !
Amongst the evils of paring away the horn, there
is one that appears to have passed unnoticed, or un-
commented upon, by the authorities who so strenu-
ously endeavour to point out the evils of shoeing
upon the so-called * improved principles.' Yet it is
not one of the least. In trimming away the frog
on its sides, the farrier scores deeply with the point
of his drawing knife into the sole, and this, added to
the paring to which he subjects the sole all over, must
necessarily and obviously further weaken the arch
of the foot. The letting down of the arch in this
way contributes to navicular disease, for between the
38 HORSES AND ROADS.
arms of the V the navicular bone is superposed. But
what does a farrier either know or care about that ?
Must not improved principles be the best, or else
why should they be called so ? To all your objections
he will only remark to your servant, behind your
back, that you are only fit to carry food to a bear ;
and in this the servant will give him reason, and they
will go and have a pint together, and laugh at you
over drinking it. They are a hard lot to deal with,
and that might be one of the reasons that so many
owners c give it up.' When the shoeing of a horse
is left entirely in the hands of this brace of
worthies, he is generally found to come home c go-
ing tender.' And small wonder ! Therefore, many
people send their horses to be shod a day or two
before sending them on a journey, with a prescience
of this ordinary state of things ; although the horses
are really still going tender then, but only themselves
are aware of it.
If a horse wears away his shoe more in one place
than in another, the farrier is sure to thicken the
next shoe he puts on in that particular place ; or, if
he considers himself a real artist, and has the time
or is not shoeing by contract (contract-shoeing is an
additional curse for the horse), he will weld in a
piece of steel to prevent the wear on that particular
part. If the horse wears calks, he is almost certain
to wear down the toe and one calk. This, of course,
is only the perverseness of the horse, if you choose
to listen to the groom and farrier. They cannot
perceive or conceive that the horse is driven or forced,
< CUTTING ' AND c BRUSHING.' 39
by the natural play and action of the muscles and
tendons of the legs, to put down his foot in a
natural manner in search of a natural i tread ; ' and
so they continue to oppose his innate desire, until
they bring about sprain, and ultimately contraction,
of sinews. This is the reason that so many horses
are to be seen walking on their toes (in London, cab
horses may any day be seen which have to trot upon
them), and the back sinews are often divided by
veterinary surgeons to enable the horse to go on
working at all. If the twist should be on one side
it will bring about side-bone (or ossification of the
cartilages of the foot), or splints, or something else
where undue and unnatural strain or friction is
thrown : especially is it the cause of ' cutting.' No
unshod horse was ever known to ' cut ' or ' brush ; '
but the shaping of the foot to the shoe is often the
cause of this defect. The only alleviation for it, when
once produced, is to study the * tread ' of which the
horse is in search in order to free himself from it
(it is not likely that he is seeking to make things
worse for himself), and then humour his instinct,
instead of thwarting it, or looking upon it as per-
versity on his part, and opposing his exertions to
get free from it. The ingenuity which some people
are capable of displaying, when they have fully
made up their minds to oppose nature, is wonderful.
They always break down, but, like true Britons, they
are always ready to come to the charge again;
it is only deferred for them until the next meeting.
It is a shocking abuse of pluck, all the same.
40 HORSES AND ROADS.
Who is there amongst human beings that does
not prefer to wear an old pair of boots to a new pair
and why ? Because the old pair has accommodated
itself, by wear, to the 6 tread ' of the owner. The heel
of a man's foot is round on every side ; yet his boot-
maker will persist in making the heels of his boots with
square edges ; the consequence being that they wear
more in one part than another. As all men have not
the same natural tread, some will wear out the inside
of the heel at the same time with the outside of the
toe ; whilst others will do exactly the contrary, or
else wear them away in a different form from either.
The time when they require mending is the time
when they begin to feel comfortable ; and the human
shoemaker, like the equine one, proceeds to reinforce
the parts that wear the quickest. The American
Indian knows better than this. He fashions the
exterior of the heel of the moccasin, as near as he
can get it, to the shape of his own heel ; and those
who have worn moccasins for any length of time (as
the writer has), positively ' go lame ' when they have
to put on a pair of civilised chaussures.
41
CHAPTER VI.
YOUATT ON THE WEIGHT OF SHOES AMERICAN TROTTING
HORSE 'ST. JULIEN' 'AN OUNCE AT THE HEEL TELLS
MORE THAN A POUND ON THE BACK* LUNETTE SHOE OR
TIP OF LAFOSSE DOUGLAS ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE
CRUST MILES ON EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION.
FASHION has of late led our ladies into the habit of
wearing very high heels to their boots ; and, to
make things worse, they are placed, not under the
ball of the heel, but ahead of it that is to say, in
a part which was not intended by nature to take
their full weight at every step. Medical men tell
us that since this became the fashion, hysteria is
largely on the increase, and also that many other ill-
nesses may be traced to the same cause. Fortunately,
ladies can take off their boots when they come in-
doors (and they avail themselves of the chance), to
put on others of different construction. From this
the horse is debarred.
Medical men, as physiologists, are able to judge
to a great extent as to the value or non-value of the
foregoing remarks upon the horses foot and its shoe ;
they, at least, have no excuse for tacitly admitting
that grooms and farriers should have any advantage
42 HORSES AND ROADS.
over them. Perhaps some of them may think it
worth while to pick up their horses' feet and ex-
amine them, and turn things over in their minds.
Some of them will admit that they have become
' groovey ' to an extent that is inexcusable, especially
in men of science. Medical men are all masters of
comparative anatomy; and here is a good oppor-
tunity for them to bring it profitably into use.
All modern authorities on the matter are of
opinion that most horseshoes are made too heavy ;
and when horses are shod by contract, or by the year,
their shoes are made heavier still. Youatt, not by
any means a modern authority, says that * an ounce
or two in the weight of the shoe will sadly tell before
the end of a hard day's work.' The American trot-
ting horse, St. Julien, lately trotted a mile in 2 min.
12| sec., being half a second less than the best time
of Earus ; and we are told that his shoes only
weighed fifteen ounces each on the fore feet, and six
ounces on the hind ones. Rarus, as was until lately
the custom with American trotters, wore very heavy
shoes ; is it not possible that Rarus may have been
the better horse of the two, but that he was too
much assisted with iron by his friends? Besides the
weight of an ounce or two ' telling sadly before the
end of a day's work, 9 there remains the evil that it
tells permanently upon the horse's legs. There is,
perhaps, no modern authority that has not been
explicit thereon ; yet heavy shoes are still most
generally in use, in spite, also, of the old proverb, ' An
ounce at the heels tells more than a pound on the
HEAVY SHOES, 'CLIPS,' AND EXTRA NAILS. 43
back.' Mr. Douglas tells us that he found by careful
experiment that light shoes will wear longer than
heavy ones. The contract farrier, by putting on
heavy ones, is thus, as usual, wrong again ; and he
cheats himself this time a very fitting judgment
upon him. It is unfortunate that the rest of his
mistakes do not equally recoil upon him. If this
were the only mistake that he makes, it would
prove that he takes no warning by experience, and
makes no useful observation, when he incontinently,
although in an overreaching way, actually mulcts
himself ! This man will also put in extra nails, and
make clips on the shoe to help the nails to keep on
the exorbitant weight of iron ; and all this means
only so much extra mutilation of the hoof.
Horses in England are universally over-shod, as
well as over-mutilated in the hoof; although, only
last year, the author of the ' Book of the Horse '
wrote, in a contemporary, ' The general tendency of
the age is to shoe as little as possible. 1 This
' tendency ' is very little apparent when people come
to observe every horse they meet (as the writer
does) ; although one notable exception (as there
is to every rule) is to be found in the streets
of London in the horses belonging to Mr. John
Smither, East Smithfield. These horses do not
slip about as much upon greasy pavements and
asphalt as is the rule with other horses. At the
present season, London observers may satisfy them-
selves on this score. This gentleman is owner
of a considerable number of horses, and his cars
44 HORSES AND ROADS.
and vans are to be continually met with in the
City.
M. La Fosse was deeply impressed with the idea
that less iron was required ; and he boldly cut off
one-half of the shoe that is to say he maintained
that a tip on the front half of the foot was all that
was necessary. But, unfortunately, he spoilt a very
bright idea in two ways he recommended the
heels of weak-footed horses to be pared (and this,
of course, made them weaker), while he fastened on
a tip, of about six inches in its entire length of
iron, with eight nails. Horse-nails run from about
one-eighth up to three-sixteenths of an inch in
thickness. So he was inserting wedges amounting,
in the aggregate, from one to one and a half inches
in thickness, in six inches of horn, thus squeezing
it into the space of five, or even four inches,
and killing it from the clenches downwards and
outwards.
Mr. Douglas says : ' If the crust is closely ex-
amined with a microscope, 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 construc-
tion 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
ROMAN HORSES SHOD WITH ' LUNETTES ' OR ' TIPS.' 45
peculiar structure of the crust (or wall), 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.'
If La Fosse had made a research of this kind,
he would have perceived that, by his way of nailing,
he was reducing the size of each tube by one-sixth ;
or, what is more probable, that he was entirely
closing those nearest the nails, and compressing
those that He half way between each pair of nails.
How, then, could the 'thick fluid which is to
nourish and preserve them' circulate when it arrived
at the nails ? And what, therefore, was to nourish
the prismatic-shaped portion that lies in front of
the nails? In and around Rome, at the present day,
horses are shod with his * lunette ' or tip, and many
of them on the front feet only (the hind feet being
entirely unshod) ; but they are generally fastened
on with only three, or sometimes four, nails; and
these are the only horses that can keep on their
legs in the slippery streets of the city. For the
benefit of strangers, that come on horseback from a
distance, there are posted up notices, at the various
points where paving commences, warning them to
dismount at such points in case their horses should
be fully shod. Those Englishmen who take any
notice at all of the Roman horses' feet, mostly
ridicule the ' barbarous ' way in which they are shod,
and boast of the ' splendid English shoeing.' Some
even consider it cruelty, and feel so strongly on the
subject, that they refuse to hire the vehicles to which
46 HORSES AND ROADS.
they are harnessed. If they were a little more
observant they would discover that these horses
were sounder in their feet and legs than are our
London cab horses, which are shod to death, and
most of them unsound and lame on all four feet (or
legs).
By our ordinary mode of shoeing, in which about
seven nails is the average we employ in each hoof,
we are still doing, to a certain extent, the mischief
of which La Fosse was guilty. We wedge up and com-
press the horn with the nails to the extent of about
one-twelfth instead of one-fourth. How, then, can
we wonder if the hoof, deprived of its full
supply of nourishment round its edges, becomes
brittle and dry ? Can ' hoof ointments ' or cowdung
supply the place of the natural secretions? Mr.
Miles, a Devonshire squire, for many years used
three nails only on his own horses, and he found
them all the better. He had not reflected on the
reasons above stated (they are original with the
writer, who thought them out for himself, and has
never seen them referred to in any work, otherwise
he would have acknowledged the source from which
he got them, as he always does when he draws upon
others) ; but he was in search of means which might
allow expansion and contraction, and he put only
one nail on the inside of the foot, and near the toe,
the two remaining nails being on the outside part of
the hoof. This gentleman made very clever practical
experiments as to the extent of natural expansion
and contraction ; and in his work, f Miles on the
MILES ON 'EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION.' 47
Horse's Foot,' they are illustrated most admirably.
The subject of them was a horse nine years old,
which had always worn shoes since he was first put to
work, and had the shoe removed on purpose for the
investigation and experiment. The unshod foot was
lifted up, and its contour traced with the greatest
precision on a piece of board covered with paper.
A similar board was then laid on the ground ; the
same foot was then placed upon it, and the opposite
foot held up whilst it was again traced. The result
was that it had expanded one-eighth part of an inch
at the heels and quarters ; and from the quarters
towards the toe this gradually diminished, showing
a space of four inches in front, two inches on each
side of the centre of the toe, where no expansion
whatever had taken place ; the tracings proving,
at the same time, that expansion was only lateral,
and that none took place in the length of the foot
from heel to toe. He states that he had other
horses which had before shown a still greater expan-
sion than this ; but this was only whilst the horse
was standing still, and upon three legs.
48
CHAPTEK VII.
EXPANSION ENTIRELY PREVENTED BY PRESENT MODE OF SHOE-
ING, BUT FAVOURED BY ' TIPS ' MAYHEW AND PROFESSOR
PERCIVAL ON 'TIPS' ' IT IS THE SHOE, NOT THE ROAD,
THAT HURTS THE HORSE ' ' IMPECUNIOSUS ' SAYS THERE
IS TOO MUCH SAMENESS ABOUT ALL EXISTING WRITINGS ON
THE HORSE'S FOOT, AND ' ORIGINAL ' IDEAS ARE WANTED.
KECENTLY, by means of photography, it has been
demonstrated that in every gait beyond the walk
the horse is, at every extension, bearing all his
weight at a certain time on one leg only, and that
he comes down with a shock on that one leg. What,
therefore, expansion may amount to in an unshod
horse at a gallop, or its tendency in a shod one, we
have thus far been unable to discover. This expansion
has long been admitted by most authorities, and
they have studied how to allow for it. In fact this,
and the prevention of slipping, have been the motives
for many inventions. Most of them have proved
failures in both directions; although some of them,
after having been buried like their authors have
been unearthed, pirated, and again presented to
the public ; but still no progress is made. The
full shoe, even in its most perfect form, cannot allow
expansion and contraction their natural scope ; but,
PROFESSOR PERCIVAL ON TIPS. 49
as on the front part of the hoof (or the toe) it has
been proved that what little there may be is in-
appreciable, tips will not much interfere with it ;
that is to say, tips that do not cover more than the
front half of the rim of the foot for many farriers
put on shoes that are only an inch short at the heels
and with six nails in them, for turning horses out to
grass, and call these tips, which they are not. A
half-bred horse of 15^ hands will generally be shod
with a piece of iron 14 inches in development when
measured round its edge. Six inches would be the
measure of a tip, and Mayhew gives an engraving
in which a real tip is shown, and it is secured by only
four nails.
Mayhew also says: 'The late W. Percival, the
respected author of " Hippo-pathology," many years
ago informed the author that he had long ridden
a young horse about town with no greater protec-
tion to its fore feet than tips could afford. He
showed the hoofs of the animal to the writer, and
more open or better examples of the healthy horse's
feet need not be desired.' A gentleman who wrote
in the ' Field ' some ten years ago, under the nom
de plume of * Impecuniosus,' cites Mayhew to the
effect that ' some horses will go sound in tips that
cannot endure any further protection ; ' and he
remarks thereon : ' The moral, so to speak, of this
is, that it is the shoe, not the road, that hurts the
horse ; for if so weak and tender a foot as is de-
scribed can go sound when all but unshod, why
should not the strong sound one do the same ? The
E
50 HORSES AND ROADS.
obvious conclusion is that we require a strong sound
foot to stand, not our work, but our shoe. 9 He is,
therefore, a strong advocate for the use of tips,
adding that A sportsman, well known some little
time ago in the shires, shod all his horses with tips
hunters, hacks, and carriage horses ; but, although
it was seen that his stud went very well shod in this
manner, no one followed his example, the world in
general being staunch Conservatives, and diametri-
cally opposed to any innovation in stable matters,
whatever their opinion may be upon other subjects.'
Here is another extract from Mayhew : * When
the contents of the foot are compressed by the
superimposed weight of the animal, or when the
hoof is resting upon the ground, the quarters yield
to the downward pressure, and they accordingly
expand. When the burden is removed by the hoof
being raised, the quarters again fly back to their
original situations ; the sides, therefore, being in
constant motion, are entirely unsuited for the
purposes to which the smith compels them. No
wonder the clenches are loosened, or the shoes come
off, when the nails are driven into parts hardly ever
at rest. This action is important to the circulation,
for the contraction still allows the arterial blood free
ingress, while the expansion permits the full return
of the venous current.'
Although Mayhew was formerly demonstrator of
anatomy at the Royal Veterinary College, and claims
a high respect and admiration for nearly all his
observations, the writer is obliged to refrain from
LEGS HARMONISE WITH THE REST OF STRUCTURE. M
continuing the present citation, as in what follows
therein he differs diametrically from Mayhew, and
he declines to follow servilely in the path even of
those he most respects ; but Mayhew himself could
hardly object to his action in this respect when
he says : ' Veterinary surgeons display ignorance in
nothing more than in being servile copyists.' Not
that the writer pretends to be a veterinary sur-
geon. He is only a practical man who has had
a very wide and long experience amongst horses
in many countries, and has been a very close observer
of everything touching their feet and legs especially,
and is now only offering the result of his so-gained
experience for what it may be worth. Almost from
the beginning of his connection with horses, he
declined to consider the legs as a separate part from
the body of the horse, and refused to believe that
four sets of them were necessary to wear out one
body, as, if such were the case, the horse would be
an incomplete and niggardly gift made by Nature to
man; and from the outset of his religious educa-
tion, received at his mother's knee, he has always
been taught, and in his various wanderings he has
never had reason to doubt, that Nature made every-
thing complete, and nothing in vain. Hence he in-
ferred that the horse's body was never made stronger
than his legs and feet, and that these, when under-
stood, will be found to be ' fearfully and wonderfully
made,' and in every respect harmonising with the
rest of his structure, and equal to their task.
4 Impecuniosus ' says truly : * The prevalent idea
2
52 HORSES AND ROADS.
of the groom and the blacksmith seems to be that
they know better what the horse's foot should be
than the Creator of the animal does, for they are
never satisfied until they have altered the natural
foot into a form of their own, which they think the
right one ; and, though lameness usually attends
their efforts, they ascribe it to every cause but the
right one, and indeed resign themselves com-
placently to the presence of many diseases con-
fessedly caused by their treatment perhaps, because
these diseases do not hurt their own sacred persons !
It is really curious to observe all that has been
written about the horse's foot the sort of follow-
my-leader principle, which is more evident here
than in writing on any other subject with which I
am acquainted. Very, very seldom is an original
idea to be found, and still more seldom an original
idea that is not marred by some adherence to the
old grooves to which preceding authors have con-
fined themselves.' ' Impecuniosus ' writes well, and
makes many good remarks, as we shall see further on ;
but the writer is also obliged to differ from him in
some things, as he is, indeed, obliged to differ with
all the authorities he quotes. As Baucher said, ' Si
je rfavais rien a dire de nouveau, je ne prendrais
pas la peine d'ecrire ; ' and it is with the intention
of offering some original remarks that he has under-
taken the present arduous and responsible task, even in
the face of the following words from l Impecuniosus : '
* Every innovation is not reform, and this remark
applies specially to stable practice; but any real
* REFORM IN SHOEING IS REFORM INDEED.' 53
reform in shoeing is reform indeed, and the greatest
respect and attention are due to it ; but how few of
these old discoveries, which are from time to time
reinvented, are worth even the limited amount of
attention which they command ? '
54
CHAPTEE VIII.
THE t CHARLIER ' SHOE ' IMPECUNIOSUS ' AND ' KANGAROO '
ON THE CHARLIER SYSTEM SOLE PRESSURE INDIA RUBBER
CUSHIONS AND PADS PUMICE FOOT ST. BELL ON 'IMITA-
TION OP NATURE' IN SHOEING MAYHEW, 'NATURE is A
STRICT ECONOMIST' DOUGLAS ON THE SHORT AVERAGE
LIFE OF OUR HORSES ' ONE HORSE COULD WEAR OUT FOUR
PAIRS OF FEET ' PHILIP ASTLEY, ' HE WHO PREVENTS DOES
MORE THAN HE WHO CURES' THE CHARLIER ' SHORT*
SHOE, AND THE CHARLIER ' TIP ' STANLEY SAYS NAVICULAB
DISEASE IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH THE CHARLIER SYSTEM
EXPERIENCE OF MESSRS. 8MITHER WITH CHARLIER SHOES
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE OF CHARLIER ' TIPS ' ' FOUB
INCHES OF IRON CURLED ROUND THE TOE.'
ONE of the modern inventions, in the shape of shoes,
has been that of M. Charlier ; and ' Impecuniosus,'
in his ardent desire to find something that would, or
might, be any kind of improvement at all on what
he looked upon as the prevalent and barbarous mode
of shoeing, gave it a trial in a most enlightened
and unprejudiced style, and approved of it. The
shoe and the system do not appear generally known ;
and so it may be well, for those unacquainted with
them, to describe both. Charlier started with the
assumption that Nature had intended the horse to
THE ' CHARLIER ' SHOE. 55
walk barefoot, and that the bottom of his foot was in
every way fitted to stand all wear and tear, except the
outer rim that is, the wall or crust. He, therefore,
made a shoe of very narrow iron, less than the width
of the wall, which he let in, or imbedded, to the
crust, without touching the sole, even on the edge ;
so that, in fact, the horse stood no higher after he
was shod than he stood when barefooted. He urged
that such a narrow piece of iron would not interfere
with the natural expansion and contraction of the
foot ; and in this he at once went wrong, for malleable
iron has no spring in it. Then, in spite of his theory,
as he expressed it, he carried his shoe right round the
foot into the bars, beyond where the crust ceases to be
independent of them. He then got a very narrow,
weak shoe, about a foot in circumference (if circum-
ference can be applied to that which is not a com-
plete circle) ; and, as he ought to have foreseen, the
shoe then twisted or broke on violent exertion.
Had he restricted himself to tips only, he would
have had a great success from the beginning.
* Impecuniosus ' says that another correspondent
of the < Field,' writing as * Kangaroo,' very justly
remarks upon ' the impossibility of a horse becoming
footsore in the frog, sole, or heel of his foot as a
result of his travelling barefoot. It is the toe about
half way round that suffers, and this is all that
demands protection in the fore feet, whatever the
work may be and upon whatever soil.' Hence
Charlier made a mess of it when he passed the
dimensions of tips, or the mere protection of the
56 HORSES AND ROADS.
front half of the crust. If he had stopped at that,
his narrow iron would not, in such a short length,
have either twisted or fractured, and he would have
made an advancement in shoeing which he has failed
to bring about.
In spite of * Kangaroo,' a great majority of horsey
men refuse, or decline, to believe that the sole, how-
ever liberal they may be in their views towards the
frog and bars, is capable of bearing weight ; whereas
the real fact is that, unless it takes its share of the
weight, it becomes unhealthy, and a cause of
uneasiness to the horse. What observant and in-
telligent man, who is in the habit of visiting his
stable, has failed to remark that, when a horse
is going to dung, he takes a preliminary step for-
wards, and after having finished dropping, he backs
both hind feet on to the top of it ? What instinct
leads him to do this ? The groom will tell you that
the horse is in search of something soft and cooling
for his feet ; but, unfortunately for his theory, it
happens that, so far from being soft and cooling, the
matter in question is solid and warm ; for a horse
suffering from diarrhoea will not draw ahead and
then back, and of this any one may convince himself
by waiting to see. Why, then, does he go through
these manoeuvres ? Why, simply to get, what he is
otherwise deprived of, sole pressure. Soft cowdung
will not afford it to him; and he will knowingly
squeeze it out by getting his feet, and his weight, on
something more solid.
Again, who has not seen when a horse is at
INDIA-RUBBER CUSHIONS AND PADS. 57
grass, that when he is not grazing he will repair
to some favourite spot, which is generally stiff,
neither hard nor very soft, on which to stand at rest ?
In dry weather he will even stale upon some place
that he can find in the shade, in order to make
the ground consistent to his taste and desire that
is to say, ' stiff ' and there he will go when he is
satisfied with feeding. And for what reason ? Why,
in search of sole pressure, which is a relief to him,
but which he is generally deprived of. Can people
read nothing besides print ?
As further evidence upon this point, we will
again hear ' Impecuniosus ' not that he seems to
have had the slightest idea that sole pressure had
anything to do with bringing about the state of
things he relates. He clamours for original ideas, free
from ' grooviness ; ' and here is one for him, as far as
the writer knows. As the open-minded, investigating
man that he was (and is still, let us hope), he experi-
mented upon all ' new brooms,' as he expresses him-
self. Among others, he tried elastic < cushions ' and
6 pads ; ' and he says that they diminish concussion,
and prevent stones being picked up by the shoe, and,
in so far, are good ; but that they cause the shoe to
come off, by their elasticity. ' I have personally made
a fair trial of them ; and this is the history thereof.
Some years ago I had a remarkably brilliant hunter,
who was also remarkably unsound. He had an inclina-
tion to pumice feet, and could hardly get along at all
on the road. I shod him with these rubber cushions, or
pads, which I may shortly describe as being a piece of
58 HORSES AND ROADS.
india-rubber the shape of the foot surface, and the
horse went better- in fact, went on the road as if he
were on the soft. But I had to leave them off,
because the shoes were always coming off. To be
sure of their merits, I tried them on another horse ;
the result was just the same. I should say that the
hoof gro^vs very fast when shod with these cushions.'
Why did the hoof grow fast with them ? Why, be-
cause they caused sole pressure continually ; there
was no possible ' stopping ' with cowdung whilst they
were worn.
The want of sole pressure, conjointly with the
weakening of the crust, when its inner and outer
layers (the sensitive and the insensitive) have be-
come diseased through rough and barbarous treat-
ment, and show a tendency to separate, often brings
about pumice foot. Pressure on the unpared sole,
in imitation of Nature, is the proper treatment to
effect its cure. Imitation of Nature should be the
universal law of shoeing. St. Bell says : ' No one
will venture to deny that, in the affair of shoeing,
reason directs us to a close imitation of Nature.'
The closest imitation of Nature that has ever yet
been arrived at is the Charlier tip ' it gives great
security for travelling over the most slippery roads,
granite, or asphalte pavements; and, in frosty
weather, no roughing is necessary.' This is ac-
counted for by the fact that by this system the
whole of the bottom of the foot, excepting the
groove made for the insertion of the shoe, is left
entirely untouched by the knife ; and the dense,
'NATURE is A STRICT ECONOMIST.' 59
tough horn which the unshod colt possesses is a
' roughing ' with which Nature sends him into the
world, and which no artificial means can compete
with. Why, then, should farriers ignore such an
obvious fact, and direct all their perseverance and
inventive powers to controvert Nature's designs ?
' Because he who is uneducated and unable to com-
prehend principles can neither profit by his own
experience nor abandon the paths of prejudice and
custom.'
Mayhew says : 'It is amongst the firmest
physiological truths that Nature is a strict econo-
mist, and never does anything without intention '
(every one of education ought to know this without
having their attention called to it by Mayhew, or
in these pages) ; ' that every enlargement or every
depression however insignificant it may appear to
human eyes is a permanent provision for some
appointed purpose, and has its allotted use in
the animal system.' How, then, can the ignorant
farrier, or anyone else, by carving the hoof to his
own fancied artistical shape, be doing otherwise than
upsetting Nature's fearful and wonderful designs?
6 Man has for ages laboured to disarrange parts thus
admirably adjusted. When so employed, he has only
followed the example of the savage who destroys the
product he is incapable of understanding. No injury,
no wrong, no cruelty can be conceived, which bar-
barity has not inflicted on the most generous of man's
many willing slaves.'
Another writer observes that ' appealing to the
60 HORSES AND ROADS.
better sentiments of the present age has been proved
to be a waste of time ; the better plan is to appeal
to their pockets.' Now, it is an acknowledged
fact that the exercise of these cruelties costs
every horse owner considerable sums yearly; and,
according to Mr. Douglas, although the natural
life of the horse is from thirty-five to forty years,
three-fourths of them die under twelve years old,
and, in the army, even sooner. Therefore, on an
average, every one buys three horses where he might
do with one if he were only humane to that one.
This ought to be sufficient inducement to men to
look to their horses' feet, for it is through the
feet that nearly all are thus early rendered useless,
and through the feet to the legs. ' One horse
could wear out four pairs of feet,' is an old
proverb, and a true one, amongst horsemen; and
Philip Astley justly wrote : ' Certainly he that pre-
vents disease does more than he that cures.' Now
diseases of the feet are very rarely cured at all ; but,
by the use of brake-power and a sensible system of
stable treatment and shoeing they might nearly all
be prevented. The Charlier shoe defective in the
beginning because it did not admit of natural ex-
pansion and contraction was improved upon by an
observant and reflective man at Melton, who reduced
it to a three-quarter shoe ; and this was a great stride
to the good.
4 Impecuniosus,' as he appears to have done with
everything that gave any promise of being an im-
provement, tried it, and found that it really was
' IMPECUNIOSUS ' ON THE TIP. 61
one ; but he says : ' My friend, who gave me the
pattern of this shoe, remarked that the opposition of
the smiths at Melton to it must be seen to be appre-
ciated, and that the same might be said of most of
the grooms.' This is the old, old tale. Later on he
found that the three-quarter shoe had been with
advantage reduced in length until it became simply
a tip. Following his usual course, he adopted this
improvement, and liked it better still. Nor is
this to be wondered at, for expansion and con-
traction had now got very nearly their own way,
frog pressure and sole pressure being similarly
favoured, and each horse was left to find and use
nearly his own individual natural ' tread,' with
which the four inches of iron at the toe did not
much interfere, and those that had before ' cut ' or
' brushed ' gave over doing so. Corns disappeared, as
there was no pressure on them ; and many of his
horses, which had incipient side bones, were entirely
cured of them. Of course, when once the cartilage
is turned into bone, nothing can reconvert it into
cartilage. He says : ' Nothing makes the heels grow
so fast as the wearing of tips ; with them snow does
not ball in the foot ; with every other shoe it does
so, more or less.' This is very sensible and compre-
hensible ; it arises from nearly copying Nature. Still
the ' crowd ' refused to believe that the horse's sole
could be safely brought down to direct and immediate
contact with the ground, even when told by this
gentleman that ' one of the most eminent of our
veterinary surgeons (Mr. Stanley, of Leamington)
62 HORSES AND ROADS.
has stated it to be his conviction that horses shod
a la Charlier will never have navicular disease.'
Neither could they get pumice foot, or other diseases,
attendant on the present popular mode of shoeing.
* Impecuniosus ' conferred a favour upon horse owners
by communicating the favourable results of his ex-
perience ; but conservatism, bigotry, shoeing smiths,
and stable helpers were too much for him, and the
Charlier shoe or tip never got into extensive use,
although some people still constantly use it. The
difficulty is that, in the country, scarcely any one
can be found willing to put it on ; but, in London,
there are certain forges where it even finds warm
approbation. Mr. Stevens, M.K.C.V.S., Park Lane,
for one, is a strong advocate for it, and has a forge
on his premises where he accommodates all comers
with it. If owners in the country choose to have
their own way, the country smiths would be obliged
to succumb to pressure, although they would
grumble and oppose the shoe to their utmost:
they want no change, and they resist every innova-
tion.
Messrs. John Smith er & Son, of No. 1, Upper
East Smithfield, wrote, in the < Spectator ' of August 3,
1878 : 'Some weeks ago you noticed a controversy
then going on about horseshoes. Your well known
desire to help on the humane treatment of animals
leads us to hope that you will give us space to state
our experience. Some six or seven years ago we
began having our horses shod for the fore feet on
the Charlier principle, or a method akin to it. We
MESSRS. SMITHER ON THE CHARLIER SYSTEM. 63
had shoes made of about one-third the usual weight,
of half the width, and of rather harder iron. In
putting them on, the hoof was not cut or pared, with
the exception of a small groove made in what we may
call the edge of the hoof ; into this the shoe was in-
serted. By this system the horse's hoof is on the
ground, as if he were unshod ; but it is protected
from breaking by the thin rim of iron at its edge.
We found this shoe answer admirably ; but the
difficulty in getting it made and put on prevented
us using it on more than a few horses until
quite lately. We should like to state a few instances
in which it has produced wonderfully good effects,
but dare not trespass on your space. We have found
no horses that it does not suit ; and for young horses
running on the London stones, for horses with tender
feet, or corns, and to prevent slipping, it is of great
service. We have lately been able to use it to a
larger extent, and have now some forty horses, of all
sizes, from the cob to those of seventeen or eighteen
hands, at work on the London stones and country
roads, shod in this way. These, sir, are facts which
your readers can verify. From a business point of
view it is also important: the use of these shoes
would, in London alone, by preventing the laming
and wearing out of horses, save many thousands of
pounds every year.'
Here we find men evidently open minded, im-
bued with the idea that their brains might be at
least as good as those of other people who pretend
to dictate to them, and possessing the courage to
64 HORSES AND ROADS.
persevere for half-a-dozen years, until they were able
to establish generally in their stables, under diffi-
culties, a system which their good sense, in the
first place, and the experience they gradually gained,
in the second, told them was highly economical for
them and comfortable for their horses. It is not
every farmer that owns forty horses ; but in these
days of co-operation nothing could be easier than
for several farmers to agree among themselves to
patronise jointly the first forge in each district, the
owner of which would consent to meet their views.
Let them, in fact, strike against the farriers, or make
a lock-out. It only wants union among themselves,
but they must first be converted from their
own grooviness in respect to horse shoeing.
The Lincolnshire farmers were obliged, only in
November last, to form a society for the suppression
of the administration of poisonous drugs by their
servants to their horses ; one of them stating at the
first meeting that, first and last, he had lost over
thirty horses through this odious, but almost univer-
sal, practice. Perhaps these same gentlemen would
excuse the suggestion that at their meetings shoeing
might also be profitably discussed.
A remarkable discussion on shoeing, the heads of
which may be appropriately introduced here, took
place at the meeting of the Massachusetts Board of
Agriculture in. 1878. Mr. Eussell started by stating
that the safest way was to let the hind feet be bare,
and to shoe the fore feet with tips, or crescents of
iron, that only cover the toe Dr. Hunt, curiously
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE OF THE CHARLIER SYSTEM. 65
enough for a medical man, went dead against this
opinion, saying that ordinary shoeing did no harm
whatever it was the 'pounding' of the foot on
the road which produced disease in the foot. He
apparently only owned one horse at a time, as he
says 6 my horse,' and he was not able to make him
last long, for he says that he was continually obliged
to be replacing him, because every one of them got
laminitis, or what is sometimes called either founder
or else fever in the feet all three terms being used
to signify the same disease. When questioned as to
how he had his horses shod, he stated, ' I tell my
blacksmiths, when they put a shoe on, to heat it
red hot. ? This, by itself, would quite account for
founder ; and it appears strange that a medical man
should have been in such a red-hot hurry to expound
such views, unless it was that, as a medical man,
he thought to carry influence. However, if this was
what he counted upon, he was singularly in error ;
for Mr. Bowditch, a practical farmer, one of those
irrepressible Yankees who will persist in thinking
for themselves, rose and said that formerly he had
had the same trouble as the doctor with his horses,
but that he had found out for himself that the
only way to avoid founder was ' to shoe the horse
properly, that is putting on as little iron as possible ;
let it cover the toe of the foot, and let the frog
come down so that it will take the jar of the foot.'
When asked, ' Do you have your shoes put on red
hot, as the doctor does?' he answered that he
made his blacksmith ' put the shoe on only as hot
F
66 HORSES AND ROADS.
as he could hold it in his hand ; ' this is virtually a
cold shoe. He did not believe in calks, or paring
the horn, but he let in his tips a la Charlier ; and,
finding that he could not get farriers to shoe as he
wanted, he started his own forge, on his own farm,
as he says 'for his own protection.' He goes on to
say : ' When the mare I drive came to me she had a
frog the size of my little finger; now it fills up
almost the whole of her foot. Nine hundred and
ninety-nine thousandths of all the trouble in horses'
feet come from shoeing: in fact, practically all.
Even in the case of heavy draught horses, put on
as little iron as you can get on : never a heel or a
toe calk. I have some heavy horses, and they go
with seven or eight ounces on their feet. The whole
secret is, if you have a horse whose feet have been
abused for a series of years, all that is required is a
little piece of iron at the toe. I am afraid I drive
very hard down hill. I am in the habit of driving
cripples ; my friends have a good deal to say about
the corpses that I drive ; but I take care of their
feet, and they manage to do good work. I make my
best time in driving down hill. I have no fear of
hard roads, and no fear of pavements, if a horse's
foot is kept in proper condition. Last winter I rode
my saddle mare (and, of course, my neck is more to
me than anything else I own) on glare ice, with a
small bit of iron' inlaid, as before explained
4 four inches long, curled around her toe, and with a
very small toe calk. I galloped out on the ice
where the men were cutting the ice, and I had no
CHARLIER SYSTEM TIPS. 67
fear of her slipping, although the horse that was
marking the ice, that had calks on, two inches thick,
did slip. There is hardly a person who owns a
horse, who, if you put him four inches of iron on
the toe, would think he could go more than half a
mile from home without the horse breaking down.'
Yet so thoroughly was Mr. Bowditch convinced of
the value of tips let into the hoof, that he had
found it worth while to establish his own forge
for preparing them on his own farm. He says
that other people will not patronise his forge, be-
cause he will not allow shoeing to be done in it
on any principle but his own : and so his forge
does not bring him in the revenue it otherwise
would. He refuses to become a party to propa-
gating mistaken ideas. People come to him, see-
ing his success, with lame horses ; and when he
has cured them, he says they go back to their old
farrier. Both Mr. Russell and Mr. Bowditch appear
to have been convinced, in the first instance, that
routine was leading them astray ; and, like sensible
men, they saw that the only way to escape from it
was to throw aside entirely all professional opinion
on the matter, and have their own way (as did the
Messrs. Smither, here in London), Mr. Bowditch
going so far as to start a forge of his own, over
which he could be, and was, entirely master. He
says, comically enough, that it was not a commercial
success, because his neighbours only patronised him
when they were in difficulties, out of which he alone
could get them, and then they went their way ; but
F 2
68 HORSES AND ROADS.
he seems to have overlooked the economical facts
that, although in this way his horse-shoeing cost
him more by the year than formerly, he had less to
pay to the veterinary surgeon, that he got more
work out of his horses, and that they lived longer,
or were likely to live longer (as he had only then
had two years' experience). If this be taken into
account, his forge was, however indirectly, a great
commercial success. If he had not found it to
answer, so shrewd a man would not have carried
it on, nor would he have ventured to speak on
the subject in so independent and authoritative a
manner on such a special occasion.
We are sadly in want of a man or two more
in England like Messrs. Eussell, Bowditch, and
the Messrs. Smither, and as outspoken. They
need not risk the setting up of their own forge,
each man individually. They have only to co-operate,
and either arrange that one of them in every dis-
trict should start one, making an agreement with a
certain number of neighbours that they should have
all their shoeing done there, or else, by union, bring
pressure on the shoeing smiths. A young man,
just starting, or having just started, in business
would be, perhaps, the best to choose, as he could not
point to the universal satisfaction he had hitherto
given (although horse owners are quite easily satisfied
as long as the shoes will only stick on until they are
worn out) ; and, after a couple of shoeings on the
same horses, he might discover for himself that a
new era was open to him by lending himself to the
SIMPLICITY OF THE CHARLIER SHOE. 69
introduction of an improvement, and that he could
thus secure very good and regular custom. There
is no secret or even special tools required to forge
or manufacture a Charlier shoe, but quite the con-
trary. One man can make it without help, whereas
it requires two men to forge the ordinary shoe ; and
it only requires one special tool for putting it on,
viz. Fleming's drawing knife, with movable guide
for cutting the groove in the crust, price 7s. 6d.
70
CHAPTEE IX.
DESCRIPTION OF FROG AND SOLE, BY DOUGLAS RTJSSELL ON
HOT FITTING, AND ' CLIPS ' ON SHOES FACILITY OF ' BACK-
ING ' WHEN A HORSE STANDS UPON HIS FEET STRENGTH
OF THE HORSE'S TOE EXCESSIVE GROWTH OF HORN ON
TOES OF UNSHOD DONKEYS IN IRELAND ALL SHOEING ONLY
AN AFFAIR OF ROUTINE, AND IS QUITE UNNECESSARY
MAYHEW, ' VETERINARY SURGEONS CLING TO THE PRACTICES
IN WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN EDUCATED ' RETREAT OF
NAPOLEON FROM MOSCOW WITH UNSHOD HORSES.
WHEN speaking of the importance of leaving the
sole free to receive pressure, we by no means
mean to imply that it must be under continual
pressure. Its arched form indicates that on hard
level ground it was not intended to come down.
Such ground is often slippery, as in the case of
smooth rocks, and the contact of only the frog,
heels, and crust is more fitted to prevent slipping
than if the hoof were flat. Hence in case of a slip
under peculiar circumstances such as very steep or
wet ground, for instance the concave shape of the
bottom of the unshod foot would serve to allow the
periphery to catch hold of irregularities which
would arrest the slipping. On either softer or more
irregular ground the sole is quite capable of taking
its proper share of weight, as those who have seen
THE HOOF OF THE HORSE. 71
unshod horses galloping over the softest or roughest
kind of ground in turn (say Dartmoor, for instance)
may bear witness to. Such horses only roughly pick
their way when at full gallop : they lift their feet
high, and let them come down where chance may,
in detail, direct them. The weight of the horse is
only partially transmitted to the arched sole by the
elasticity of other parts of the foot.
The hoof may be described as somewhat re*
sembling a double slanting truncated conic section,
with the biggest end on the ground, and semi-cloven
behind. To superficial observers this may not be
suggestive of great resisting powers to the super-
imposed weight of the horse ; but, if we look inside
the hoof, we find that things are all right how
could Nature possibly go wrong ? The inside of the
crust, instead of being smooth like the outside, is
furnished with several hundreds of thin, flexible,
horny plates, called laminae, set edgewise, very like
the gills of a mushroom ; whilst the coffin bone is
covered with an exactly corresponding number of
softer plates, which fit with the utmost nicety
between, and adhere most closely to, the first-
mentioned plates. This beautiful arrangement gives
an adhesive surface on both the crust and the coffin
bone, many thousands of times greater than the
hoof measures in girth ; and thus the weight of the
horse is attached to, and suspended by, the crust,
and only partially coming down on the frog and
sole at times, and in irregular amount and force,
and always finding delicate compound arrangements
72 HORSES AND ROADS.
of elasticity, expansion, and contraction to obviate
all danger from concussion.
As regards wear and tear there is nothing to
fear ; for, as ' Kangaroo ' wrote in the < Field,' ' it
is impossible for a horse to become footsore in the
frog, sole, or heel of his foot, as a result of travel-
ling barefoot.' The horn of which the frog is formed
differs from the horn of the sole in nature; and
both of them are unlike the horn of the wall, of
which latter the description by Mr. Douglas has
already been given. The same authority says of the
frog : ' In structure the horn of the frog may be
compared to horsehair in the compressed state as
used for stuffing sofas ; and, if we can imagine this
hair to be mixed with a fatty adhesive substance, we
shall form a fair idea what the tough elastic frog
resembles when under microscopic inspection.' ' The
frog is only a continuation of the coronet; and,
from its wedge-like form, and nearly total insen-
sibility to feeling, proves that it is meant to take a
bearing upon the ground, where it is useful to the
animal either in action or repose ; in the former it
acts as a buffer, preventing concussion, whilst its hold
upon the smoothest surfaces prevents slipping.' Of
the sole he says : 4 Over its surface there is no glazy-
gluey layer to preserve its moisture, as in the crust ;
while its fibres, stretched like strings, layer over
layer, are as unlike the woolly, oily, substance of the
frog as the horn of the crust differs from the bones
which it covers. In one respect the sole resembles
the frog ; which is, that the outer layer of fibres in
DOUGLAS ON THE HOOF. 73
each becomes dead and falls off in flakes, the growth
downwards of the new horn pushing off the old in
turn.' This being so, all paring of either sole or
frog is not only uncalled for but highly detrimental.
To such of us as have been in the habit of think-
ing of the horse's hoof as merely a homogeneous
block of horn, without any particular architectural
design, the lucid descriptions given by Mr. Douglas
must impart a new light. Some amongst us
cannot fail to ask themselves whether all these
perfectly designed and delicate, although strong,
arrangements were so ordered merely to have them
thrown out of use by scorching, stiffening, and
covering them with rigid iron, and lacerating and
compressing with nails the delicate tubes through
which flows the fluid on which the crust depends for
Its health and vitality ?
Literary shoeing smiths do not frequently appear
amongst us ; but America, as usual, has been able
to ' supply this long-felt want ' in the person of
Mr. Kussell. He writes, in 1879, a book of 140
pages, containing fifty illustrations, twenty-seven of
which are of shoes of different pattern and form.
Mr. G. W. Bowler, V.S., writes the introduction,
and has ' carefully corrected the anatomical parts of
the work.' A man that has invented more than a
score of shoes of different principles and shape
must have been of an inquiring turn of mind ; but
the fact that so many different kinds were thought
to be necessary seems to argue against the necessity
of any of them. A great deal ought to be expected
74 HORSES AND ROADS.
from a { scoop-toed rolling-motion shoe,' if there be
anything in a name which is to be doubted in this
case at least. Another, the ' centennial ' shoe, is
described as follows : ' This shoe is made of steel,
and is well concaved on the ground surface. The
bars are made so as to fit upon the bars of the foot,
and bear weight as the unshod hoof does in a state
of nature, preventing bruises in the heels and quarter
cracks. I have tested this shoe on horses that were
quite sore and lame, the shoe being made of cast
steel, the bars being sprung down from the heel to
their points on the ground surface about one half*
inch ; this will soften and mellow the jar. The shoe,
being well tempered, will allow the bars to spring
with the horse's weight, and will be found one of
the best devices possible to soften and relieve the
effects of concussion when the horse is tender of
foot, as well as to quicken the action in trotting,
leaving the frog free and unimpeded to perform
its important functions of cushioning the foot and
shielding the sensitive parts from injury.'
It is, perhaps, scarcely fair to condemn by theory
a shoe which one has not experimented upon ; but
if a small stone were to get jammed between the
spring and the horse's heel, would not the horse be
as effectually ' beaned ' as if an English coper had
done it for him ? What a contrast we find between
the result of forty years' research (as stated in the
preface) of a farrier, and that arrived at by another
American, Mr. Bowditch, a practical farmer, who
found ' four inches of iron curled round the toe ' to
RUSSELL AN AMERICAN SHOEING SMITH. 75
be better than anything else, ' even in the case of
horses that had had their feet abused for a series of
years.' This book, however, coming, as it does, from
a farrier of forty years' experience, contains note-
worthy remarks. Great stress is laid on the import-
ance of paring the crust only, leaving the frog and
sole to exfoliate of their own accord, and also taking
the greatest care to pare down the crust perfectly
level on all sides, so that the foot may stand quite
upright. * If we wish to examine a perfect foot,
such as Nature made it, it is generally necessary to
find one that has never been shod ; for the common
mode of shoeing is so frequently destructive, that
we seldom meet with a horse whose feet have not
lost, in some degree, their original form, and this
deviation from their natural shape is generally pro-
portioned to the length of time they have worn
shoes. From this circumstance, writers on farriery
have been led to form various opinions respecting
the most desirable form for a horse's foot; but had an
ever provident Nature been consulted, this variety
of opinion, it seems to me, would never have existed.'
It is strange that Mr. Russell, after expressing
himself thus, should have come to the conclusion
that more than a score of different patterns and
principles were necessary to help Nature. The fact
is that these various kinds of shoes are only so
many orthopedic instruments which he considers
useful for ' cripples.' So all his inventive powers
have been thrown away when ' four inches of iron
curled round the toe ' are found to answer better
76 HORSES AND ROADS.
than all his far-fetched inventions. On the other
hand, it is refreshing to find him speak thus :
' The practice of hot fitting and clipping ' that
is, raising a clip on the toe, and sometimes also
on both quarters < is very destructive. Burning
the sole will, in time, partially destroy the sensi-
tive laminae, and impair the membranous lining
underneath the coffin bone, as well as close the
pores of the horn, causing the roof to become hard,
dry and brittle. It also impedes, as a necessary con-
sequence, the healthy growth of the hoof.'
'The advocates of hot fitting present many
specious reasons for the furtherance of this practice.
It is alleged that shoes cannot be fitted so rapidly
nor as closely by any means other than that of
hot fitting ; and this is generally true, for, by this
means, the hoof is burned to correspond with the
inequalities which occur on the surface of the shoe,
until the latter is thoroughly imbedded in the horn.
On the other hand, however, this fusing of the horn
is in opposition to its right growth and operation,
and is the prolific source of many evils and abuses.'
Although a veterinary surgeon certifies to the cor-
rectness of the anatomical descriptions contained in
the book, we may premise that he does not guarantee
everything else ; or we should scarcely meet with
such a passage as this : ' The shoe should ordinarily
be perfectly flat on the ground-wearing part, but is
to be worn concave on the surface next the foot, else
it will be apt to produce lameness by pressing on
the sole. I have shown that, in a sound foot, the
YOU ATT ON THE WEIGHT OF SHOES. 77
sole is always concave ; and it might be supposed
that it cannot possibly receive any pressure from a
flat shoe. But when a horse is exerting himself,
either in galloping or drawing burdens, the sudden
action of the animal's weight causes the laminae to
gradually lengthen, and suffer the coffin bone to
press on the sole ; its concavity and elasticity allow
it to descend and expand, and that gradual yielding
must materially endanger the sole by a violent
contact with the shoe, were it made otherwise than
hollow.'
This theory is untenable. The sole cannot in a
sound foot descend round the edge. As to the shoe
which he recommends for ordinary use, it was cer-
tainly recommended a century ago by Osmer ; but
Professor Coleman was the first to turn the shoe over,
and leave the flat surface against the hoof, and the
bevelled, or seated, surface on the ground. And
this is the prevailing pattern since then advocated.
It is, perhaps, the best of the two ; but neither of
them has the claims of the Charlier tip to simplicity,
and a near approach to a natural foot. The Charlier
shoe, the same as the tip, is only a quarter of an
inch in thickness and half an inch in width for a
horse of average size, and the full-sized shoe weighs
only a third of what an ordinary plain shoe, with-
out calks, will weigh ; and this makes eleven or
twelve, ounces difference on each foot, if the whole
shoe be worn, and more in the case of tips. Youatt
tells us that ' an ounce or two in the weight of the
shoe will sadly tell before the end of a hard day's
78 HOESES AND ROADS.
work.' One precaution to be taken when applying
the shoe is to pare lightly the bottom of the crust
first of all. A whitish line, which marks the inside
of the crust, will then be found ; and this white line
must be preserved intact, with just a little bit to
spare, when cutting the groove. Mr. Stevens,
M.E.C.V.S., Park Lane, London, sends, for six-
pence, a pamphlet, giving instructions ; he also keeps
ready-made shoes, &c., concerning all which the
pamphlet furnishes information. A correspondent
who shoes all his horses a la Charlier, a stranger
to myself, writes : ' I live in the country. I have
an ardent disciple in the farrier, who shoes beauti-
fully. I really don't think the shoes he puts on my
horses weigh more than one quarter those made by
his neighbours do. I am glad to say, too, that it
has been a fine thing for him in business ; many of
the neighbouring gentry employ him to shoe on this
method. A horse can back a load on any ordinary
road without calking, if you let him stand on his
FEET.'
Owners, be they farmers or otherwise, who
may have read these chapters, and may be in-
duced to give the Charlier shoe a trial beginning,
as is best, with a shoe which, called three-quartered,
is short at the heels, not reaching or touching
the bars, and, at the next shoeing, having only
a half shoe, or rather tip, say six inches round
would be likely to venture on the four inches,
which length has been found already to ' fill the
bill.' Having arrived successfully at this point
STOUTNESS OF HOOF AT THE TOE. 79
(which all would reach, if they tried), they might
be led to reflect, and ask themselves whether this
was the full extent of improvement they could arrive
at. ' Impecuniosus ' stopped short here; but the
American farmers pushed the thing still further by
doing away with even this small protection on the
hind feet. At this point they also made a stand,
apparently overawed by their presumption or stupe-
fied by their success. They were unaware, or unable
fully to appreciate the fact that Nature was smiling
benignly upon their efforts in the right direction,
even when they were brought face to face with the
rewards she was so plainly giving them at each ad-
vancing step towards perfection.
It is astounding that the last scales should not
have dropped from the eyes of such investigating
and liberally-disposed men, and have thus left dis-
closed to their perfect vision the fact that Nature
had not left the toe out of account when she designed
the wonderfully perfect and beautiful foot of the
horse, defective as it is popularly, but erringly, sup-
posed to be. The toe is even provided in an extra
manner with the means of standing all wear and
tear ; for, if the tips be removed and the horse
worked barefoot over the roughest kind of roads, as
he is in many countries, the toe will outgrow all
calls upon it, which is what no other part of the
hoof will ever do, although they all resist wear. The
toe alone will require to be restricted in its growth ;
for it will grow too long, even under hard work on
hard roads, and must be kept rasped back occasion-
80 HORSES AND ROADS.
ally to a suitable length and shape. In Ireland
donkeys are worked unshod in draught and over
macadamised roads, even over loose broken stone ;
and Mayhew gives an illustration showing a
donkey's overgrown toe turned upward like a half
moon from the want of care in keeping it rasped
back.
Only last December a correspondent in a con-
temporary referred to this same illustration and to
these donkeys. He says that lately, when he was
in Ireland, he saw the donkeys being worked unshod ;
and not only had the hoof not been worn away, but,
on the contrary, it had outgrown the wear and tear
of work, the toe having become turned up, and
requiring shortening exactly (as he says) as shown
in Mayhew's ilustration. He says : ' Certainly
the roads in that part of Ireland are calculated
to cause the greatest amount of wear and tear.'
In other countries the toe is kept trimmed, and
this is necessary for the comfort of the animals.
Yet the laziness of the Irish owners in leaving
the superfluous horn affords a convincing proof
that the toe will outgrow all demands upon it,
even on roads that 'are certainly calculated to cause
the greatest amount of wear and tear.'
What further proof can be needed that Nature
has fully provided for every part of the hoof ? A
protection of iron, even in its most mitigated form,
is only a mistake. Some may say that this is
all very well for the donkey, but that it is quite
another affair with the horse ; and this remark was
DONKEYS IN IRELAND AND IN ENGLAND. 81
actually made to the writer by an Irish clergyman.
Such an argument can only be fished up from the
depths of bigotry. Those who urge it would also
deny that donkeys could go unshod, but for the fact
that they see them doing so, and successfully. Now,
in England, donkeys are shod ; and why ? Only as
an affair of routine. One of the chief arguments
in fact, the sheet-anchor of those who will not allow
the equine species to go barefooted is * our moist
climate and hard roads.' Ireland is rather ahead of
us in having a moister climate, and the roads, as
described, are in no way better than ours ; so the
point of departure of nearly all sticklers for the
necessity of shoes will bear no more investigation
than the puerile and futile chain of reasoning with
which they follow it up.
To such as are open to conviction, it will be
evident, therefore, that our donkeys in England
would gain by leaving off shoes, and that their
owners would at the same time be richer. Why
should this not hold good also in regard to the
horse ? The statement that he is less fitted for it
by nature will stand neither argument nor practical
experiment, should the latter be made with intelli-
gence and a desire to succeed.
Can any one really believe that the animal which
is endowed with the greater speed and power should
have worse feet than his inferior in both respects ?
Nonsense is no name for such a creed ; it is some-
thing far worse. Mayhew says: 'Nature has in
vain laboured to instruct the waywardness of conceit;
G
82 HOESES AND ROADS.
mankind could afford to endure all evils before it
could afford to question the perfectibility of mortal
invention. There is no accounting for incongruities
when men, deserting reason, consent to adopt routine
as a guide. Veterinary surgeons attribute to shoe-
ing all the evils with which the hoof is affected.
Veterinary surgeons are somewhat slow in adopting
new ideas ; but seem, with the firmness and tenacity
ignorance displays towards a favourite superstition,
to love and cling to the practices in which they have
been educated.' Some people cling to the supersti-
tion that nailing a horseshoe on the door keeps out
the witches. The shoe does, certainly, less harm on
the door than on the horse's foot ; but to nail it on
the latter is a superstition utterly unworthy of the
civilisation and intelligence of the English nation
in the nineteenth century. Future historians will
place upon record that an appeal had to be made
to us, in the year of grace 1880, to abandon the
use of artificial foundations tacked on to a living
creation of God ; and these historians will not fail
to throw further shame on us by pointing out the
fact that semi-civilised nations, with whose customs
we were conversant, were able to work the horse
harder than we did without any protection to his
feet.
In the retreat of the French army from Moscow,
the horses lost all their shoes before they reached
the Vistula. Yet they found their way to France
over rough, hard, frozen ground.
83
CHAPTER X.
UNSHOD HORSES IN THE INDIAN MUTINY UNSHOD HOUSES IN
THE ZULU WAR FARRIERS IN THE ARMY ARE TAILORS,
ETC. ' DAILY TELEGRAPH ' ON FROZEN STREETS COMPARA-
TIVE INUTILITY OF COGS AND STUDS UNSHOD HORSES IN
MEXICO, ETC., AND THEIR REMARKABLE FREEDOM FROM
LAMENESS AND DISEASES OF THE FEET AND LEGS.
DURING the mutiny in India many of our cavalry
horses went unshod, because they could not get
shod, and they never went better in their lives.
In the 4 Morning Advertiser ' of July 18 last, the
special military correspondent at the Cape gives an
interesting account of a ride that he made with
irregular cavalry on a raid. He says : ' Few of the
men have their horses shod in front ; some do not
shoe at all ; ' and he remarks that, in his excursion,
they had to go over ' sheets of polished, wet,
slippery stone in the torrent beds, making one
wonder how our unshod horses could keep their
feet.' It is worthy of remark that this was only a
few days before the battle of Ulundi, in which
these horses took such an active part. In fact, they
saw the whole war through ; and, on August 9, we
find the special war correspondent of the ' Daily
News' reporting of these same animals that 'the
o 2
84 HORSES AND ROADS.
constant work they have had naturally keeps them
devoid of superfluous flesh ; but, for all this, they
are as hard as nails, and good in the wind.' All
through the reports on the war, not a complaint was
made as to these horses falling lame. Surely there
must be something in this. Sheets of wet, slippery
rock, and rolling stones in river beds, would be
calculated to try the hoofs to the utmost ; yet in the
pursuit of the Zulus, when they fled at Ulundi,
these ' ponies ' (from 14J hands downwards) were
able, we are told, to follow miles further than the
shod horses.
Military farriers are no better than others. In
fact, it does not appear, even in the army, that any
previous knowledge is thought necessary to make
a man a farrier, any more than it is generally
supposed necessary to get the consent of an eel
to his being skinned alive. Mr. Douglas says:
' With facts before me, is it a wonder that I should
blame the bad shoeing smiths of the army for much,
if not most, of the mischief; the once tailors,
haberdashers, colliers, and clodhoppers, but now
farriers, who first lame the horses until they are
unable to walk, and then are cast and sold for a few
pounds ? In my own regiment, the 10th Hussars,
just before it went out to India, out of fifteen farrier
sergeants and shoeing smiths, there were only the
farrier-major and two others that had been farriers
before they joined the army. One of the remaining
twelve had been bred a tailor, and, as a tailor, had
worked for the regiment; a second had been a
THE UNSHOD HOOF WILL NOT SLIP. 85
collier, a third a groom, and so on throughout the
dozen. Hitherto tradition and routine have been
permitted to guide farriers in their wondrous ways
of horse-shoeing; consequently it is a question
whether, in following the manners and customs of
their forefathers, they are more to be blamed than the
general public.' By ' the general public ' it is pre-
sumable that Mr. Douglas meant the generality of
horse owners. The general public knows nothing
about the shoeing of horses.
During this present winter, rate- and tax-payers
have clamoured in the daily papers for sand, ashes,
salt, &c., to be sown broadcast, at their own expense,
on all the streets of London, and at an hour or two's
notice, in order to prevent the slipping of horses,
and the destruction of life and property thereby
occasioned. In times of frost and snow this sudden
and extensive distribution can never be accomplished
in time for all; in the case of snow it is almost
useless, because it will not prevent snow from balling
in the feet of shod horses except they be shod
Charlier fashion. The real remedy lies in the
hands of the horse owners, and they could, if they
chose, economise for themselves at the same time
that they took a heavy charge from the shoulders of
the rate- and tax-payers. The unshod horse will not
slip upon either asphalte, wood, or granite pave-
ments, or even on glare ice, because the natural
healthy hoof is rough enough, and tough enough, to
hold on a smooth surface, unless indeed you should
ask the horse to keep back a heavy load, when going
86 HORSES AND ROADS.
down hill, without a brake on the wheels. Even
then he will do better than a shod horse. Here is
an extract from the ' Daily Telegraph ' of this year,
January 28, in an article on the weather then being
experienced : ' As the frost had not given way, the
wicked dew turned into glass as it fell in the hard
roads, beaten and worn smooth by the slipping
hoofs of the pitiable, but not 'much pitied, horses.
Many severe falls were consequent on the slippery
state of the carriage-ways and foot-paths; and
traffic was .much retarded in the busier thorough-
fares of the City. Those of the West-end were,
comparatively speaking, deserted ; for nobody having
horses of any value would willingly have had them
out at such a time.' One lady told the writer that
she could not use her carriage ' because her horses
could not stand roughing, as their hoofs were too
tender and delicate to bear the insertion of nails
oftener than once a month.' This lady only expressed
what hundreds of others felt.
The patentees and advocates of the various
systems of cogs, &c., will say that all this might be
avoided if, at the approach of winter, people would
have their horses shod with their variously recom-
mended shoes ; but even if they were to do so (and
they do not, and will not), none of the systems are
perfect. Cogs, big or small, get worn smooth in a very
short time, and some of them fall out. In either
case they are found not to answer ; and they are not
generally used, or likely to be used, whilst they only
hold good for a day or so, and leave one < stuck ' when
INCONVENIENCE OF < COGS ' FOR 'ROUGHING.' 87
least expected. Even the Charlier shoe, although it
will not pick up snow (the facility for doing which
is increased by lifting the foot higher from the
ground, when cogs and calks are used), is not per-
fect upon glassy streets. We have seen that Mr.
Bowditch condemned the use of both toe and heel
calks, as a general rule ; yet when he rode his mare
upon a frozen lake he turned down 'a small toe-
calk.' He had no calk behind because the heels were
bare, and so there was no danger of slipping on
their part ; neither would there be any reason to fear
that the bare toe would act otherwise.
The writer has seen a valuable light horse,
nearly thoroughbred, have on a full set of shoes,
in which eight nails, nearly three-sixteenths of an
inch in thickness, were driven four in each quarter,
and in a space of three inches for each four nails.
What an immense amount of laceration and com-
pression the delicate hollow fibres of the crust must
have suffered by thus wedging them up within a
fourth of their natural dimensions ! Besides this,
the hoof was carved out on the crust to receive
three clips, one on the toe and one on each quarter.
A calk, three-quarters of an inch high, was put on
one heel of each hind shoe, and, on the other heel,
a screw cog of equal height. On each front shoe
a cog, also three-quarters of an inch high, was
put upon each heel. This wretched victim to
fashion was then regarded with the utmost satis-
faction by the farriers, and his groom ; and all this
heathenism was perpetrated in the forge of a
88 HORSES AND ROADS.
veterinary surgeon. But, perhaps, he was shoeing to
order.
It has been well said that ' ladies are not bigger
slaves to fashion than are modern horse owners.'
In a paper dedicated to agriculturists it has
been maintained that horseshoes are an absolute
necessity, but that 'the difficulty in riding or driving
through the London streets arises from the variety
of pavements in use. From Westminster to the
Bank, horses have to travel over macadam, asphalte,
wood, and granite. The shoe adapted for traffic on
one kind of pavement ill suits another.' But is
it so ? Ask Mr. Smither. c If we had a uniform
kind of pavement, a shoe for universal (?) use
would be quickly invented. The ingenuity of man
would devise horseshoes to travel over glass, were
glass the only pavement in use.' This is an insult
to the common sense of its readers. It has been
widely, and for a long time, proved that the naked
foot of the horse is as much at home on one kind of
hard road as on another, and can pass over all of
them alternately without wearing out, or incon-
veniencing the horse, and that on none of them will
he slip, or on wet grass either.
In Mexico, Yucatan, Honduras (both British and
Spanish), Guatemala, San Salvador, Nicaragua,
Costa Eica, the United States of Colombia, Vene-
zuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil, horses,
mules, and donkeys are worked over every descrip-
tion of hard roads, most of them exceedingly rough,
carrying very heavy packs from the back country
UNSHOD HORSES FREE FROM FOOT DISEASES. 89
down to the seaboard, and in some cases making a
journey of several hundreds of miles, and they load
back again ; yet they never wear out their hoofs.
The writer speaks from experience ; for it has been
his lot to own and work hundreds of animals at a
time in more than one of these countries ; and if
shoeing could have helped him in the slightest he
would most certainly have resorted to it. No man
could see four or five hundred animals incapacitated
from work without seeking such a simple remedy;
but it was never wanted, and many years of expe-
rience of this kind have naturally convinced him
that horses work better, and can travel further,
without shoes than with them.
Nor is this all. Unshod horses enjoy almost a
total immunity from diseases of the feet and legs.
Side-bones, sandcrack, seedy toe, ringbone, thrush,
and quit tor were never seen in the writer's stables.
Spavins, curbs, splints, and windgalls were very
rare. . Thrush is effectually cured by removing the
shoe from any horse that suffers from it. Professor
Coleman said that ' the frog must have pressure, or
become diseased ; ' and Mr. Douglas says that ' con-
traction prevents a supply of blood from reaching
the sensitive frog that produces the insensible
frog; and so, becoming useless for the purpose
nature intended it, instead of coming to horn it
oozes out a noxious-smelling fluid.' The unshod
horse has frog pressure ; so, unless he should stand
upon rotten litter, thrush he cannot get. Quittor
is caused by pricking with a nail, or by the
90 HORSES AND ROADS.
horse resting with the toe of one foot, and bearing
with the heel of the shoe of that foot (especially
should the shoe be calked) upon the coronet of the
opposite one. Hence unshod horses can with diffi-
culty get quittor, neither do they. An unshod horse
' feels his feet,' and knows what he is doing with
them ; so he scarcely knows what it is to overreach
himself; and even if he does such a thing, no evil
consequences are ever noticed, because the horn
cannot inflict injury like iron. For sandcrack
and seedy toe there are no names in the above-cited
countries, and no one can bring the natives to
understand that such diseases exist. If you suggest
corns to them they laugh in your face, and no
wonder.
Mr. Dalziel says : ' Corns on the human foot are
practically known to most people, being one of the
unpleasant and unnecessary attendants on civilisa-
tion, for they came into fashion with boots and shoes.
So with corns on the foot of the horse.' Mayhew
says : ' Spavin, splint, or ringbone are no more the
legitimate consequences of equine existence than
noads and anchylosis are the natural inheritance of
human beings.' By illegitimate treatment ninety-
nine hundredths of the diseases of the feet and legs
are caused shoeing being the most to blame.
91
CHAPTER XL
BRITTLE HOOF AND THE TREATMENT IT GETS THE 'WATER-
CURE' MORE EFFECTIVE BRITTLE HOOF OFTEN LEADS TO
SANDCRACK, SEEDY TOE, AND PUMICE FOOT HARD ROADS
ARE FAVOURABLE TO THE UNSHOD HOOF.
BRITTLE hoof is so common that all perhaps are
alive to some of the vexations it causes. But
only when it gets very advanced is it taken in
hand, and it is then treated by some kind of * hoof
ointment,' joined to ' stoppings ' of various kinds,
with a blister, mercurial ointment, or a stimulating
liniment applied over the coronet. The first two
only aggravate the disease.
Mr. Douglas says : * The rules for keeping a horse's
feet healthy, and preserving the horn, are to use
nothing but water to the hoofs either as a cleanser
or an ornamenter ; and never allow horses to stand
upon litter during the day. Grease or tar, by
shutting up the pores in the horn, prevent the
natural moisture from reaching the surface out-
wardly, and the air from circulating inwards con-
sequences which act upon the horn with ruinous
results.' Lieutenant-Colonel Burdett has, within
the last few weeks, expressed his opinion of grease
92 HORSES AND ROADS.
in somewhat similar terms. Another equally bane-
ful habit is 4 stopping ' the hoofs with hot greasy
mixtures or cowdung, under the idea of soften-
ing them or cooling them. This idea works
wrong end first; for stopping and greasing heat
the horn, whilst soft horn is not desirable ; tough,
dense, springy horn is the right kind of thing, just
such as Nature supplies when she is not interfered
with. As to the blister, mercurial ointment, or
stimulating embrocations (which latter the stable-
man will call ' oils ' a name that has always carried
great weight with it amongst his class), in the words
of Mr. Fearnley, * all they can do is to cause a
splutter of vitality in the part.' What is the use
of a mere splutter of vitality ? That which is
wanted is a renewal of vigorous and lasting vitality,
not dependent on the irritation caused by the con-
tinual application of drugs.
There is another way of treating brittle hoof,
called the 'water cure.' The horse's shoes are
removed, and he is put to stand on the bare stones
,or bricks. Folded flannel is then fastened round
the pastern, but allowed to fall over and cover the
coronet and hoof; the flannel is kept well soaked
with cold water by day. As it cannot be kept wet
and cool by night it is best to remove it the last
thing, or otherwise it will heat the foot instead of
cooling it. The horse must be walked out twice a
day (removing the flannel for the time) over a
smooth hard road. In a few days the top of the
hoof will begin to lose the harsh, dry, shrivelled,
BRITTLE HOOF ITS TREATMENT. 93
I
scurfy appearance it had hitherto presented, to
assume one of plumpness, roundness, fulness, and
glossiness, which appearance shows that some impor-
tant change is taking place. It (the coronary band)
is now becoming restored to a healthy condition, and
fit and able to secrete healthy horn, which it will
straightway set about doing. The exercise on hard
roads should now be daily increased the applica-
tion of the wet flannel still be continued.
The groom will not like the look of the coronary
band, as he is so unaccustomed to look upon a healthy
one. But he will be still more disgusted when he sees,
a few days later on, that the shiny appearance which
he so much distrusts is extending itself down the
hoof, and then he will be ' sure as them feet is a rottin'
off.' Grooms have been heard to say so, with the
addition of a few words not exactly complimentary
to their masters.
The coronary band has been restored to health,
and the proper secreting power has been recovered,
the removal of the shoe having permitted freedom
of circulation, which has been further encouraged
and stimulated by exercise, whilst heat has been
kept down by the cold water. This plentiful supply
of healthy blood is assimilated by the coronary band,
in its passage through which it is by 'the won-
derful chemistry of Nature ' converted into plasma,
which afterwards becomes hard horn. The treatment
must be continued until the shiny horn reaches the
ground.
Brittle horn cannot be satisfactorily repaired;
94 HORSES AND ROADS.
it must grow out, and be replaced by horn of an
opposite character, and this is the way it is done.
The disease may again be produced by the same
course of action that first brought it on. When
this is resumed, and the horse again begins to suffer,
they say that he has never been cured.
Mayhew says : ' Nothing can be practical if there
be wanting the desire to embody particular direc-
tions.' It is found that nearly every one who tries
this course of treatment is inclined to have his
horse exercised either in a field or on the grassy
sides of the roads, instead of on the hard. This is a
mistaken theory. On the grass the hoof receives
too little friction or attrition. Mr. Douglas says :
4 From the moment a horse is foaled, we either keep
him in grass fields soft to tread upon, or in warm
stables standing upon soft straw, and then we are
surprised that his hoofs should become dry and
brittle, instead of keeping moist, tough, and hard.
In the Orkneys, in the mountains of Wales, the
wilds of Exmoor and Dartmoor, many parts of the
continent of Europe, and in a considerable portion
of the rest of the globe, horses run about over rocks,
through ravines, and up precipitous ridges, unshod ;
yet all this is done without difficulty, and to the
evident advantage of their hoofs, for these animals
never suffer from contracted feet, or from corns,
sandcracks, &c., until they become civilised and have
been shod.' Another writer, a Devonian, says : * Dart-
moor is not a great wild flat, as many suppose ; but,
on the contrary, it is for the most part a continual
ATTRITION ON THE HORSE'S FOOT. 95
succession of very steep rough hills or " tors," and
rugged " combes," strewed with granite rock and
stones. Yet in spite of all, besides the bogs and
chronic state of rain, the herds of ponies gallop
fearlessly along the rough steep sides of the combes,
or down and up. It is a pretty sight to see them,
especially in the spring, with the foals by their
sides.'
Mayhew says of the shod horse : ' As the shoe
alone rests upon the earth, of course the hoof lacks
needful attrition.' The attrition or friction caused
by exercising the unshod animal on hard roads is
salutary to the whole foot, because it acts as a
natural stimulant to circulation and secretion, not
causing a ' mere splutter of vitality ' that is of no
lasting worth, but making the horn * to thicken and
accommodate itself to its task, like the skin of
a blacksmith's hand.' Youatt says : < The horn
answers to the skin of the human foot/ Magistrates
examine the hands of vagrants: and, by their
hardness or softness, judge whether they have bona-
fide 'frozen-out gardeners' before them, or pro-
fessional beggars. Gardeners and navvies neither
wear gloves nor pad their spade handles, although
the bottom or forward hand comes down and slides
on a roughly riveted iron strap. The hoof of the
horse cannot be looked upon as being of a more
delicate nature than a man's hand.
Besides the advantage of attrition being gained
by the removal of the shoes, expansion and contrac-
tion which play so prominent a part in the general
96 HORSES AND EOADS.
economy of the whole foot, and its maintenance in
health, also lend their aid in producing sound horn.
Without the removal of shoes the 'water cure'
cannot be a complete success. Mayhew says : ' The
heels of the horse may become rigid and wired in
by the fixing powers exercised by the nails of the
shoe. But remove these nails, allow the foot that
motion which is needful to the health, and its
internal structures may recover their lost functions.
The veterinary mind was, however, slow to recognise
so plain a rule. Like all Nature's laws, the truth
necessitated not that show of mastery in which the
ignorant especially delight.'
The writer has already confessed his inability to
agree with Mayhew in everything he says ; and he
thinks that here he is unjust to veterinary sur-
geons. There is, perhaps, not one among them who
would not order the removal of shoes offcener than
he now does, if he could be sure that his order
would be attended to. Owners rebel, up to the
last point, against what will evidently throw the
horse out of work for some considerable length of
time. They prefer * patching up.'
It is not sufficiently acknowledged, or understood,
that veterinary surgeons have to deal with people
who generally want their ' say ' in all cases of lame-
ness. In other matters they are more tractable ;
but every one thinks he knows something about
lameness, and almost every one tries to shirk what
every practitioner would recommend, if he con-
veniently could REST. But, knowing, as they do,
SANDCRACK, SEEDY TOE, PUMICE FOOT. 97
what I have attempted to explain, these gentle-
men (in practice) find it expedient to order
' mild ' or { sweating ' blisters to be applied, with,
perhaps, an intimation that they will have to be
repeated ; and, during the interims, they give the
groom a bottle of * oils,' because they know that this
keeps him contented and in subjection ; and thus
they, justifiably, obtain rest for the horse. This
rest is what they are after ; but it won't, by itself,
cure brittle hoof. When Mayhew speaks of the
6 show of mastery in which the ignorant especially
delight,' the ' ignorant ' is plainly meant to be
applied to the owner or rather to the groom, for
he is mostly master. It may be advisable to keep
these kinds of things ' straight,' and not make one-
self misunderstood on both sides.
Brittle hoof, when neglected, or improperly
treated, often causes still more serious diseases.
Sandcrack be it either in the shape of ' toe ' or
6 quarter ' crack, is a frequent result ; and so is seedy
toe, and also pumice foot. They will all succumb
to the water cure if the toe at the same time be
kept ivell shortened, or rounded off. Mayhew says
that 4 seedy toe has been much thought about, and
fancy has been somewhat racked to account for its
origin.' The origin was not far off, and so it got
passed over by hasty searchers for some distant
cause : it is radically shoeing. The same cause,
as Mr. Douglas states, produces sandcrack. Pu-
mice foot is often to be accounted for through
H
98 HORSES AND ROADS.
the brittle crust being unable to retain its hold of
the sole, which then becomes depressed ; and, as at
the same time the laminae, partaking of the general
disorder of the crust, of which they form the in-
terior, are unable to maintain the coffin bone in
due suspension, and are forced to allow it to follow
the descent of the sole, the horse becomes past cure,
and should be destroyed or, rather, finish being
murdered.
The fact that hard roads are beneficial to the
naked hoof is again substantiated by Mr. Douglas
in the following passage : * When the frog is per-
mitted to remain sound and whole, the more it
comes in contact with gravel, stones, or even sharp
flints, the firmer, tougher, and more healthy it
becomes; while on the contrary, when cut with a
sharp instrument, allowing the moisture, which is
its life, to escape, it dries up, hardens ' the frog,
unlike the crust, should not harden ' cracks, and
becomes highly susceptible to every impression, as
well as diseased.' The same remarks hold good with
regard to the sole ; but Mr. Douglas withholds them
when speaking of the sole perhaps he was not con-
vinced of that fact. Experience proves that the
crust also holds in contempt sharp flints, &c., when
it is fairly treated and inured to them. By fair treat-
ment it is meant that it should be let alone
as a man's hands would be if he were a labourer
on a farm. In the colliery districts, where so many
women work with the shovel, their hands become
horny, as the doctors find out when they have to cut
THE HUMAN SKIN. 99
down upon a whitlow. Friction against a hard sub-
stance brings about this extra thickness and hardness ;
the young ladies who handle silk, woollen or cotton
textures all day long in shops have soft hands. Like
begets like ; and hard roads make hard feet for
horses, in spite of all superstition to the contrary.
The writer has more than a quarter of a century of
experience and practice with unshod horses in large
numbers. He has, therefore, no theory about the
matter, constructed, as may perhaps be imagined,
upon the quotations he has so freely used from the
writings of scientific, professional, and practical
authorities.
H 2
100
CHAPTEK XII.
LETTER or 'ABERLORNA' IN 'FARM JOURNAL' LIEUT.-COL.
BURDETT ON HOT SHOEING, GREASING, ' STOPPING,' AND
PARING THE HOOF COLD SHOEING NORTH METROPOLI-
TAN TRAMWAY HORSES ARE SHOD COLD WITH THE SEELET
SHOE GRADUAL BREAKING IN OF HORSES TO GO UNSHOD
DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS OF COUNTRIES WHERE HORSES
ARE BRED ANCIENT WRITERS ON BARE STONE AND WOOD
FOR STALLS OSMER HAS KNOWN UNSHOD HORSES GO
SOUND IN ENGLAND ( OUR MOIST CLIMATE AND HARD
ROADS ' MAYHEW AND DOUGLAS ON OPPOSERS OF PROGRESS.
THE letter of ' Aberlorna ' l seems to render it ad-
visable to introduce here some remarks, which were
only intended to be made later on, as to the amount
of work to be first given to a horse who has had
the full shoe replaced either by a tip or by nothing
at all, and also as to small precautions useful to take
when making the change.
It is prudent to allow the shoes then on to wear
themselves out, as this gives the frog, sole, and bars
a chance of somewhat recovering from their last
mutilation, which mutilation may have been greater
or lesser; as, fortunately, now-a-days some of the
smiths do not cut away as much horn as was pre-
1 See Appendix A.
c ABERLORNA'S ' HORSE. 101
viously the universal rule. On this account some
horses are better prepared than others for the
change. Some, again, have naturally stronger and
better formed hoofs than others ; and all these
circumstances weigh. What work one horse would
be able easily to perform might be quite too much
for another. At any rate, to ride a horse, on the
second day after putting on tips, twenty miles
' over a road covered with new metal, in a simply
abominable state,' is, without doubt, a hazardous
proceeding, and one courting a failure for the trial
(not intentionally so, of course). Twenty miles at the
present season over the road described is, in fact, a
day's work for any horse.
It is not easy, having regard to the various
possible existing combinations of the aforesaid cir-
cumstances, to lay down any rule. Discretion and
intelligence here come into play ; it is astonishing
what a wide difference there is between people in
this respect. Some will carry things to the opposite
extreme, and go poking about only a mile or two
daily, for weeks, on the grass by the side of the
road or even in a field: something between the
two is the correct thing moderate distances, on
hard smooth roads, for a few days.
In the case of ' Aberlorna ' all we know is that his
horse had ' naturally rather flat and tender feet ;' and
that, after this rough trip, ' he went tender ; but this
appears to be wearing away in a great degree, and it
is surprising how hard and firm the soles of his feet
have got.'
102 HORSES AND ROADS.
As this gentleman owns a number of horses, the
question must be of considerable pecuniary import-
ance to him ; and if, by an indiscreet step, he had
injured his horse, he would have been likely to
become disgusted, and have desisted, and so have
thrown away a chance of benefiting his whole stable ;
and, besides, the farrier would have turned the
laugh, which he got up at the mere idea of such a
thing, unpleasantly against him. It is to be hoped
that he will do a little less at the next trial, and
then he will not find his horse ' going tender.'
A gentleman writes privately : ' I once rode a
hack for six weeks, in comparatively dry weather,
with only tips, the heels being quite bare. The
heels grew and expanded as you describe, and nothing
could be pleasanter to horse and rider; but no
sooner did a wet time set in than I was obliged to
revert to the full shoe at least, / thought so. 9 (!)
The naivete herein apparent could hardly be sur-
passed. This gentleman received the highest educa-
tion that England affords, and took his degree. No
one can ' spot ' him, so there is no breach of confi-
dence in divulging the fact that he is a clergyman
of the Church of England. Yet even a man of this
calibre was not proof against a popular delusion.
To come back again on the question of shoeing
6 hot ' or ' cold,' which ' Aberlorna ' has revived. It
is well known that thereon veterinary surgeons differ.
In these articles one veterinary surgeon has been
cited who was intensely opposed to hot shoeing ; as
also an American { practical horse-shoer,' the author
COLONEL BURDETT ON THE HORSE'S FOOT. 103
of a work on ' Scientific Horse- shoeing,' professing
forty years' experience; and an American farmer
who had felt obliged to shoe his own horses ' for his
own protection ' three differently interested classes
of men who were, as such, purposely quoted.
A prize essay does not necessarily carry every-
thing before it merely because it is a prize essay.
Such essays are sometimes written with a view only
of obtaining a prize ; and ' coaches ' tell us that, in
order to do so, they must coincide with the views of
the examiners. It is not pretended, however,
that the essay in question was engineered on this
principle : it is much more likely that it was a
thoroughly conscientious production; but doctors
differ.
An independent, practical essay on the horse,
written by Lieutenant-Colonel Burdett, is appearing,
since January last, in the ' Eichmond and Twicken-
ham Times.' Here are some extracts from the
gallant colonel's writings : ' One of the first con-
siderations of an owner or driver of a horse should
be the feet and legs of his horse ; for, should any-
thing be the matter with either, the animal should
not be put to any description of work ; for, if he
is, he is sure to suffer, and in many cases most
acutely.' . . . ' The foot of the horse is a most
complex and elaborate piece of machinery, and
perfectly adapted to the work it is intended to
perform ; but our artificial assistance, so far from
preserving, often cripples, and frequently totally
ruins it.' ' The natural sole of a horse's
104 HORSES AND ROADS.
foot is almost impenetrable, and so hard and strong
that it protects the inner or sensible sole from all
harm. In many instances (though I am glad to say
not so much in the present time as formerly) farriers
were in the habit of paring away the natural sole,
and making what they called " a clean foot," and
cut so thiri that the thumb could almost leave an
impression. Consequently, when the horse was
required to go over a new made road, either gravel
or macadam, he would naturally go " tender ; "
whereas if the sole had been left intact, and the
loose, rough parts taken off with the drawing knife,
the sole of the horse's foot would have been pro-
tected.' It is disagreeable, and will be thought pre-
sumptuous, for the writer to feel himself obliged to
differ from the colonel, and to state that experience
has taught him that even these loose, rough flakes,
of either frog or sole, should never be touched : they
are going through the natural process of exfoliation,
and should be left to complete that process spon-
taneously, and without any help from the knife.
We must again cite this estimable writer : ' The
crust of the hoof is pared to a certain level, and
then a hot shoe is placed upon it to burn away the
hoof until the two surfaces correspond, thereby
heating the outer (?) crust of the hoof and render-
ing it brittle, and liable to break away, when the
nails are introduced for the purpose of holding on
the shoe. There is another thing most injurious to
the foot, and that is blacking the outside of the
hoof. Grenerally speaking, grease and lampblack are
THE 'SEELEY' SHOE. 105
used to give the hoof a smart and clean appearance.
Instead of that, as soon as the horse is brought out,
if broken straws from the stall are not adhering to
it (generally the case), in less than ten minutes it is
covered with dust, which adheres to it, and stops all
chance of circulation of air, which is so necessary to
the well-being of the foot. The hoof is naturally
porous ; and if coated with grease the circulation of
air is stopped, and the foot naturally injured, and
there is a great probability of engendering disease.'
These quotations are taken from the paper men-
tioned, in its issues of January 17 and 31, 1880.
Some months since a contemporary stated : ' We
hear that a new horseshoe has been adopted by the
North Metropolitan Tramways Company since they
commenced to keep their own horses. The stud of
the company numbers over 2,000 animals ; and, with
the view of easing the laborious travelling of the
horses over stony roads, the new patent horseshoe
of Mr. A. Seeley, of the United States, has been
tried. This shoe weighs l^lb., or less than half the
usual weight' (The Charlier three-quarter shoe
weighs five ounces). 6 It is fastened on when cold,
and, being without " clips " or calks, the frog, or
centre of the horse's foot, is allowed to rest firmly
on the ground. The cost of shoeing under the new
system is about ninepence, instead of one shilling, a
week per horse.'
The Seeley Company now refer in their pro-
spectus to tramway and other companies in the chief
towns in England as to their success in working
106 HORSES AND ROADS.
horses with a cold-fitted shoe. It is not to be lost
sight of that nearly a score of these companies
employ each thousands of horses ; and yet lead-
ing authorities have pronounced opinions utterly
at variance with each other on the use of the shoe.
But doctors always have differed. The statement
that fifty cold-fitted shoes are lost to every hot
one, certainly could not be substantiated ; they
stand at no disadvantage at all in this respect ; the
nails hold better in horn that has not been rendered
brittle by scorching. The tramways have now been
using them for nearly two years, and that looks as
if they kept in their places pretty well. In Spain,
where cold shoeing is universal, and forges very wide
apart, shoes keep on until they wear out.
Cold fitting by no means entails any necessity
for ' fitting the foot to the shoe.' The shoe, whilst
hot, is forged to the correct size and shape of the
foot. The paring of the crust to fit the flat surface
of the cold iron takes longer than burning it down
with a hot shoe, and the paring of the surface on
the bottom is the only * fitting the foot to the shoe '
that has to be done when the latter is of the correct
pattern. When it is not, hot and cold fitting stand
just equal.
Another objection to the fancied advantage of
gaming such very close apposition by burning in, is
that the horse thus often gets shod too tightly, and
every one knows that this is injurious to the animal ;
although it is not every one that is fully alive to
the great amount of misery and disorder it entails.
COLD SHOEING. 107
4 Aberlorna ' says that, < he believes no ill effects
ever result from hot shoeing, except when done by
ignorant men, who should be anywhere but in a
shoeing forge.' In such a forge, ten miles from his
own residence, there is a man so ignorant of the
nature of a horse's foot, that he laughed at the idea
of his being able to go on the roads with only tips,
and was, afterwards, ' quite surprised that he had
not broken down on the way home after he was
shod.'
Cold shoeing is gradually gaining in favour with
practical men in spite of prize essays which condemn
it. There is one passage in the said extract that
the writer is unable to comment upon, because he fails
to see any meaning in the assertion that ' two surfaces
are caused to correspond, friction is set up between
them, and their separation not so easy.' There may,
perhaps, be some argument concealed under this
verbosity. We are told that ' language was given to
man to enable him to disguise his thoughts.'
.The extract given from the essay is of a very
' groovey ' character otherwise.
The Seeley shoe, of which mention has been
made, is a plain, light, machine-made shoe, without
calks or clips, seated or bevelled on the ground
surface, as Professor Coleman was the first to advo-
cate. The chief advantage it possesses is that of
being made of iron so ductile that the shoe can be
altered in shape whilst cold. It is, in fact, meant
to be always applied cold; and this is the only
difference there is between it and any ordinary light
108 HORSES AND ROADS.
shoe made on professor Coleman's principle. It is
not a ' patent ' shoe.
At the beginning of March, as < Will Watch ' l
says, farming operations are too backward to allow
of reducing the work of farm horses sufficiently to
do away at once with all iron on their feet ; neither
did the writer intend, for many reasons, to incite the
owners of such hard-worked animals to make such an
abrupt change. A gradual mode of proceeding will
allow the horses to keep on at their work ; and it will
not cause so much apprehension to the owner nor so
much opposition and eternal grumbling, or 4 kicking
over the traces ' on the part of the carter, especially
when he has such a handsome inducement held out
to him, in case of success, as ' half the saving in the
blacksmith's bill,' which this gentleman so spiritedly
offers him.
Unfortunately, as he remarks in his letter, farriers
do not, as a rule, ' care to know much about the
Charlier shoe,' and this has already been pointed out
in these articles. Yet one gentleman has written
that he has made of one ' an ardent disciple,' and
that ' he shoes beautifully ' on this system ; also
that he finds it to bring grist to his mill. In some
places where farmers could carry out by union what
has been before suggested, a man might be found
who would be willing to go into the thing. However,
where the difficulty about the Charlier system is
insurmountable, there is another road out of the wood,
which ' Aberlorna ' appears to have already hit upon,
1 See Appendix B.
THE ORDINARY TIP. 109
although it was intended, in due course, to have been
demonstrated.
On farms or other large establishments where
numbers of horses are kept, and no spare ones, for
the especial purpose of earning their living and that
of their owners, an ordinary tip (the lunette of La
Fosse), covering only the front half of the foot, may
be used with good success. Any blacksmith can put
this on, although ' Aberlorna ' tells us that they laugh
at the idea. This tip should be light, and narrow in the
web, as the sole does not want to be covered, and a
light tip will wear as long as is necessary before it
wants renewal, for we must recollect that the feet
grow faster with tips than with full shoes. The nails
should also be light and fine, and only four of them
used. There is no danger in driving them into the
toe, as many farriers imagine. Mayhew is very ex-
plicit thereon; and if farriers only had a slight
knowledge of a hoof they would be aware that the
horn is thicker and stouter at the 'toe, and that it
also grows faster there than elsewhere.
What we may call the heels of the tip (although they
do not reach the heels of the horse) should be eased
off on the ground surface in thickness, with the file, at
their extremities, so that they may not press unduly
at their points upon the crust. The heels of the
horse must not have even the slightest paring taken
off them ; but the seat of the tip must be pared down
in the usual manner, because if the toe should be
raised at the same time that the heel is lowered, too
much work would be given to the back sinews.
110 HORSES AND ROADS.
' Impecuniosus,' a thoroughly practical man, begs
us to observe that all horses will ' go short ' for a
day or two the first time that they wear tips. This
is because they feel strange on first having their
heels let out of a vice.
It is well to go ' slow and sure ; ' therefore it
would be advisable for a man to experiment upon
one or two of his horses, say one with flat, weak,
tender, shelly, brittle hoofs, and the other with
what he considers as the stoutest in his stable. The
possibility is that he would find at the end of a
month that the weak-footed horse would apparently
have derived the most benefit from the treatment,
although theory might lead him to suppose that the
contrary would be the case.
The tips should, of course, be applied cold. They
can be made whilst hot to the exact shape and size.
To facilitate and expedite this (and so to avoid
lifting up the foot and cooling the iron two or three
times), after the crust on the toe has been pared
and rasped into proper form, the outline can be
easily scratched with a fine, sharp nail, either on the
floor, if it should be smooth enough, or else on a
piece of board on which the horse is made to stand
whilst one of his fore-feet is held up by a groom.
When it is the outline of a hind foot that has to be
traced, the fore foot on the same side should be held
up, because the horse cannot so easily shift about the
foot that is being traced if he is obliged to bear his
weight on two legs on the same side to do so ; not
that there is much difficulty, or time required, in
THE ORDINARY TIP. Ill
running a nail round the front half of a well-trimmed
hoof, except with fidgety horses, and some horses are
inclined to be fidgety in a forge, which is not much
to be wondered at. These are minutiae, but they are
worth while being insisted upon by the owner in
person. There is no necessity to inform a farrier
that there is an intention of endeavouring to dis-
pense with his services at some future date; if
things go well he will discover that in time, and
you will have spared his feelings for some weeks.
Should the horse or two thus experimented upon
be found to do well, another couple or so could be
put through the same treatment, and the first
tried might leave off the tips on the hind feet
on the second shoeing ; on the third the front
tips might be discarded. In this manner some
people might be six months in getting through
their whole stable, but they would never have
any great amount of anxiety on their minds, es-
pecially as they can always revert, at any moment
they please (as the clergyman cited did, although
without the slightest cause, except ' funk,' for so
doing), to the full shoe. No one is incited to hurry or
flurry himself over it, but, on the contrary, every one
is advised not to rush at things. By so doing he will
lose little or no work of his animals, at the same
time that all those who surround them will take the
change in a kindlier manner.
There is one observation to be made, which
attentive readers will have already thought out for
themselves. Although the foot will have greatly
112 HORSES AND ROADS.
benefited all round by the use of tips, the toe will
not have received as much benefit as the other parts,
both on account of want of attrition and from having
been pierced by nails; still it will be found to
have made an improvement through the freer circu-
lation of blood, &c. The toe, as will be seen, has
its fibres in a more slanting position than the re-
mainder of the crust, and a leverage is brought to
bear upon it every time the horse lifts his foot,
which leverage the other parts have not to bear.
Nature therefore has made it the thickest, strongest,
and fastest growing of all.
On first discarding the tips the horn on the toe
may be found to chip away until the nail holes grow
out. This may in great measure be avoided by not
driving the nails far and straight up into the horn.
It is not necessary so to do to hold on a light tip. The
points of the nails can generally be brought out low
down, and when the iron is thrown aside, the edge
of the hoof must be well rounded off with a rasp,
which will do away with nearly all chipping. It is best
always to keep the hoofs of unshod horses slightly
rounded off on their edges. When this is done, once
a week or so, no further trimming is necessary.
The shod horse has to dig his toes into the
ground to start a load ; but it will be found that as
he gradually gets unshod he will also gradually lose
this habit, because, as he goes on 6 feeling his feet,'
he will find out by instinct the natural way of using
them, which is on the flat, and then the leverage and
strain on the toe will be lessened, and the chipping
GRASS-COVERED COUNTRIES, AND SOFT ROADS. 113
away will thereby be also greatly reduced. These
facts, although they may not be found mentioned in
any one of those prize essays that are written in the
' follow-my-leader style ' which ' Impecuniosus ' so
much deprecates, may be found useful for nervous
men to know and keep in mind. Some people con-
jure up fancied difficulties. Fancy and theory have
helped to bring our horses' feet and legs to their
present state, which the generality of people find to
be a very unsatisfactory one.
There are countries possessing vast tracts of grass-
covered plains, on which horses are extensively bred,
which from their great abundance are there of low
value. The steppes of Russia, the grass runs of
Australia, the prairies of some of the Anglo-American
States, the savannahs of Uruguay and of the Argen-
tine Eepublic are instances of such. In the last-
mentioned, ' fine colts, from three to five years old,
can be bought at from 1L to 4L, and mares at from
4s. to 20s.' These horses, which are unshod, are
those upon whose backs the * Grauchos ' perform their
well-known skilful feats of 'lassoing,' &c., when
cattle-driving the unshod horse being endowed
with an activity and sureness of foot that renders
him highly valuable for their purposes.
A gentleman writing in a contemporary, on the
subject of cattle-driving, says : ' In Australia, in
wet weather, an unshod horse is both a pleasant and
a safe mount. Many a roll over I have had after
cattle on a shod horse, when the country was soft
above and hard below ' as some English race-courses
I
114 HORSES AND ROADS.
and hunting countries often are < which would not
have occurred with a barefooted animal.'
These almost immeasurable, soft, smooth plains,
on which the horses perpetually stand, are not inter-
sected by hard, rough, stony roads ; neither are the
horses, which are grass fed, worked continuously^
although it is well known that they are often bar-
barously forced to cover long distances, when they
are doubly exposed to become footsore from the
facts of having to work at intervals only, and then
over soft, smooth grass that does not afford what
Mayhew calls 'the needful attrition' to keep the
horn up to its work. Mr. Miles tells us what we
all ought to know, although even he was unable to
grasp it fully 'it is an invariable law of animal
economy not to continue to unemployed structures
the same measure of efficient reparation that is
extended to parts constantly engaged in performing
their allotted tasks.' Herein is explained the reason
why these horses do not acquire the hardness of
hoof that horses elsewhere, and under different
circumstances, with harder work, not only acquire
but also 'maintain.
In the North, Central, and South American
countries which have been formerly mentioned in
these chapters, pastures and breeding grounds are
not to be found in such large tracts, as in those
that have just now been spoken of. Besides,
such grounds being widely separated from each
other, the consequence is that horses are scarcer
and of far higher value. The geological character
ROCKY COUNTRIES, AND HARD, ROUGH ROADS. 115
of these countries is also such that hard, rough,
stony ground very largely predominates outside
these breeding grounds ; although in some parts,
where the stone is small and loose, the roads
become excessively heavy and trying during the
rainy season. In some parts of these countries it
rains every day in the year, and in other parts they
get dry roads during six months, and wet ones
during the other six. The horses have to travel
over either, and over naked sheets of rock, as they
in turn present themselves ; and, as Mr. Douglas
says, ' without difficulty, and to the evident advan-
tage of their hoofs, they never suffer from contracted
feet, or from corns, sandcracks, &c.' Yet their work
is of the hardest. Many of them bring down from
the interior, many hundreds of miles, two bales of
cotton, which weigh with pack-saddle, &c., over
3 cwt., and in fording rivers have to carry the driver
across also. This is the way in which all the commerce
of the country is carried on. There is not a horseshoe
or a nail to be obtained over the whole route, and on
some roads at crop times nearly a thousand horses
will pass daily, descending, and a similar quantity
returning, inland, loaded with imports, sometimes
of the same cotton that they brought down the year
before, but which has been to Europe or the States
to get manufactured.
In these countries the natives, when they * corral '
or ' pen ' their horses, always look out for a hard
site for the purpose. Where stabling exists it is
paved with stone if obtainable, and where timber
i 2
116 HORSES AND ROADS.
is more available this is used instead ; where neither
can be procured the stable is known far and wide as
a bad one.
Xenophon, who wrote the most complete work
on horsemanship of his day, makes no mention of
horseshoes; while, on the other hand, he is par-
ticularly explicit as to the means to be taken to
harden and toughen horses' hoofs. He recommends
specially for this purpose bare stone pavement,
which, he says, ' will cool, harden, and improve a
horse's feet merely by his standing upon it, while
the same benefit will result to his hoofs as if he
were made to travel on stony roads every day.'
Another writer, Vegetius, says: 'The floor of
the stable should not be made of soft wood, but of
solid hard oak, which will make the horse's feet as
hard as rock.'
The untutored natives of the interior of the
American countries in question, without having
heard of either of these authorities or their writings,
have found out for themselves that both of these
floorings act in precisely the manner described ;
whilst we, acknowledging that it should be hard,
have nailed the standing place of a horse on to his
feet, and have made him carry it about with him.
The theory was ingenious, but it was wanting in
logic ; and the practice is found to be expensive and
unsatisfactory from the outset all through.
Osmer, writing more than a century ago, says :
6 In many parts of the world to this day, even on the
most rocky ground, horses are accustomed to carry
OSMER ON UNSHOD HORSES. 117
their riders unshod; and in this kingdom I have
known several horses ridden for a considerable time
unshod on the turnpike roads about London without
any injury done to their feet. And I believe there
are many horses that might travel their whole life-
time unshod, on any road, if they were rasped
round and short at the toe ; because all feet exposed
to hard objects become thereby more obdurate if the
sole be never pared.' In shoeing a la Charlier the
sole never is pared, and it is always in direct contact
with the ground, without any shield whatever to
protect it from even sharp stones.
The hackneyed objection to ' our moist, variable
climate, and hard roads,' so continually opposed to
the practice of leaving horses to go unshod (even
by some of the advocates for shoeing a la Charlier),
is a mere empirical assertion, not founded upon
experience, but an effect of imagination and pre-
judice which has become willingly accepted, without
a challenge, whilst it is really the reverse of fact.
Mayhew says : * Truly the stable mind must quit
the scene of its present labours before it will submit
to be enlightened. It is now so protected by a wall
of selfishness, ignorance, and prejudice that it is
open to no assault ; ' and elsewhere : * Nature sends
the horse into the world with ready-made and stou1>
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. <If people
tear off shoes, and put horses to work, or else turn
them to grass, they will fail. In such experiments
it is not the theory that has failed, but that it has
not been put to a practical test. I know a pony over
twenty years of age that has never been shod, and
has all its life been accustomed to be galloped
about by children on the hard roads. I have, my-
self, kept my horses shod with tips only, for eight
and ten months together, using them on hard roads
and paved streets, and keeping them, when in the
stable, standing on granite-paved stalls, without
litter under them, except by night. I found the
horn tougher, weak heels grow stronger, brittleness
of hoof disappear, and I never had a foot-lame horse
during the time named. I am satisfied that the
way to improve horses' feet is not by turning them
out in boggy meadows, but by removing their shoes,
and standing them on paved flooring. That a diver-
sity of opinion exists upon such matters amongst
veterinary surgeons I am well aware ; but I know
some who have served both at home, in India, and
elsewhere with their regiments, and who approve my
suggestions. I have heard another gravely insist
A CAVALRY OFFICER ON UNSHOD HORSES. 155
that the feet of every horse in his regiment should
be stopped twice a week during the summer to keep
their feet soft, because the roads are so hard.'
It is refreshing when we find cavalry officers not
bound by red tape. But as regards that twenty-
year-old unshod pony, unbelievers will immediately
say that he only had to carry children (from one to
three probably), and so he stands for nothing as a
proof. But let some of these unbelievers be asked
for the loan of a pony for children's use, and then
we should find them refusing it, because, as they
would say (inwardly), ' they know how children
knock ponies about,' which is really true. The re-
mainder of the letter coincides strikingly with a
great deal that has been insisted upon in these
chapters; still, for the generality of people, this
letter may almost as well have remained unwritten
it is so hard to make horse-owners believe that there
remains anything for them yet to learn !
156
CHAPTER XVII.
THE HUNTER CONSIDERED EXPERIENCE OF ' IMPECUNIOSUS '
WITH TIPS ON HUNTERS MILES ON UNILATERAL NAILING
COL. AN8TRUTHER THOMPSON'S EXPERIENCE WITH GUTTA-
PERCHA SOLES NATURAL TRANSPIRATION CONTINUALLY
GOING ON IN THE HORSE'S FOOT.
NEXT to the racer comes the hunter if, indeed, he
may not be considered before him, as a 'general
utility ' horse. Mr. Fearnley says of him : ' There
is nothing in the world a horse can do which we do
not find the hunter capable of.' This is a character
calculated to get him a situation, and accordingly
we find him drawing a cab years before the natural
decay of his strength, fire, and emulation would unfit
him from carrying his master into a good place at the
finish. If he went unshod, instead of being at
such an early age the mass of diseases he now is, he
would, when aged, still be fit for slower work, a long
way ahead of the cab-rank. In fact, he might in
many instances remain a useful servant in his old
stable until extreme old age.
' Impecuniosus ' hunted in an economical manner.
He describes five ' screws ' that he had in his stables
just ten years ago, which could hardly have cost
collectively the price of one sound horse. They
c IMPECUNIOSUS ' BENEFIT OF TIPS ON HUNTERS. 157
all had infirmities, which consisted in knuckling
over and falling when trotted on hard roads, in-
cipient side bones, brittle hoof, cutting, legs that
were always swollen, chronic laminitis, corns, and
inability to keep up a gallop through ploughed
lands. He shod them on all fours with either short
Charlier shoes or tips, and they were all either
greatly benefited or else cured of these unsound-
nesses. One of these horses he sold to a gentleman,
who immediately had him full shod in the ordinary
manner. The horse again became as unsound as ever.
People read the Field, and neighbours looked on at
it all, but it taught no one any lesson. ' Impe-
cuniosus ' wrote in the sand for the { ruck ; ' but not
so, however, for the present writer, who had the
thing quite as closely at heart as had that estimable
gentleman himself, and followed him up (although
then abroad) with the greatest interest, with the
vain idea that he was going to bring about a reform.
A decade has since passed away, and nothing has
resulted from his efforts. It appears as if he was
then ahead of the age so, possibly, may his imitator
be now; but ten years make a difference in en-
lightenment ; and everything should march with
the age. If the present appeal should still prove
abortive, at all events the subject will have been
kept upon the surface, and thus it will again be taken
up by someone else in due time ; and whenever
this happens the intervals will be found to be
shortened by the onward march of intellect and
science, if not of common sense.
158 HORSES AND ROADS.
It has been well said in a work entitled < The
Eights of an Animal : ' ' In the history of thought,
that which is to-day's laughing-stock becomes to-
morrow's doubt, the wisdom of the third day, and
the child's lesson of the fourth.'
To return to the hunter : his foot is constructed
upon a principle which prevents it from picking up
and retaining dirt ; but shoeing does away with its
architecture and mechanism. Unshod hunters would
be free of the drawback of carrying about the weight
of iron and dirt. When they put their feet down in
ploughed land, expansion would cause them to make
a big opening, and as, on withdrawal, the foot would
become smaller by contraction, it would slip out
without ' sucking,' whilst there would be nothing on
the bottom of it that could pull out dirt with it, as
the shoe does always excepting the Charlier.
Youatt says : ' An ounce or two in the weight of
the shoe will tell sadly before the end of a hard
day's work ; ' and an old proverb says : ' An ounce
on the heel tells more than a pound on the back.'
If people would reflect that this extra weight has to
be swung at the end of a lever which is not of the
first order, they would understand how ounces re-
present pounds. The leverages in the horse's leg
are largely of the second and third orders. There-
fore, the shod hunter is more heavily handicapped
than any other horse, except the steeplechaser. Add
to this, the absence of disease and pain which must
detract from weight-carrying power, and we should
find the thirteen stone hunter of the present day
MILES ON UNILATERAL NAILING. 159
well up to fifteen stone, and ready and eager for his
feed when he got home, as his attention would not
be distraught from the cravings of his stomach by
agony in his feet and legs.
Then, again, we have been told that unshod
horses, when used in cattle-driving, do not slip
about on wet grass, and roll over as shod ones do.
This fact alone is valuable, but we may note further
that in certain weathers the feet of shod horses will
clog even in grass ; and when the clods fly out, with
the force they do, the effects of leverage must
become, upon reflection, more apparent to the edu-
cated. Further still, when we come to consider that
horses have so often to take off on slippery grass
(and land upon it also) at leaps, we may easily com-
prehend that refusals, baulks, and falls would be
diminished. Then, again, in taking a drop-jump
from a field, over a fence, into a road or lane. Mr.
Miles says : ' No horse experiences the full extent
of the benefit of one-sided nailing with few nails like
the hunter ; it is a great boon to every horse, but to
him it is a blessing of the highest order, and one in
which his rider participates more largely than some
persons appear to imagine. When a hunter is shod
in the usual manner, with seven or eight nails, some
are always, for the sake of security, placed in the
inner quarter, which is the most expansive portion
of the hoof (?). Let a horse with his feet so circum-
stanced be called upon to leap from a high bank into
a hard road and what happens? The weight of
the horse and his rider is thrown with an impetus,
160 HORSES AND ROADS.
which greatly increases that of both, upon the bones
of the foot ; these are jammed with immense violence
into the hoof, both sides of which are so fettered that
neither can yield to make room for them, and they
consequently squeeze the exquisitely sensitive lining
of the hoof between their own hard substance, the
unyielding horn, and the shanks of one, two, or three
nails, as the case may be, in a merciless manner.'
Mr. Miles had, as we have already seen, proved
by clever experiments that expansion and contrac-
tion positively do exist to a very marked extent in
the horse's foot ; and it is now universally recognised,
in England, at least, that such is the case. To allow
them scope, he inserted nails in the shoe on the
outside only of the hoof, and used but few nails even
at that. The shoe was found to remain on, and the
foot to be benefited, and he thus made an improve-
ment ; but no one followed it up, although veterinary
surgeons said he was right. How is this to be ac-
counted for, any more than the failure of 'Irnpecunio-
sus' to make an impression? because people cannot
be induced to care for, or think of, their horses any
longer than whilst they are on their backs. Both of
these gentlemen, although without being aware of
it, were precursors of the non-shoeing system, as
may be seen by their gradual, although only partial
and tardy, reduction of iron, in the number of nails
and the size, form, and weight of shoe. Iron was
still their stumbling-block, as it will continue to be
that of all who uphold its use. It cannot, in any
shape, be used to full advantage.
COLONEL ANSTRUTHER-THOMPSON GUTTAPERCHA. 161
In the ' Daily Telegraph ' of last Christmas Day's
issue, we read as follows: 4 A strange innovation
has just been introduced into fox-hunting records
in Fifeshire. According to the " Sporting Gazette,"
Colonel Anstruther - Thompson, finding that the
winter promised to be a long and sharp one, made
up his mind that neither frost nor snow should stop
him from his favourite sport, and trained men and
horses accordingly. A few days since the result
was seen. With the thermometer at eight degrees
below freezing-point, and the ground covered with
snow, he and a number of his neighbours met,
amongst them being one lady, their horses having
previously had the soles of their feet covered with
guttapercha. For a while, Balcorm wood was drawn
without success, but presently a fox rushed out and
a sharp run followed. The scent in the snow proved
amazingly good ; and despite all the circumstances,
which until now in foxhunting have been regarded
as disadvantageous, the going was of the very best.
At length, however, the fox managed to escape, and,
as the sun was by this time at rest, it was too late
for further sport that day. But the experiment
Colonel Thompson has thus successfully made has
created such an impression in Scotland, that it is
likely to be followed everywhere this season ; so that
the owners of hunters who trembled at the prospects
of the early winter, may take heart, and, by the aid
of guttapercha soles and a little training, yet chase
the fox over snow-covered ground.'
In Colonel Anstruther-Thompson we have another
M
162 HORSES AND ROADS.
unconscious precursor of the non-shoeing system ;
and this at a late date. The snow would have ' balled '
in the hoofs of iron-shod horses, and the eight
degrees of frost would have rendered the ground too
hard for them to alight upon it after each leap.
Gruttapercha staved off these difficulties, but the
naked hoof would have done better still if it had
had a month's judicious care previously bestowed
upon it ; and for many obvious reasons, one of which
is that guttapercha applied over the whole sole
would obstruct natural transpiration, and so cause
an unhealthy state of the whole hoof, if its applica-
tion were kept up continually.
All these ideas lead up to the main point, which
is that the freer the hoof is from iron the better it
does.
Should anyone doubt that transpiration is con-
tinually going on in the foot of a horse, let him put
an unshod one to stand for five minutes on dry flag-
stones, and then he will see the imprint of each
foot marked in damp upon them; or, as Mayhew
puts it, let him hold a wineglass with its mouth
reversed upon the sole, and then he will find that
the inside of the glass becomes shortly covered with
dew. This frightens the grooms into the belief that
it is an unnatural phenomenon, because it cannot
be seen in a shod horse. The current of air which
the raising up of the foot by the shoe admits under-
neath the foot carries off the vapour, and so does
not permit of its condensation upon a dry floor.
This forbids the constant employment of gutta-
INFORMATION ON THE CHARLIER SHOE. 163
percha. All kinds of diseases of the foot and leg
would be found to arise from it ; hence that door is
closed, except on an emergency, and for a very short
time. The Charlier tip is better than this device.
The unshod hunter that is stabled on a bare floor,
and that goes to cover and returns at night over
hard roads, will have a perfect hoof and foot, and
would fear nothing that he could ever encounter in
the rest of his day's work ; and then, he could hunt
another day a week.
Instructions are repeatedly being asked for as to
how to make and apply the Charlier shoe. Mr- W. H.
Stevens, M.K.C.V.S., of 9, Park Lane, W., sends,
post free, for sixpence, a pamphlet, wherein the
whole thing is elucidated. This pamphlet is well
illustrated, and should make details clear to the
most obtuse. If shoes are required, or the neces-
sary drawing-knife (which is the only extra tool
required), Mr. Stevens also supplies them, as will
be seen on perusal of the pamphlet. Messrs. Arnold
& Sons, 36, West Smithfield, also supply the knife.
When ordering shoes, a tracing of one fore and
one hind foot should be sent. It is not likely that
* tips ' are kept, but the latest information gives
the valuable and significant fact that the ' full '
shoe is no longer made, but only a ' short ' shoe
(a three-quarter one, in fact) which stops a good
bit short of the bars. This is worth knowing.
Those who wish for ' tips ' can easily get on after
knowing this much, without any further hints on
the subject.
M 2
164 HORSES AND ROADS.
There are farmers who breed hunters and who
ride their young horses to hounds, as a matter either
of business or of pleasure. If they would try them
unshod, they might be agreeably surprised at the
result. Setting aside their superior performance,
they would find, when they came to sell them, that
the veterinary surgeon would always pass them as
free from all suspicion of brittle hoof, sandcrack,
seedy toe, thrushes, corns, pumice-foot, cutting or
brushing, or navicular disease. No unshod horse
ever suffers from any of these diseases or defects,
no matter how hard his work or over what ground.
This much is allowed, as we have seen, by veterinary
surgeons. But besides these certain advantages,
there are others. For instance, spavins, splints,
ring-bones, side-bones, wind-galls, ' swollen ' legs and
' filled ' legs (which are different), quittor, curbs,
stringhalt, overreach, bad action, thickened tendons,
and stumbling, are all to be found with singularly
less frequency in the unshod horse than in the shod
one. The same remark applies also to those occult
infirmities and defects of which mention has already
been made, many of which constitute unsoundness
by law.
165
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LADY'S HORSE MUST NOT BE EXPOSED TO STUMBLING
LIGHT TIPS WILL WEAB AS LONG A8 HEAVY SHOES
HORSES AS HACKS FOR ELDERLY GENTLEMEN PARK HACKS
CARRIAGE HORSES ABNORMAL ACTION AND GRACEFUL
ACTION CONCUSSION THROUGH THE IRON SHOE BEARING
REIN FOR ' SCREWS' IT 'PULLS THEM TOGETHER' CRUELTY
THEREOF 'DOCKING' A HORSE'S TALL is VIVISECTION
' CUTTING* CAUSED BY SHOEING CRUEL MODE OF CURB AT
PRESENT EMPLOYED COACHMEN.
EQUAL to the hunter in value is the lady's horse.
In the ' Book of the Horse,' we find it said of him :
* He should be free from the slightest suspicion of
unsoundness in feet and forelegs, or those tricks of
stumbling which lead to falls.' In an editorial
article, the ' Morning Advertiser ' has said : ' There
can be no doubt that to encase the foot of either
man or beast in a hard, heavy, unyielding case or
cincture is against every law of Nature, It is
equally true that by so doing the delicacy of the
foot is impaired, the sensitiveness injured, and,
accordingly, the liability of the animal let us say
the horse to stumble much increased.' This being
so, as it undeniably is, a lady's horse should evi-
dently be unshod. He would then possess further
166 HORSES AND ROADS.
advantages as being lighter in hand no trifling
one and all his gaits would become more elastic
and airy, rendering him much easier to sit and ride,
and give his rider a more graceful seat, while at the
same time she would experience less fatigue, and be
in greater safety.
Should these lines attract the notice of any fair
reader, it is to be hoped that she may give their
substance due consideration. Let her reflect that
the present prevailing mode of shoeing is an un-
scientific and old-fashioned affair, and that it is now
high time there should be a change of fashion, for
ladies, at least. Let her consider that the hoof grows
from above downwards ; and thus, when the bottom
part gets fair play, diseases and defects of the
hoof will gradually disappear to a great extent, if
not entirely. Any lady may improve her present
favourite, both in comfort to him and in safety as well
as comfort to herself, by having him shod all round
with tips. The Charlier is much the best system,
but where it cannot easily be put in practice, the
common tip, made as narrow and thin as the Charlier,
will be found very effective, and a very great im-
provement on the broad, heavy, ' full ' shoe now in
almost universal use.
Charlier did not invent the narrow, thin shoe or
tip ; he only made better use of such a piece of iron
by imbedding it in the crust, on a level with the
outer edge of the sole and this was certainly an
improvement. Mayhew says: c All idea of the
breadth of shoe affording the slightest protection
MAYHEW, ON TIPS. 167
should be at once abolished, because the broad web
has been proved by the general employment of the
picker rather to afford harbour to hurtful particles
than to protect the sole from injury. The shoe
should be made only just wide enough to afford
bearing to the wall of the hoof, and to allow suffi-
cient room for the nails to pierce the substance of
the iron There can be no doubt as to
the safety of tips Were tips more
generally employed, this form of shoe would be
more highly valued.' So we see that Mayhew was
only short of the idea of imbedding his narrow strip
of iron, which idea occurred to M. Charlier shortly
after Mayhew wrote.
It may not be out of place to repeat here that
such a narrow, weak strip of iron is not found to
answer when applied in the shape of a full-sized
shoe, as it will then either twist or break ; but in
the short length required for a tip, it is found that
it will do neither.
Impulsive or superficial thought may suggest the
idea that such light tips may soon wear out. This
is not the case, for Mr. Douglas found by practical
experiment that light shoes wear the longest ; and
a little reflection would account for this.
The proper width of a tip for a lady's horse
would be from f in. to J in., and the thickness in.
only. Light iron, as has been observed, only re-
quires light nails, and few of them, to hold it on ;
and as the narrowness of the web of the tip would
bring the nail-holes nearer to the edge of the hoof,
168 HORSES AND ROADS.
the danger of pricking the sensitive parts would be
almost entirely done away with ; and thus there
would be much less of mutilation of the hoof.
Perhaps, after a time, some ladies may find their
horses improved through the wearing of tips, and
then some of them might be found willing to do
away with them on the hind feet of their horses ;
and, if this were found a success, something more
might suggest itself to them. But those who
employ tips, even should they get no farther, will
find their advantage in a week or two. They must
not expect that those diseases of the bones, cartil-
ages, or tendons which have been brought about
by shoeing, if they are firmly established, can be
entirely cured by the change ; but their progress may
be arrested ; and, what is equally consoling, they
will find by the ' going ' of their horses under them,
that the absence of inconvenience and pain in their
feet and legs makes them more ' springy,' and,
consequently, safer and easier to ride. Let them
notice also the difference in the weight they throw
on the bit after a while.
A horse adapted to carry a lady safely and
with ease would be well suited for an elderly
gentleman, or a timid or inexperienced rider of the
plain sex.
Park hacks, it has already been conceded by
authority, * would go more safely without shoes than
with them, because shoes accumulate the soil.' Evi-
dently, it must also be unpleasant to have a com-
pound of tan and manure thrown in one's teeth by
THE PARK HACK. 169
horses in front. Unshod horses cannot pick it up
or even scatter it knee-high.
Although it may be rather out of place here, we
will remark en passant that * circus ' horses do not
appear to labour under any very pressing necessity
of being cursed with shoes, yet they are ; and they
continually favour spectators in the front seats
with showers of filth that often finds a resting-place
in the eye, and thus deprives its receiver of the
enjoyment of the remainder of the ' spectacle.'
But, anyhow, breeders of park hacks, seeing the
concession made by authority in favour of these
animals, would be going out of their road, and in-
curring extra risks, if they shod them even to break
them. Let them break them unshod, and in the
same state offer them for sale. They would thus
pass their examination as to soundness without
difficulty ; and then if their buyers thought proper
to shoe them their sin would be upon their own
heads. By so doing, they would simply follow up
the purchase of a valuable article by deliberate
efforts to depreciate its intrinsic worth. Of course,
there should be fair play over the transaction, and
it should be understood that the horse had his feet
inured to hard roads, and not have been broken-in
upon grass. Horses broken-in upon grass do not
acquire showy action. It would not, therefore, pay
to shirk the thing ; and this would be a safeguard
for the buyer, in case he wanted the horse for imme-
diate work ; it would regulate the price. ' A thing
(of any kind) is worth what it will fetch/ and so
170 HORSES AND ROADS.
fancy prices are continually being paid for horses,
especially ladies' horses and park hacks.
Another class of horse that often commands a
long price is the carriage-horse of the ' upper ten.'
As a rule, the accusation that they get early worn
out by hard work would hardly lie ; yet at what
a comparatively early age they become c screws,'
through the bearing-rein and their shoeing. Their
work lies largely over stone paving, the evils of
which, to shod horses, Mr. Fearnley and others so
justly denounce. One purpose of the bearing-rein
is avowedly to give lofty action, not graceful action,
which, on the contrary, it prevents. Horses with
their heads rigidly attached to their tails are con-
tinually tossing up their heads, in which no doubt
they find a passing relief alternately for their various
excruciating pains, which must extend from the tail
to the teeth. The throwing up of the head neces-
sarily tends to raise their fore feet higher, but not
with regularity, as may be seen by observation.
This abnormal high action causes so much the
greater shock on the feet when they come down on
the stone, and this brings their shod hoofs to grief.
Mr. Douglas says : * The evil effects of concussion,
of the firm, hard blows from the ground, striking
through the iron up a horse's leg that is being
driven fast along the road, cannot be over-estimated.
Such common results as splints, spavins, and ring-
bones, I have already referred to elsewhere, as well
as to another and more fatal disease, known as
foundered feet, due to the same cause concussion.
171
It is allowed that the cause of this disease proceeds
from the violent exercise over hard roads, and that
young horses are most liable to it : of course, all
combined with heavy wide-webbed shoes, fastened
on to mutilated feet.'
As a remedy or a prevention of concussion, Mr.
Douglas proposed to let guttapercha into a dove-
tailed groove on the face of the shoe. At the best,
this would have been only a partial remedy, but the
shoe never came into use. No innovations find easy
acceptance; and why? Mayhew solves this con-
undrum, when he tells us that ' it is in their own
interests that farriers make no improvements ! '
The crippled screws of which we are now speak-
ing would always be wanting to rest one fore- foot
and one hind one at one and the same time, and
alternating them frequently, besides drooping their
heads in despondency, when they were at a stand.
Here comes in another purpose of the bearing-rein,
which is that of ' pulling them together,' and thus
hiding from the ignorant the infirmities and suffer-
ings in their feet, by the application of counter-
irritation. Thus they are supposed to make a
better show when drawn up in Regent Street, or at
Lancaster Grate, or, say, even at the door of Willis's
Rooms, when an anti-vivisection congress is sitting.
If only for the sake of decency, we should show a
little consistency. Let it be understood that we are
not arguing either pro or con. on the question of
vivisection of the lower animals ; we have our own
opinion on the subject, but we prefer to stand in
172 HORSES AND ROADS.
the present instance upon neutral ground, and so
talk to both sides. Those who are against it can
find no excuse for docking the tails of horses, which
custom cannot be considered other than vivisection ;
whilst those who argue that science can be advanced
by investigating the interior organs of a guinea-pig,
cannot argue that docking a horse's tail proves any-
thing more than that we are still little more than
half-reclaimed savages, with a remnant of idolatry
which obliges us to offer up as sacrifice the ends of
our horses' vertebral columns to that idol which we
worship under the name of ' fashion.' The whole
system is rotten.
To drive a horse that cuts himself is cruelty to
animals, and at some future time it will be punished
as such. To rasp away, and thus weaken, the inside
of the shell of the foot, in a futile endeavour to
avoid cutting, is also cruelty, and some day this
practice will also be prohibited on that account.
The prevailing idea of cruelty seems to be that
blood must be flowing, or sores visible under the
harness; but a sore that gets hit with the foot is
quite as bad.
The operation of rasping away the hoof, to cure
cutting, is as unscientific as it is unsuccessful. The
idea that suggests it is one of those that 'Im-
pecuniosus ' says * has sprung from wrong roots
altogether.' He cured his horses of this misfortune
by shoeing them with Charlier tips. The cause of
cutting is the shoeing. It is not meant by this that
it is the shoe or nails that cut as anyone may see
'CUTTING' AND 'BRUSHING.' 173
that. What is meant is that an unshod horse, or
even one wearing tips, never hits his leg with the
opposing foot ; one reason for this being because
he wears away his heels in their proper economical
ratio and form, and thus gets a natural 'tread.'
Nature never meant him to knock himself about
so awkwardly at every step. Cutting is always
accompanied by deterioration of action, and diminu-
tion of speed, and then all his defection is reckoned
up together, and the unfortunate horse (instead of
his master) is put down as a ' rip,' although he may
perhaps be only a victim of routine.
The eye of 'fashion' too often looks through
that of its coachman when estimating action, and
thus it has become callous, so to speak, and in-
sensible to the elegance of the natural action of
such a graceful animal. Mayhew says that ' pride
has no brains, and but a very limited amount of
intellect.' Let pride, or ' fashion,' just stoop to the
use of tips, and then their coachmen would gradually
come round. Coachmen are not all fools, any more
than they are all sages, although they are all pre-
judiced ; and few of them nowadays are as in-
terested as their class formerly was in bolstering up
trade interests. We find that they mostly acquire
an affection for their horses as they look upon
them, and they should not be altogether discouraged
from so doing barring some unfortunate animal
that is obliged to become a crib-biter, &c., but in
favour of which they are generally willing to admit
either pluck or something else. They cannot under-
174 HORSES AND ROADS.
stand that lie is being driven into such vices ; they
believe them to be inherent in the individual. This
affection for, and interest in, their horses, which
has been developing itself of late years in coach-
men (not so much in stable-helpers) , would soon
reconcile them to any innovation which might be
found beneficial to horses, however much they may
be averse to them when first introduced to their
notice or approval.
I am obliged to ' N.,' l both for the interest he
has taken in what I have written and for the case he
mentions of impending lockjaw (which it would
appear to have been) through ill-grown teeth. I
have not met with a parallel case, but I once knew
a cart-horse that cost 100 to die of lockjaw from
getting ' pricked 'in shoeing. The nail was withdrawn,
but the veterinary surgeon stated that there had
been a scale on the inside of it which had been
forced off in the withdrawal ' against the grain,'
and had made its way into the sensitive parts, to
remain there.
To ' J. F. K. S.' 2 I am equally indebted. He
may rest assured that no fair trial has ever been
given to the artillery horses at Woolwich, but it has
been given to such horses at the Cape, and with the
greatest success. They were found to go better, when
unshod all round, over the roughest description of
hilly roads, and for years together.
What has happened at Woolwich has been that
shoes are removed from all horses before shipping
1 See Appendix F. 2 See Appendix Gr.
REMOVING SHOES FOR A SEA VOYAGE. 175
them for a long voyage, both to hinder them from
slipping about and prevent them from getting
foundered, which it is well known to veterinary
surgeons they are particularly liable to when at sea,
if shod.
176
CHAPTER XIX.
THE * BIDE AND DRIVE ' HORSE OMNIBUS, VAN, TRAMWAY, AND
CAB HORSES TRAMWAY MULES MR. FEARNLEY ON CALKS
UNSCIENTIFIC SHOEING OF MULES MR. FEARNLEY ON
THE CHARLIER SHOE BRACY CLARK MAYHEW ON THE
VARIOUS KINDS OF SHOES.
A CLASS of horse that is extensively kept is le cheval
a deux fins, the one that is ridden on one day, and
driven, perhaps, the next, and so on. This horse
could but gain in both his capacities by going un-
shod, and it would be an error on the part of his
owner to argue within himself that it might answer
under saddle, but would not do for harness work,
or vice versa. People are strangely given to shirk
innovations by laying hold of every excuse they can
put their hands upon.
Omnibus, van, tramway, cab, and such-like horses,
busily employed in cities, will perhaps be the last
(although not the least requiring) to receive full
benefit of a change in the order of things ; but get
it some day they must, as they have obtained relief
from the bearing-rein, for which they are indebted
to the energetic agitation of Mr. Flower. A careful
inspection of their legs and feet would convince
anyone endowed with perception that the present
INDIFFERENCE OF HORSE OWNERS. 177
system of shoeing is simply ruining them. As we
have seen, there is, at least, one intelligent firm
who have stuck to the Charlier system for more
than seven years, and have made their success with
it public through the Press. To all appearance they
might almost as well have remained silent on the
subject. Who is there that can boast of having put
their enterprise and experience to profit? Echo
answers, Who ? May we be allowed to ask, whence
arises such indifference on a question of millions
annually? If submitted to Lord Dundreary, he
would probably say : ' It is one of those things
no fellow can understand ; ' and this is the only
solution the writer can propose as a corollary to that
of ' Impecuniosus,' which is, ' because everyone does
it, I suppose ; ' and to that of < Santa Fe,' who says :
* Fortunately our ancestors did not shoe their dogs
and cats, or, in all probability, most of us would do
so in the present day.' The enterprising London
firm in question liberally offered their horses for in-
spection, and no one went to see them ! One gentle-
man said : ' I have got along for the last thirty-five
years, and I shall not change now.' He had some-
thing of either the Mede or Persian about him, and
there are too many like him. We may say, en
passant, that his horses were about as badly shod as
any that can be found nowadays, and were, every
one of them, unsound from this very cause ; but he
did not want to knoiv any better.
A propos of horses, we will look at the lightly-
built and lightly-limbed mules, with hoofs scarcely
178 HORSES AND ROADS.
bigger than those of donkeys those that nm on
some tramways. Light as they are, they are strong
and powerful ; and the only advantage which could
ever be expected from them lay in the lightness of
their frame, legs, and feet, which would give them a
pull over heavy horses, if we may assume that they
would not batter their feet and legs to pieces on the
hard stone pavement since they run upon nothing
else. For a mule requires more feed than a horse,
taking him hands for hands, and equal mileage,
load, and speed ; and this the tramway companies
will find out ere long, if they keep satisfactory
records of each and all.
These mules have no weight or load to keep back.
They cannot have any, as it is done for them by a
brake on the car, which is powerful enough to stop
the whole concern, mules and all, in the traject of a
few feet; neither have they any weight to carry,
beyond that of the collar, traces, and bridle ; there
is not even a pole to the cars, so they have nothing
to do but to pull. Yet they are shod, especially
behind, in an outrageous manner, with shoes that
are extra long, and are, besides, calked! What
ghost of a reason is there for calks on animals thus
employed ? Calks are only a clumsy, ignorant, and
utterly unsuccessful substitution for a brake on the
wheels. The tramcars have the brake, and even if
they had not, calks will not help an animal to pull
up upon pavement. They may do so upon country
roads, but only with prejudice to the animal's limbs.
Hear Mr. Fearnley upon this subject ; and lay
FEARNLEY ON CALKS, ETC. 179
what lie says to heart : ' There could be no better
service rendered to the horse universe than the
passing of an Act of Parliament rendering it a mis-
demeanour for any one shoeing a horse to reduce
the thickness of his soles or frog ' he omits to
state the evils of cutting out the bars * or to put
under his heels or quarters iron exceeding a defined
thickness, except under the certificate of a qualified
veterinary surgeon, who should, after examining the
horse, explain the need for the same. Horses, like
every other property, are national property, and a
man owning them mediately has no more right to
deface them than he has to deface the coin of the
realm, which he also owns only mediately. * What
is mine is my own ' is still the creed, not only of the
vulgar, but of those who ought, at least, to know
the rudiments of political economy.'
The writer thinks with Mr. Fearnley, that the
question should be one for the Government ; but
then there is that awful red tape, which, slight as it
is to look at, holds progress in bonds. So there is
no hope from that quarter for the present. It is
only two years ago that Mr. Fearnley expressed
himself thus, and it is possible that no member of
either the late or the present Government, even if
they read his book, bestowed any attention upon it,
although there is, perhaps, not a single member of
either that has not been at loss and inconvenience
through a horse being badly shod. That makes
no difference to them. They have their political
squabbles to keep up over aliens, and we and our
N 2
180 HORSES AND ROADS.
horses may go to the crows, because they fail to see
the importance of an immense national economy.
Luckily, we may do without their interference if we
like, and show them c how it is done.'
But we must not get away from those mules just
yet. Without knowing positively, we cannot be far
from the mark if we suppose that stables which con-
tain hundreds of them must be daily visited by a
veterinary surgeon; and, if such be the case, why
should he not have direction over the farriers ? If
he had such, we should soon see the calk, as well as
a big piece of superfluous length of iron, cut off
from each side of the heel. Here is another op-
portunity for asking * What ghost of a reason there
is ' for leaving iron to protrude behind the heels ?
What is it meant to protect the tails ? The mules
have them close shaven ; so they are not in reach of
anything below the hocks. What purpose, then, is
it meant to serve ? One result of the practice is to
make their heels come to the ground sooner than
they were intended to do, and so give them a false
' tread,' thus using them up early, by making their
legs perform unnatural functions which lead to
fatigue and diseases. What is to hinder them from
wearing tips, to begin with ? The heavy shoeing,
and the generally indefensible manner in which they
are now shod, cause these hapless, light-limbed, and
small-footed creatures, when at their trot, to swing
their feet backwards and then upwards, in a manner
that is most ridiculous to a person accustomed to
mules; but their Cockney half-brothers, who have
TKAMWAY MULES. 181
been hitherto unacquainted with them, seem to con-
sider this as correct action. This forced and un-
natural amount of play upon the articulations can
but cause serious injury, especially to the tendons
and synovially lubricated surfaces generally. In fact,
it is undue wear and tear all round, even on the
muscles, which carry us up to the heart, and on the
nerves, which carry us up to the brain.
What chance, then, have these poor animals of
showing what they may be worth ? They are only
an experiment as yet, and are all young ; and,
through a very unfair treatment, it will be presently
discovered that they have not answered expectations.
This will not be the fault of the mules, but their
misfortune. They are already a partial failure, as
may be seen from the fact that in many cases three
of them are employed on a two-horse car, and two
of them on a one-horse car ; but a good deal of this
is to be accounted for from the fact that people of
the gobe-mouche fraternity fancy that a mule con-
sumes less provender than a horse. It is true that
a mule can, upon an emergency and for a short time,
make a shift upon shorter and lower quality rations
than a horse can ; but, take him all the year round,
he not only cannot do so, but requires more than
the horse. On this account mules are useful in
foreign countries where privations may be expected
on journeys; but, put them to regular work and
regular feed, and then the writer has always found
them, during a very extensive experience, to require
more sustenance than a horse doing the same work.
182 HORSES AND ROADS.
People get statistics (not always correct) that a mule
consumes so many pounds of barley and chopped
straw per diem, and then they substitute (on paper)
the same weight of oats, putting nothing down for
hay for fodder and straw for litter, neither of which
Spanish mules get in their own country, and for-
getting that barley goes further than oats in the
shape of nutrition ; and thus they arrive at a false
conclusion.
A mule, when doing the same work as a horse of
his power, over stages with accommodation, must eat
more than the horse to be able to do it ; it is, there-
fore, doubtful whether he can ever compete with the
horse in England. Abroad, he is undoubtedly useful
in many parts, because he can stretch a point where
a horse sometimes could not, through his being able
to subsist for a few days on what would not maintain
the horse ; although, of course, he has to make up
for it afterwards, which he will not forget to do. In
the Spanish army, the mules get the ration-and-
a-half of a horse's barley. There are many more
horses than mules in this service in Spain. We shall
see presently how mules pay on tramways in England ;
but in the meantime it is certain that the companies
are throwing away their best chance, which was that
of finding out whether through being lighter in
their feet, legs, and superstructure, they could stand
battering about on pavements. To investigate this,
they have shod them worse, in proportion to their
build, than they have shod their horses.
So much for companies, societies, and all corpo-
UNSCIENTIFIC SHOEING OF MULES. 183
rate bodies ; clear-headed individuals have to be
depended upon for putting the thing to the test.
Board meetings are amongst the slowest and most
obtuse of all institutions ; they always demand pre-
cedents, and when they receive them, they shake
their heads, and do as they meant to do. However,
some of them have rushed into mules, and it would
look as if they now had to rush about for more
stable accommodation, more helpers, and more far-
riers. The farriers will be striking against them
soon for more wages and less work everything is
worth what it will fetch in the market ; and they
are creating a demand for farriers by multiplying
the number of their animals but is this making
things good for trade ? The farriers probably think
it is, but then they are interested parties ; how
about the shareholders ? This is not only a question
of humanity, which we will put first (for the sake
of form for such people), but also of largely vested
interests. We will ask again, what is the reason for
such extensive shoeing? We have seen that the
mules have no load to keep back ; does it help them
to pull, or prevent them from slipping when so
doing? Let anyone take the trouble to go and
look at them. If he should happen to be a share-
holder, all the better, and he will be persuaded that
their hardest task is to gain a foothold for a start.
They run only on flat ground, or ground with
scarcely appreciable ascents; but see how they strain
every muscle, and how they make the sparks fly out
of the stones. Of course, the larger the surface of
184 HORSES AND ROADS.
slippery iron opposed to the smooth stones, the
more they slip. It is only through encountering
resistance in the joints between the paving-stones
that they are able to start at all. As the mules
have discovered this, they knowingly start on the
tips of their toes, in order to let them catch these
irregularities : they have found out that by putting
their feet down flat they slip over them. The full
use of the frog is what they are in want of. They
would not start on their toes if this were put at
their disposition ; but no shoe can give it, except
the Charlier tip.
Mr. Fearnley says : 4 People will watch a horse
drawing a heavy load up a hill, violently digging his
toes into the ground, or backing a load down a hill,
digging his heels into the ground, and then go home
and invent a shoe ! '
What oceans of misdirected ingenuity have been
wasted over this bugbear an article that is entirely
unnecessary. It is true that Mr. Fearnley does not
go quite so far as to say this he has no experience
in working unshod horses ; but he does say that the
simplest and smallest of all, the Charlier, 'is at
once the most scientific, as it is the most common-
sense, shoe.' He is about as late an authority on
the subject as can be found ; but all advice in this
direction seems to be cast to the winds. People rely
more on the knowledge of their stable-helpers and
farriers, and ask their opinion on the subject, which
is, of course, that they know more about it than all
the professors yet born, and they know that all parts
MAYHEW ON THE MULTIFORMITY OF SHOES. 185
of a horse's foot must be kept off the ground, ' or
else why does he limp when he loses a shoe ? ' This
settles the thing at once with the master, and he
shuts up, instead of giving the thing fair considera-
tion and investigation, and talking it over with other
owners to obtain an interchange of ideas. People
do not like to do this, because, as Bracy Clark said :
' No man likes to make inquiries about horses, for
that would imply a want of knowledge.' This nail got
another blow on the head lately from ' Caractacus,'
when he said in the ' Farm Journal ' : ' Unfortunately
it forms too prominent a feature of the average
Englishman's vanity to affect to know 'much more
about the horse than he really does.' As a general
rule, that is what is the matter with them ; but
in the affair of treatment of the foot they tacitly
acknowledge that stable-helpers and farriers under-
stand it better than themselves, and so they leave
these two lumps of ignorance to make arrangements
between them over such a small affair, heedless of
the not time-honoured maxim, ' No foot, no horse.'
Thus, these worthies have become authorities on
shoeing, to the prejudice of professors who were
almost at their wit's end to grapple with the question.
Mayhew says: 'No shoe can give that which
is dependent upon motion* expansion is motion.
4 There are many more pieces of iron curved, hol-
lowed, raised, and indented than I have cared to
enumerate. All, however, have failed to restore
health to the hoof. Some, by enforcing a change
of position, may, for a time, appear to mitigate
186 HORSES AND ROADS.
the evil ; but none can, in the long-run, cure the
disorder under which the hoof evidently suffers.
Anointing the hoofs, or using various stoppings, are
equally fruitless.' You cannot get the present race
of stablemen to believe a single word of this ; there-
fore their present sway must be wrested from them.
187
CHAPTEK XX.
QUESTION IN THE 'FIELD* AS TO AX UNSHOD HORSE WORK-
ING IN LONDON NO ROADS TOO HARD FOR AN UNSHOD
HORSE XENOPHON ON HARD, ROUGH STABLE FLOORS,
ETC. ERRONEOUS IDEA. OF 'SOMETHING NICE AND SOFT*
TO STAND UPON FLINT ROADS OF HERTFORDSH RE ' YOU
CANNOT TREAT AN ORGANIC BODY AS IF IT WERE AN
INORGANIC ONE ' BRACY CLARK, ' THE MISERABLE, COERCED,
SHOD FOOT ' BRACY CLARK ON DIFFERENCE OF GROWTH OF
HORN IN THE SHOD AND THE UNSHOD HORSE FAILURE
OF BRACY CLARK AND MILES TO PRODUCE A PERFECT
HORSESHOE.
THE * Field,' in its issue of May 1, 1880, contains the
following : 4 Last week I saw in the City a brown
horse without shoes drawing a full-sized brougham :
his feet seemed particularly sound and well-shaped.
It would be interesting to learn the method of treat-
ment, and the length of time necessary to fit a horse
for use unshod on the London stones. If the owner
should see these lines, perhaps he will give your
readers the benefit of his experience.'
This communication proves that there is at least
one more unshod horse going sound in our midst,
and that he has excited the interest of at least one
observer. Although this gentleman does not directly
express it, he seems to imply his wonder how the
188 HORSES AND ROADS.
horse could do his work over the paved streets of
London, which are the cause of so much injury to
shod horses through their slipping about upon them
so continually, and the ' concussion striking through
the iron up the leg ' (Douglas).
This brings us back again to the question of
roads there are no bad ones for an unshod horse ;
but neither the hardest nor the roughest are the
worst.
We have before cited Xenophon, but now we will
do so more fully. He says: 'Damp and smooth
stable-floors injure even naturally good hoofs ; to
prevent damp, they should slope backwards.' The
damp of acrid excrement is evidently implied. ' To
prevent them from being smooth, they should have
irregular-shaped stones inserted in the ground, and
close to one another, similar to a horse's hoof in
size ; for such stable-floors give firmness to the
feet of horses that stand upon them. The ground
outside the stable-door, upon which the horse is
groomed, may be put into excellent condition, and
serve to strengthen the horse's feet, if a person
throws down upon it here and there four or five
measures full of round stones, large enough to fill
the two hands, and each about a pound in weight,
surrounding such spaces with an iron rim, so that
the stones may not get scattered ; for as the horse
stands on these, he will be in much the same con-
dition as if he were made to travel part of every
day on a stony road. A horse must also move his
hoof when he is being rubbed down, or when he is
SOFT ROADS NOT BEST FOR THE HORSE. 189
annoyed with flies, as much as when he is walking ;
and the stones which are thus spread about will
strengthen the frogs of his feet. He that gives
trial to this suggestion will give credit to others
which I shall offer, and will see the feet of his horse
become firm.'
Paul Louis Courier translated Xenophon's treatise,
and was so impressed with its inculcations that he
put them to the proof by riding unshod horses in
the Calabrian campaign of 1807, and he found them
right. Does not this look as if we have been
striving to know better than our masters, and hunt-
ing to heel, or peering through the wrong end of
the telescope ? The ' Cavalry Officer ' before quoted
had got hold of the right end of the thing, and so
have a few others who have given their experience
to empty air from time to time.
The unshod horse can successfully deal with all
roads. Those that are soft, and have to be travelled
over continually, are the worst for him ; but Xeno-
phon shows us how to meet even this difficulty, by
making him stand at every opportune moment upon
the roughest material we can find for paving. How
opposed is it to the opinions and ideas of the present
age, that a horse could be benefited by dancing
about upon loose shingle of the size of an orange,
whilst he was being groomed outside a stable that
was intentionally roughly paved for the purpose of
giving as much attrition as possible, in even waste
time.
Xenophon did not write upon theory, but gave
190 HORSES AND ROADS.
the result of his practice and experience, which
does not seem to have taught any one very much,
for we find modern writers who quote him shifting
out of the question by stating that he had not our
modern artificial hard roads to deal with. From his
style of writing we may infer that he would have
been glad to shake hands with Macadam, or even with
a pavior that would extend his stable floors out-of-
doors as far as possible. He would not have asked
for a steam-roller to smooth down loose stones,
because he knew that his horses would prefer them
to the soft mire encountered continually when in
campaign, at which times they could not always get
the benefit of the hard floors, on the use of which in
barracks he laid so great stress.
The universal idea nowadays is that horses must
have something ' nice and soft to stand upon ' when
they are not at work, and that this something should
have smoothness also connected with it ; some people
even argue that a stable without straw spread over
it in the daytime looks naked and comfortless. This
is conventionality. In Spain the best-appointed
stables are clean swept by day, and the presence of
an odd straw knocking about would be considered
slovenliness. Tastes differ according to established
customs or prevailing fashions ; but the hygiene of
the horse should never be sacrificed to such empty
and variable things as fashions or appearances of any
kind.
' Herts ' seems unwilling to believe that unshod
horses could trot for miles together over roads con-
FLINT ROADS. 191
structed and repaired with flints. They can do so,
however, and with more ease and comfort than shod
ones. If they could not, there would be an end of
the thing, for evidently the horse should be able to
go anywhere and everywhere, and at a moment's
notice. This is just what shod horses cannot do, as
they are continually being sent to the forge to have
alterations made when a frost sets in, or for some
other reason. His statement that his horses are
found very much lamed and cut when they go only
half a journey over such roads, after losing a shoe,
everyone (including the writer) will most readily
accept. As regards the deer that could not stand
upon its feet for three weeks after a run, we have
no evidence that he ran upon macadamised roads, or
even that he suffered in his feet. He most likely
had too much of either the pace or the distance,
and so had given out, as many a good horse has
frequently had to do, and even die in the field upon
occasions, notwithstanding his being blessed with
shoes. This accident to a solitary deer does not
seem to have led to the practice of shoeing deer
that have to be hunted. It is generally accepted
amongst sportsmen (those who ride, at least) that
their chase should have fair play. The deer which we
hunt in England are captive animals (except those on
Exmoor), and if shoeing would give them fairer
play they certainly ought to get the benefit of it ;
not only on account of the fair play, but also on the
score of speed, activity, confidence, and staying
powers, of which they might (theoretically) take
192 HORSES AND ROADS.
advantage, and which should make their chase all
the more exciting. Perhaps people are afraid that
then they would never be run down at all, or
even viewed. Foxes run stoutly, and some of them
manage to outrun both hounds and huntsmen with-
out the aid of so much as a sock or slipper, and so
do the deer on Exmoor that have rougher ground
to deal with than most people imagine ; yet we do
not hear much about their going into hospital. The
deer that got so knocked up on the occasion cited
could not have been in condition, or ' fit ' for a hard
run, and must have been prostrated by simple over-
exertion. Should he be brought forward after many
years as evidence that horses require shoeing ? Fair
argument and common sense do not appear to be
entirely necessary to everyone who is determined
not to be convinced.
However, as regards those sharp flints, Mr.
Douglas has informed us that the frog does not fear
them. Colonel Burdett says that the natural sole
is almost impenetrable, and so hard and strong that
it protects the sensible sole from all harm ; and
Osmer tells us that all feet exposed to hard objects
become more obdurate thereby if the sole be never
pared. Now, has ' Herts ' considered that our shoe
does not cover either the frog or more than the edge
of the sole, and, mutilated as they are by the knife,
that the sharp stones must continually be reaching
them, and that still horses do not get cut by flints
in these parts ? Where they get cut and crippled is
on the brittle crust, and sometimes on the outer rim
THE FROG IS NEVER ENTIRELY PROTECTED. 193
of the sole, precisely those parts which have always
been covered and protected with iron, or, in fact,
deprived of all attrition, whilst the frog and sole get
some occasionally from inequalities to be met with
on almost every road. Both of these must, there-
fore, be exposed to the sharp points of the broken
flints in question to a very great degree, although
they do not hurt them unless a stone gets fixed
between the shoe and the sole. People ought not
to want to have such simple facts pointed out to
them ; they see them daily, and they are patent
enough. But no; people close the doors of their
minds, and when they have incapacitated the outer
rim of the foot from performing its natural functions,
they point triumphantly to it, as if the mischief
were not their own bringing about. Certainly, no
one must expect to tear off the shoes and be able
to put the animal to full work in five minutes after-
wards. Not only has no one been invited to act thua
unreasonably, but they have been warned against
it. For hardworking horses, that cannot be sus-
pended from labour, the use of tips has been recom-
mended. Keep on with the tips if you are satisfied
with the results they give you, for months if you
choose, or even altogether, if you are afraid to go
farther. You will, anyhow, have made a vast im-
provement.
Here is another argument in favour of tips. You
may have an ordinary full- sized shoe put on in the
best manner possible, even inspected by the best
veterinary surgeon to be found, and one who will
o
194 HORSES AXD ROADS.
forbid all carving away of the frog bars and sole,
and will see that the frog comes down to the ground
(even if it has to go over the Hertfordshire flints,
for which the veterinary surgeon will have no fear),
and then you will get frog pressure, which is already
samething, and your horse will then be one of the
best shod in England, but if you will just lift up his
foot and examine the frog, you will see that it is semi-
cloven. Now, as you will hardly regard the cleft as
the result of a careless construction, you should
reason out for yourself what it is there for, and then
you could hardly help arriving at the conclusion
that it was to allow the heels to spread. Why then
do you lock them together with a full shoe ? You
have obtained some pressure and attrition for the
frog by abstaining from mutilation, but its third
necessity expansion you do away with altogether.
This has been expounded by Bracy Clark. Mayhew
says : 4 You cannot treat an organic body as if it
were an inorganic one,' but this is just what you are
doing when you turn a flexible foot into a rigid
one. Hope was also aware of this, and he recom-
mended that, after a journey, the two hindermost
nails on each side of the shoe should be drawn, to
give the horse relief. All kinds of dodges have
been proposed with the same view, but the tip is the
only one that has answered; so you are earnestly
advised to try it. You risk absolutely nothing, as
has been proven over and over again. Keep up its
use as long as you feel nervous about leaving it off;
-but when you determine on getting rid entirely of
BRACr CLARK ON THE SHOD AND UNSHOD FOOT.
what Bracy Clark calls ' the miserable, coerced, shod
foot,' and entering that seventh heaven of a horse-
man, where the bother, anxiety, and expense of shoes
are unknown, you must bear in mind that the horn
at the toe will still be somewhat brittle, and may
chip away until the nail-holes have grown down to
the ground. This is to be prevented or remedied
by following Osmer's advice to * keep them rasped
round and short at the toe.' The nail-holes will
grow out much sooner than may be expected.
Hear Bracy Clark on the difference of the rate
of growth of horn in the shod and unshod horse :
'To consider all the beauty and purposes of the
singular construction of the foot, we must dismiss
from our views the miserable, coerced, shod foot
entirely, and consider the animal in a pure state of
nature, using his foot without any defence.
The wall, or crust, of the hoof, where there is a
demand for its wear, grows rapidly, as when in a
state of nature and exposed to the ground; but,
shod, it loses this power in so great a degree that in
many horses a few thin slices only can be removed
at each shoeing, after the interval of four or five
weeks, in which time twenty times as much horn
would have been produced had there been a demand
for it.' It may be doubted by some that horn can
grow so fast when allowed to do so, and it may be
asked where it is tc be seen. On the heels and
quarters attrition uses it up as fast as it grows, and
so these parts never require rasping in fact, they
o 2
196 HORSES AND ROADS.
must be let alone altogether. But in the case of
the toe it is different, for attrition will not suffice to
keep down an exuberant growth, and the rasp is,
therefore, needed to remove it. All that have had
the experience are agreed upon that point.
Bracy Clark dedicated the best part of his life
to the task of producing a perfect horseshoe. He
did not succeed in this task, any more than he
succeeded in seeing the full force of his own argu-
ments. In this he was rivalled later on by Miles,
who wrote : 'The principal argument upon which
the uninformed ground their objection to bringing
in the heels of the shoe is the necessity which they
affirm to exist for affording the horse more support
at the heels than Nature has given him, and which
they say my plan entirely deprives him of. Now,
what does this argument amount to ? Neither more
nor less than a declaration that the Almighty Creator
of the Universe has failed in imparting to the horse's
foot the form best suited to its requirements, and
has delegated to the puny intellect of man the task
of devising a remedy. Surely the stoutest sticklers
for the infallibility of old plans and old prejudices
will shrink from subscribing to such a doctrine as
this.' Mayhew wrote : 'A return to perfect freedom
could alone cure the evils caused by unnatural re-
straint? Still, after expressing himself thus, Mayhew
4 went home and invented another shoe,' as Mr.
Fearnley says, but one which never came into use,
and never will.
PREJUDICE AMONGST GIFTED MEN. 197
It is lamentable to find writers of such calibre
holding forth such arguments, afflicted with shoes
on the brain up to the very last, and unable either
to get over or break through the low, flimsy fence
which stood between them and the field which con-
tained perfection.
198 HORSES AND ROADS.
CHAPTER XXI.
ASPHALTE PAVING, AND DIFFERENT OPINIONS CONCERNING IT
DISSATISFACTION THAT REIGNS WITH REGARD TO THE
OKDINAKT METHOD OF SHOEING TRANSMISSION BY PARENTS
OF DISEASES PRODUCED BY SHOEING FRENCH STATISTICS
AS TO DISEASES OF THE FEET AND LEGS OF THE HORSES IN
THE ARMY SHOEING, A NATIONAL QUESTION,
ASPHALTE is a class of road surface that has caused
a great deal of controversy. At certain times, and
on certain days, such as when fog and mist prevail,
it gets greasy (as this state is called). In some
other weathers the same state of greasiness is pro-
duced during the beginning of rain; but when
sufficient rain has fallen to reduce the consistency
of this so-called grease, the slipperiness disappears,
and then asphalte becomes a better holding surface,
for even shod horses, than either the wood or granite
which are contiguous to it; supposing them each
and all to have received the same amount of rain.
In fine summer weather, watering with carts will
make wood and granite slippery, when it will not so
affect the asphalte. But in any weather the unshod
horse can deal with it more successfully than the
shod one. The Almighty defies ' the puny intellect
of man' to produce a road of any kind that can
THE PUBLIC ON ASPHALTE. 199
harm the foot which He has designed with his omni-
science and omnipotence to grapple with everything
that can possibly spring up on the surface of the
earth.
Modern writers on the horse (asphalte is only a
modern introduction) have been for some time, and
significantly enough, much at variance as to the
virtues or defects of this material, according to the
different lights under which they looked at it ; even
when all of them were ignorant that the unshod
foot was the proper one to deal with it successfully
under all circumstances.
In June 1878, in one contemporary we read :
< Asphalte pavement appears to be on its trial. As
we briefly mentioned last week, the R. S. P. C. A.
has volunteered to assist those who do not approve
of these pavements, and to " unite with any respect-
able agency for the purpose of mitigating the evil
complained of." Respecting this voluntary effort,
Mr. Gerard F. Cobb, of Trinity College, Cambridge,
requests the society " to carry out its own acknow-
ledged objects, and to regard the question entirely
from the horse's point of view, but in all its bear-
ings. I know, if I were a horse, what I should
say, viz., that I would gladly incur the risk of an
occasional downfall (which, after all, is less than what
I am exposed to on the granite) for the sake of the
unparalleled ease and comfort with which it enables
me to perform my daily tasks." Mr. Cobb also sug-
gests that " If the Society meddles at all in this
matter, I would venture to suggest that its efforts
200 HORSES AND ROADS.
would exert a more extended beneficence if it in-
duced owners to adopt the Charlier system of shoeing
suggested by Mr. Stevens." ' Eight days later on,
another contemporary published a communication on
the same subject, from which we give the following
extract : ' All the cab proprietors, all the omnibus
proprietors, all railway van proprietors have pro-
tested against the dangers and cruelties created by
asphalte pavement. Falls on asphalte are not only
more frequent but of a graver character than on any
other kind of pavement. Veterinary surgeons meet
with fractures of the pelvis and ribs, which were
before almost unknown. Strains of a serious kind
are created in starting loads on a surface almost as
smooth as ice. It is a mistake to appeal to the climate
of Paris. The climate of Paris is not the climate of
London, where in five minutes a greasy fog makes
Oheapside one long chapter of accidents. Unfor-
tunately, asphalte has on its side the vested interests
of the City legislators. It is the least noisy, the
least dirty, the most easily cleaned of pavements,
and although it tortures the horses, it suits the
respectable tradesmen who pay the City rates. It is
to be hoped that public opinion will shortly be too
strong for natural but selfish legislation, and that
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
will find some subjects for their righteous zeal of a
higher class than costermongers.'
With the last part of the last paragraph we
heartily agree. But the Society in question, after
being invited to investigate the question of shoeing,
GENERAL INCREASE OF ASPHALTED ROADS. 201
on the one hand, and that of roads on the other
both of them being within its scope has moved in
neither direction. Feeling itself incompetent to treat
the opaestion at all, it has maintained a 'masterly
inactivity.' The last of the two exponents who thus
invoke in such opposite ways the aid of the Society
in favour of an animal over which it watches in
other matters, sets forth that asphalte makes the
best road of all, except for the horses. Yet we are
asked to abandon the economies and comforts of this
production of modern intelligence, because it would
render another improvement necessary, which would
bring about as much or more economy and comfort
on its part. This is to offer a two-fold opposition to
progress.
Asphalte, however, is not yet suppressed ; nor
does it appear likely to be, since we read within the
last fortnight that ' the carriage-ways of London
Wall, Bucklersbury, Cannon Street, Abchurch Lane,
Castle Street (Cripplegate), Trump Street, the north
side of St. Paul's Churchyard, Long Lane, Broadway
(Blackfriars), and Philpot Lane, are to be forthwith
asphalted ' the contracts being signed.
Science and progress cannot be put down by
4 old-fogyism,' however much the latter may retard
them. Asphalte will ultimately supersede, in towns,
both wood and granite ; and the asphalting com-
panies could forward this end to their immense
commercial benefit if they had the intelligence to
demonstrate that unshod horses would not slip on
their productions, by using unshod horses them-
202 HORSES AND ROADS.
selves. Will this ' tip ' be thrown away upon them ?
We have heard that they have held out encourage-
ment to inventors who could remedy the only defect
of their pavements ; here they get all they want,
and without any charge for it. All inventions to
avoid slipping upon asphalte have been applied to
the ivrong surface. Let them turn their attention
to the other one, and so do what other societies
are unable to do, because they get muddled with
conflicting advice, and are unable to discern for
themselves.
We have now, we believe, treated of all roads ;
and the upshot is that people are most afraid of the
best which are the hardest. Loose, broken flints,
freshly spread, no man in his right senses would
select as a trial for a horse that had just had his
shoes pulled off; although judicious treatment would
in a few days enable him to travel over them
with more comfort than if he were shod. On the
other hand, to try to harden his feet by working him
upon grass or soft roads would be almost as great a
mistake. It is well known that horses at pasture
will become tender-footed in dry summer weather,
if the ground becomes dry and hard, and that often
they have to get tips put on on this account. < Santa
Fe ' has advised that horses should be worked in the
fields at first, and then be gradually used to hard
roads. In this we are at variance with him, and
must uphold that from the first day they should
daily get some exercise on hard roads. The distance
cannot be laid down, as it depends so much on the
< IT IS NOT THE ROAD THAT HURTS THE HORSE.' 203
state of brittleness of the hoof: intelligence alone
can decide the degrees. Ni tanto, ni tan poco. The
advice offered by a ' Cavalry Officer ' is about as good
as any, and the excellent remark of * Impecuniosus,'
that ' it is the shoe, and not the road that hurts, the
horse,' contains the gist of the whole thing in fewer
words than any other writer has been able to put it.
Unfortunately, he did not arrive at the point of
doing away with iron altogether; but he went on
cutting it down in every dimension, until he found
that the less of it there was the better he got on ;
and then he imparted the result of his experience
to a public that had not sufficient capacity to take
it in.
The more simple the means offered, the less
reliance a horsey public is inclined to place in them.
There is always existing a latent hope that some
extra-scientific invention may spring up, which will
conquer all difficulties. There is no use in waiting
for it. Nature cannot, and will not, be superseded
by the puny intellect of man, when it is a question
of treating a living structure, which is so admirably
constructed as to make the very idea of improving
its construction ludicrous. Everyone may give up
all hopes on this score ; and the best thing to be
done is to travel on the 'back-track,' and meet
Mother Nature at the point where they failed to
detect her finger-post. The travel on the back-
track necessitates only the inversion of weeks to
unfold the errors of centuries ; and thrift is always
on the right side. What more can be asked for ?
204 HORSES AND ROADS.
It may, perhaps, appear to some to be too cheap to
be of any use. The writer, however, has had proofs
in the correspondence which his remarks have called
forth in the ' Farm Journal,' that the horsey world
is still as uneasy on the subject of shoeing as it
ever has been, and that a certain portion of it is
open to receive new ideas, and, at least, give them
consideration. Another proof that the system of
shoeing followed at the present day is not universally
satisfactory, is to be deduced from the fact that at
a council meeting of the Eoyal Agricultural Society
of England, held May 5 of the present year (go
back for a century, or bring it down to present date,
it always resolves itself into the same thing at last),
it is reported that ' a letter from Mr. Kobert Mynors,
suggesting the republication of "Miles on the Shoe-
ing of the Horse" as a sixpenny pamphlet, was read and
referred to the " Journal " committee, on the motion
of Sir Brandreth Gribbs, seconded by Mr. Bowley.'
Miles, as has before been stated, was seeking
only to secure the benefits resulting from expansion.
He did not fully grasp the question, because he
was, like all others, blinded, or semi-blinded with
iron ; but he tried to reduce the excessive number
of nails then, as now, used in fastening on the shoe.
He failed in establishing his system, because it was
not even as much as a half-measure ; and the society
in question will do no better with it on this very
account. The sixpenny pamphlet of Mr. Stevens,
which is ready-made, and at hand, is far more worthy
of their attention and patronage, especially when we
INFLUENCE OF DEFECTS ON BREEDING. 205
see the system it explains so highly advocated by an
authority like Mr. Fearnley. Why should societies
feel so inclined to revert to anything they can lay
hold of that carries them back to what we may call
the infancy of the art of shoeing? The reason
is that they are disgusted with the results of the
present system, and so they are always on the look-
out for ' any port in a storm.' There is a haven
open for them at an easy distance, and with wind
and tide in their favour. Although they still prefer
beating to windward, they will tire out in time.
They are evidently in want of smooth water at the
present moment. Let them therefore put back.
There is no cowardice in so doing when they find
that they really cannot weather the storm.
Before concluding, there is yet another question
which demands a high consideration in many points
of view. It has been long maintained that many
diseases are transmissible by sires and dams (either
or both) to their progeny. Not to go farther back
than the last month or two, the columns of con-
temporaries have teemed with opinions on this sub-
ject, many of them emanating from acknowledged
authorities, amongst whom are to be found managers
and secretaries of horse shows, in which progenitors
have their special cksses. It has been urged that
if all those who were not free from those physical
defects which are considered as hereditary were
objected to, there would scarcely be a competition,
on account of the number of disqualifications. It
appears right, however, that only perfect animals
206 HORSES AND ROADS.
should be chosen for the purpose of reproducing
other perfect ones. If there is anything wanting
or anything superfluous, we must be aware that it
will show itself in some way or other in the foal, and
generally in the spot where either the sire or the
dam exhibited a like defect. Spavins, &c., are
justly ascribed to shoeing as their principal cause ;
leave off shoeing and you reduce the prevalence of
such kinds of ossification. 'Like produces like.'
The tailless breed of Manx cats was produced only
by persistently amputating the tails of all kittens,
until there was not left upon the island a tail to
reproduce another one. Within the memory of the
writer a good sheep dog was supposed to be obtain-
able only if he had been pupped without a tail, or a
curt apology for one. All those who dared to bring
tails into the world with them were condemned to
the horse-pond. Within his memory, the same law
held good in France with regard to the poodle.
Now-a-days a good tail is an important point in both
the colley and the poodle ; so much so, that neither
colley nor poodle possessing a < stump ' would be
admitted to a show or fetch three halfpence any-
where.
' Men change with travel,
Manners change with climes,
Tenets with books,
And principles with times/
Entire horses mostly save their tails in their entirety ;
strictly speaking, they would not be entire unless
they did. So also do many mares ; but if we were
HORSESHOEING A NATIONAL QUESTION. 207
to fall into the habit of docking those of both
parents, we should soon get a breed of horses with
a diminished number of vertebrae. If the minus
reappears in the offspring, it is presumable that the
plus will reappear likewise. The plus is often to be
ascribed to shoeing.
Where our horses most fail is in their feet and
legs. It was lately stated at a meeting in England
that French statistics have shown that in their army
two- fifths of all cast horses were so cast for ' worn
out feet and legs.' Let us take a common-sense
(which will turn out to be the most scientific) care
of our horses' feet by the use of the brake on
wheels, and not a clumsy substitution in the shape
of a calked shoe on the horse's foot. The frog is a
natural calk, but it must have fair play. It is
pointed in front like a ploughshare to offer resistance
in one direction. To offer resistance in the contrary
direction it is semi-cloven, and thus it offers a double
resistance, for the very evident reason that a horse
needs more aid to go ahead than he does to stop him-
self. Yet the two ends have been rightly balanced
by Nature, if we could only see the thing as such.
We have the authority of previous writers that
the shoeing question is a national one, and that much
economy is in store for the nation if any improve-
ment can be introduced. The real fact is that
millions annually hang upon this very hinge, because
we are obliged, through the short lives of our horses,
to import weekly a large number of hideous foreign-
bred brutes, many of which are mares, which, when
208 HORSES AND ROADS.
they have had enough of London stone pavements,
are sold in foal by transport companies. See recent
advertisements in the daily press, and then give us
the lie.
At the Northern Horse Eepository go and see
every Friday a sale of foreign horses that always are
unshod, at least on the hind feet. The sellers are
evidently wide enough awake to have perceived that
there is some advantage in showing them off in this
state, or else they would clap shoes on to them, to
give them a fictitious value. Horse-dealers suppose
themselves to be up to e\ery dodge, and this is one,
amongst others, that they are keeping as ' dark ' as
they can. The innocent (or ignorant) acquirers of
these animals (as we have found out by frequent
attendance at these sales) never dream of putting
them to work until the farrier has been allowed to
exercise those brutalities, in which he is such an
adept, upon their feet.
These writings could be prolonged by pushing
arguments and quotations ; but we are inclined to
think that enough has been said on the present oc-
casion, which we regard strictly as a first stage upon
the road. We are not sanguine enough to believe
for a moment that we can bring about a sudden
revulsion, although we may, perhaps, have helped on
a movement which will not be arrested. We have
vouchers that some readers have been able to keep
their attention sufficiently alive to go through a
course of nearly seven months' weekly reading on
the subject in the 6 Farm Journal,' and this is en-
EXISTING DESIRE FOR SOMETHING NEW. 209
couraging. It seems to prove that ' Impecuniosus,'
practical and enterprising as he was, was not far
wrong when he still craved for some writing out of
the 'ordinary follow-my-leader style,' which might
' throw some light on a subject hitherto veiled in
obscurity, viz., the horse's foot.' We should only be
too glad to learn that this active-minded gentleman
is still in the land of the living, and that writing
containing the ' original ideas ' which he, being so
far ahead of the ' ruck,' was still open to receive,
may fall under his criticism. He is chargeable to a
great extent for its having appeared.
210
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX A.
Horse-Shoeing.
(LETTER OF ABERLORNA.)
I HAVE read with great interest the letters of 'Free
Lance ' upon the subject of horse-shoeing. Seeing he
so strongly advised using tips in place of entire shoes, I
resolved to try them, and, accordingly, rode down to the
smith's shop (ten miles off) to get them put on, and see
he did it properly. When I arrived I told him what I
wished ; he laughed, and said they never would do on
the roads, but would put them on if I wished, and so put
on they were. I rode home again, ten miles, over a road
covered with new metal in a simply abominable state,
and he arrived all safe. Two days after I rode down
again to convince the smith there was something in the
system, and he was quite surprised the horse had not
broken down on the way home after he was shod. I
must say, however, he certainly went tender, but this
appears to be wearing away in a great degree, and it is
surprising how hard and firm the soles of his feet have
got. He has naturally rather flat and tender feet. I
am so far convinced that this is the correct way of shoe-
ing horses that, if all goes well, I shall have all the
APPENDICES. 211
rest done the same way. 'Free Lance' objects very
strongly to applying a hot shoe, and I will just give one
or two extracts from a prize essay by George Armitage,
M.R.C.V.S.
' As a result of cold shoeing i.e. fitting the shoes
cold, which means rather fitting the foot to the shoe,
much inconvenience is engendered. No man can alter
cold shoes. If they are applied the foot must be altered,
and that is accomplished by tearing it away. When the
shoe is heated, it can be caused to " bed " itself to the
foot, and no injury is found to result when due care is
exercised. Good feet are never injured by it, and bad
feet might frequently be benefited by its adoption, as the
shoe always remains on more securely. Two surfaces are
caused to correspond, friction is set up between them,
and their separation not so easy. When, on the con-
trary, those surfaces do not bear any relation to each
other, they are easily separated, as all inequalities act as
so many levers against their position In practice, the
number of lost shoes under the cold method of fitting
exceeds those executed while hot more than fifty times,
and that number can be supported by all who have gone
into the matter carefully.' ' If a little calm investigation
were made, it would become evident that the objection
to the use of hot shoes in fitting is only injurious to
weak and tender feet when carried too far the foot
fitted to the shoe, in other words.'
The above extracts appear to me very sensible, and I
believe no ill effects ever result from hot shoeing, except
when done by ignorant men, who should be anywhere
but in a shoeing-forge.
ABERLORXA.
212 APPENDICES.
APPENDIX B.
Horse-Shoeing.
SIR, I have read with the greatest interest the letters
of * Free Lance ' on Horse Management, and am inclined,
from my own observations in other countries where
horses and mules are not shod, to try the experiment,
and have no doubt many of my brother farmers would
like to do the same; but will 'Free Lance,' or other
equally good authority, tell us how to make a right
beginning 1
My horses have, of course, all undergone the ' burn-
ing on' and 'laceration' consequent on this barbarous
custom, and farming operations are too backward to
admit of the apparently necessary ' rest ' being given to
allow the injuries to the hoof to ' grow out ' and harden.
Our local farrier does not, and probably would not
care to, know much about the ' Charlier ' shoe, and could
throw every impediment in the way of a gradual change
being successful.
All my horses have been bred on the farm, and, with
the exception of the sire and another, are young and
fresh ; they are in perfect health ; neither they nor their
predecessors, during the last quarter of a century, having
ever taken a drop of ' medicine,' or ' horse balls,' save the
leaden ones to cure them of * crippled ' old age.
My carter thinks it might ' do ' on the land, but shows
a disposition to kick over the traces if the experiment
is tried on the road. However, I am prepared to face
ignorant prejudice by anointing the outraged feelings of
my man by giving him half the saving in the black-
smith's bill, which success will entail, to carry out the
instructions necessary to perfect the change.
WILL WATCH.
APPENDICES. 213
APPENDIX G.
Horse- Shoeing.
SIR, I was rather amused with the letter of 'Free
Lance ' on Saturday. No doubt I did give my poor nag
rather a severe trial at first, but I believe it has set a
good many people thinking, which is a good thing, and
it has not injured the horse. I thought myself the trial
was too severe, and determined to be more cautious next
time. On Friday last I took another to be shod on the
same principle. This horse has first-rate feet, but has
had shoes put on reaching nearly to his heels, allowing
the frog to come well to the ground, and T shall shorten
them each time he goes to the smith until they are of the
required size. 1 will not say any more about hot shoe-
ing ; this will become unnecessary if all people use tips,
which any person ought, I think, to be able to put on
with very little practice and thus save the time and
trouble of having to send their horses away to be shod.
I have ridden horses hundreds of miles in South
America which never had a shoe on. Their feet grew
fast, and often I had to cut the toes, which was done
with some difficulty with a chisel and mallet by placing
the foot on a block of wood. I do not remember seeing
any lame horses except in the towns, and those were
generally, if not always, I observed, shod. The roads
were, for the most part, sand, full of rough stones, and
in some places causewayed for miles. Anyhow, they
were pretty rough going. 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.
As to the farrier?, it is useless talking to them. Take
214 APPENDICES.
your horses to them, and make them follow out your
directions through thick and thin ; it is the only way.
ABERLORNA.
APPENDIX D.
Horse- Shoeing .
SIR, In answer to 'Free Lance,' my reply is that I
used a chisel and mallet in preference to a knife, because
with the latter it would have been a laborious job, owing
to the extreme toughness of the horn. I never saw an
ordinary horse's hoof in this country so hard, because I
suppose they are all shod. I regret I never compared the
hoof of a shod horse with that of an unshod one in
South America, as it would have been interesting to note
what difference there was in the toughness.
Regarding the causeways, these were as rough as
could be stones of all descriptions and sizes laid up end-
ways, as one sees in this country, but very roughly done
and full of hollows, &c. I often wondered at the work
these little horses went through, living almost entirely
on grass and a little molasses mixed with their water,
which they would refuse to drink without. These horses
journey 400 miles or so with heavy bags of cotton and
sugar slung on their backs to the coast, and make the
return journey home laden as heavily with salt codfish
and other provisions ; yet how rare it is to see them
either lame or footsore !
I am not quite sure that in this climate of ours a
horse's foot will become as hard, owing to the damp ; but
this I hope soon to find out to my satisfaction. All I
have to say now is, let any one who has taken the trouble
APPENDICES. 215
to read all this discussion give the system advocated by
* Free Lance ' a fair trial ; don't be too hard at first, but
work on gradually, and don't be disheartened the first
two months or so, while the horse's feet are hardening.
ABERLORNA.
APPENDIX E.
Horse-Shoeing.
HAVING lived for a considerable portion of my life in the
Argentine Republic, allow me to say a few words about
the shoeing of horses. In the camp, as the country is
termed there, horses are never shod, but town horses
are. As you are aware, there are no stones on the plains
of the Argentine Republic. The soil is a rich black
mould of a considerable depth. Horses, if their hoofs
have not been accustomed by degrees to paved streets,
will naturally go tender at first ; therefore, the owners
immediately clap shoes on them. It would be as absurd
to expect a horse not reared in a stony country to go
sound when first brought on to pavement, as it would to
be surprised at a person who has never gone barefoot
feeling uncomfortable when walking over gravel without
shoes or stockings. Yet it only needs practice, and
Nature will soon put a hard covering on the sole of the
foot.
We could tell in an instant if a horse had come from
the Sierras of Cordova or other stony mountain ranges.
The hoofs are smaller than those of a Pampas horse ; in
fact, more mule-shaped and worn down by the hard
ground, and not by artificial means ; the horn is, more-
over, very dense and free from cracks. Depend upon it
216 APPENDICES.
Nature will adapt herself to circumstances. Horses bred
in Canadas or low swampy grounds have broad, flat feet.
The dampness of the soil keeps the horn soft, and the
weight of the horse expands it. Besides, there is nothing
hard to wear down the hoof all the better for the horse
as long as he has to go on wet, soft ground ; the exten-
sive surface of his foot gives him more support ; but
these kinds of hoofs need a good deal of dressing. We
generally used a chisel and mallet, making the horse
stand on a hard bit of ground, and cutting the hoof,
sometimes only at the toe, but more frequently at the
sides also. In the northern provinces the natives often
cut them square at the toe. Our favourite horses gene-
rally got a finishing touch with rasp and draw knife. The
hind feet seldom required much doing to them. In dry
weather the hoofs get very hard, and the mallet must be
used with considerable force. White hoofs are much
softer than black ones. With a moderately tame horse
there is very little trouble connected with keeping his
feet in good order. The rasp and draw knife are all that
is needed, and hard ground will keep them in good shape
without much labour expended on them. Although I
have not tried the experiment in this country, I have
little doubt of its success. Keep a young horse's feet
trim, and use him in the fields at first, and then by
degrees on the hard road, and his hoofs will soon suit
themselves to the nature of the ground. Fortunately
our ancestors did not shoe their dogs and cats, or, in all
probability, most of us would do so in the present day.
Of course the veterinaries and smiths will, in self-
defence, predict utter ruination to the feet of unshod
horses, and 80 per cent, of horse owners will refuse to
give up shoeing because it was never done in the old
days, and they cannot be bothered with trying anything
APPENDICES. 217
new. A.'s lease is nearly out, and it is not worth while
making a change ; B. is just entering a new farm, and
does not wish to risk his horses being laid off work by
lameness ; C. thinks he may be taken up and fined for
cruelty to animals ; D. thinks there may be some truth
in it, but he will wait till some one else tries it ; and E.
says his horses do their work well enough as they are,
and so on.
I think tips will be necessary for draught horses, for
some time, at any rate, especially in a hilly country,
where so much weight is thrown on the toes in going up
hill.
I may not remain long enough in England to try
Nature v. The Blacksmith, but I wish every success to
those who have pluck enough to give the non-shoeing
system a fair trial.
SANTA FK.
APPENDIX F.
The Teeth affecting other Organs.
SIR, In reference to ' Free Lance's ' excellent articles
on horses, particularly as to the teeth of that animal
affecting its other members, the following case is, perhaps,
worthy of his knowledge. Twenty-six years ago, a valu -
able horse, the property of Blantyre Mill Co., became
rigid in all its members, and showed symptoms of lock-
jaw. The veterinary surgeon ordered it to be shot. At
this point Dr. Miller, of Hamilton, appeared on the
scene, and disbelieving lockjaw to be the case, ordered
its mouth to be examined, particularly as to overgrown
beaks, which was instantly done, and after the needed
relief was given the horse became well, as if by magic.
N.
218 APPENDICES.
APPENDIX G.
Unshod Artillery Horses.
SIR, When defending the arguments of ' Free Lance '
upon the ' Bare Foot ' system, I was met with the reply
that a fair trial had been given to the system some time
ago upon the artillery horses at Woolwich, and that it
proved an entire failure, so that they were obliged to
return to the old system of shoeing.
This I cannot believe, but my present information will
not warrant me in contradicting it. I should, therefore,
be glad if any of your readers could inform me whether
such a trial was made, and how it was conducted.
J. F. K. S.
APPENDIX H.
Unshod Artillery Horses.
SIR, I am able to contradict the statement ' that a fair-
trial had been given to the system some time ago, upon
the Artillery horses at Woolwich, and that it proved an
entire failure, so that they were obliged to return to the
old system of shoeing,' and to inform J. F. K. S. that the
Royal Artillery have never tried their horses in England
without shoes.
R. C. R, Major-General.
APPENDICES. 219
APPENDIX I.
Horse- Shoeing.
SIR, I cannot thank * Free Lance ' too much for his
' tip/ and I strongly advise every one who owns a horse
to follow the advice he has given. I have done so sooner,
perhaps, than most others, because some years ago, in
South America, I had the benefit of seeing and using
unshod horses, and therefore knew what a horse's foot
could do. If people could only be got to know the
amount of trouble and expense which they would dis-
pense with by following out this system, they would be
surprised. But no, my ancestors nailed lumps of metal
on to their horses' feet, and were never pleased with the
result, and therefore I do likewise.
The farriers must not be consulted on the subject at
all : turn a deaf ear to all they say. One gravely informed
my groom that he thought the frog would wear through !
and this after he had seen the horse running ten weeks
on his own soles. My concluding advice is, follow out
exactly what ' Free Lance ' says about getting the foot
ready, and persevere steadily, and you will find, like me,
that perfect success will follow. Never again will I shoe
a horse on the old plan, and am just rather doubtful if I
put anything on some.
May 24. ABERLORNA.
APPENDIX K.
Horse-Shoeing.
SIR, Allow me to thank ' Free Lance ' for laying before
us the absurdities of the present system of horse-shoeing ;
220 APPENDICES.
and for, at the same time, giving us his excellent remedy
by not shoeing at all, or to use only a ' tip.' I have the
management of thirty draught horses, whose work is
entirely on stone paved roads. They run about eighteen
miles a day, and at the rate of six miles an hour, includ-
ing stoppages. So that you can imagine what a severe
shaking their legs and feet would get with an ordinary
shoe (which weighs about thirty-two ounces} attached to
each foot. The horses would continually brush and cut
the fetlock with the shoe of the opposite foot, and very
soon go over at the knees ; and how was I to prevent it 1
Rest would often check it, as regards cutting and brush-
ing the fetlock, for a day or two ; but I have to study
economy, and cannot, in consequence, keep a sufficient
number of horses to rest them every third or fourth day.
They have to be satisfied with one day's rest per week.
Some of your readers may say, why do I drive them so
fast 2 Well, because it is a kind of business which will
not allow of driving slowly.
On visiting a railway book-stall, I saw on the front
page of the * Farm Journal,' ' Horses Their Manage-
ment and Misrnangement.' I naturally wanted to know
if I was numbered with those who mismanaged, and, on
reading the paper, I very soon found out that I must
consider myself as one of such. I also found that ' Free
Lance ' was writing from practical experience when he
recommended that the horse should be driven barefoot,
or with only a short piece of iron ' curled round the toe/
therefore I lost no time in sending sixpence to Mr. Stevens
for his pamphlet advocating the use of the Charlier
snoe a shoe which I had not heard of before to my
knowledge.
After reading the pamphlet, and seeing that a horse
could go tvit/i the frog on the ground, I at once sent 7s. 6(7.
APPENDICES. 221
for Flemings' improved drawing-knife, with guide, the
only special tool required, and as soon as it arrived I
began shoeing my horses on the Charlier principle by
letting a narrow piece of iron into the outside crust and
allowing the frog, sole, bars, and heels to come well to
the ground.
I began very cautiously (although my horses' feet had
never been cut away, by way of trimming) for fear of a
failure, and a laugh from my farrier and others. I
ventured on a shorter shoe than the Charlier. My first
measured, before turning, ten inches. It had six nail
holes. This was for a horse 15^ hands. I put them on
one of my old ' screws,' and I am pleased to say that he
ran his eighteen miles splendidly and without any signs
of lameness. I allowed him to run, with his usual rest,
until he had gone a distance of 228 miles, as a trial.
This was done without wearing the frog through to the
quick, as my farrier was so much afraid of. The hoof
was now in splendid condition. I then gave orders for
all my horses to be shod on this principle, beginning
with my best to prevent further unnecessary injury.
With each successive horse I have shortened the iron.
Now I begin shoeing with four inches of iron let well into
tlie toe. I have not had one case of lameness from tender
feet, and every horse so shod has been able to do his
ordinary work without any extra rest. I find that the
shorter the iron the better it answers. I buy the ^-inch
round iron and flatten it to | by \ inch ; cut off four
inches, which weighs four ounces, let it well into the toe,
and nail on with No. 6 counter-sunk nails. This I find
wears quite as long, after the first shoeing, as the ordi-
nary shoe did. My drivers are continually having their
attention called, by * good meaning persons,' to the fact
that ' the 'oss 'as lost 'is shoe.' They have got so used to
222 APPENDICES.
it that they merely answer, l And a good job too.' The
frog does not become hard, as the crust, sole, and bars do.
It feels like a firm piece of indiarubber, and answers its
purpose well by preventing concussion to the whole limbs,
an office which it is debarred from fulfilling when the
foot is shod in the old-fashioned style. My farrier asked
me if he should use up the old-fashioned shoes which he
had on hand, as it was a pity to keep them. I said it
would be a sin to use them.
As will be seen in the commencement of this letter,
horses when running on stone paved roads slip very much
when shod on the old-fashioned system. Now, sir, if the
only advantage to be gained by using * tips ' would be to
prevent horses from slipping, I would use them in pre-
ference to the old shoe. But as ' Free Lance ' has so ably
pointed out, this is only one of the many advantages.
Horses shod with tips can pull a much heavier load, and
with less exertion than a horse with a full shoe. This I
have repeatedly proved. They trot carelessly along with-
out fear of a fall. I have several horses with that
hideous and incurable blemish capped elbow which is
brought about, so veterinaries say, by the heel of the
full shoe; this cannot happen when using tips; cutting
and brushing also cease with the use of ' tips.'
June 15. HUMANE.
APPENDIX L.
Unshod Horses.
SIR, I wish to say a few words to your readers in favour
of the theory propounded by ' Free Lance' a theory,
APPENDICES. 223
by-the-way, never heard of in this part of this very
verdant isle that horses not only could walk, but run
and work, without shoes.
Having read the letters of ' Free Lance/ and thinking
there might be some truth in the plan, I determined,
when I got as far as the 14th chapter, that 1 would make
a trial. Accordingly, I took the shoes off a three-year-old
colt in daily farm work.
My farrier prophesied that I would not only ruin the
feet, but the horse ; but the horse is now, at the end of
eight weeks, in the full enjoyment of all his faculties, and
has four good, sound feet, although I have driven him daily
from four to fourteen miles (Irish measure) regularly.
I would have done as ' Free Lance ' advised, and put
on three-quarter shoes, and come gradually to the bare
foot, only I could not get a farrier either able or willing
to put them on. This I believe to be the right plan, but
in a backward country place it is hard to get the work
rightly done.
In the hope that many will be tempted to try as I
have done, I am, &c.,
Co. Armagh, June 18, 1880. D. S.
APPENDIX M.
Unshod Horses.
SIR, Since I wrote my last letter, I have taken the
shoes off a pony that I use for driving, churning, &c. I
begin to work very gradually, not more than two miles
(Irish) for the first few days, increasing the length of the
journey as the foot gets hard.
224 APPENDICES.
I think this plan a veiy good one where the horse
owner has not much work pressing, as is the case with
most Irish farmers at this time of year.
Perhaps in the next generation people will begin to
see that 'Nature beats Art.'
Co. Armagh, June 29. B. S,
Three gentlemen, as will be seen, have given their
experience of doing away with the ordinary full shoe
one of them has used an ordinary tip, and another the
Charlier tip, and both of these without losing any work
from their horses : whilst the third has at once done
away with all iron, with only the precaution of not over-
working his horses from the outset. They have all
succeeded, and are satisfied that they have conferred a
great benefit upon their horses.
London, August 1880. THE AUTHOR.
INDEX.
ABE
A BERLORNA, experience of,
A 100, 109, 119, 123, 210,
213, 219
Action of horses, 148, 151, 169,
170, 173, 181
Aloes, 25, 26
American farmers, 65, 66, 67,
74, 79, 141
horseshoers (see Russell)
trotters, 42
Anstruther Thompson, Colonel,
161
Antimony, 17
Apathy of horseowners, 15
Army, farriers in the, 84, 121
Arsenic, 17
Artillery horses, 174, 218
Asphalte pavement, 43, 58, 85,
88, 126, 198, 199, 200, 201,
202
Astley, Philip, 60
Attrition, 94, 95, 112, 114, 183,
193, 194, 195
Australia, 113
T) AGEING a load, 78, 142,
JD 184
Bare feet, 82, 83, 84, 88, 94,
113,114,117,121,123,124,
125,130,143,154,187,189,
199, 208, 215, 223
Bare floors, 22, 24, 32, 65, 82,
83, 92, 115, 116, 154, 163,
189
COG
Bars of the foot, 38, 55, 56,
100, 137, 139, 177,221
Bearing rein, the, 26, 134, 170,
171, 176, 194
Blistering, 6, 25, 26, 27, 36,91,
92, 97, 151
Bracy Clark, 185, 194, 195, 11)1.
Brakes on wheels, 2, 7, 9, 11,
12, 24, 60, 86, 178, 207
Brittle hoof, 20, 46, 76, 91, 92,
93, 97, 104, 135, 139, 151,
154, 157
Broken wind, 147.
Brushing (see Cutting)
Burdett, Colonel, 91, 103, 104
' PARACTACUS,' iss
\J Cape, horses at the, 83,
141, 174
Calks, 34, 35, 37, 38, 66, 77, 78,
87, 105, 107, 178,21)7
Carriage horses, 170
Carts and cart horses, 7, 27, 35
Cavalry officer, a, 1 54
Centennial shoe, the, 74
Charlier shoe, the, 54, 55, 58,
60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 67, 69,
74, 77, 78, 140, 157, 177,
184, 200, 220
Cleft of frog, 194, 207
Climate, 81, 115, 117, 130
Clips, 43, 76,87, 105, 107
Coffin bone, the, 34, 71, 98
Cogs, 86, 87
226
INDEX.
COL
Cold shoeing, 36, 37, 66, 102,
105, 106, 107
Concussion, 57, 65, 72, 74, 170,
188, 222
Corns, 5, 31, 37, 61, 63, 90, 115,
151, 157
Coronet, the, 72, 90, 91^92, 93,
94
Cowdung, 19, 31, 46, 56, 58, 92
Crib-biting, 150
Crust, or wall of hoof, 31, 33,
36, 44, 55, 58, 71, 73, 75,
78, 98, 136, 140, 195, 221
Cutting and brushing, 5, 39,
61, 151, 157, 172, 220, 222
<T\AILY NEWS,' the, ex-
J_/ tract from, 83
' Daily Telegraph,' the, extract
from, 86, 154, 161
Dalziel on corns, 90
Dentist, veterinary, 147
Docking the tail, 132, 172, 207
Donkey, the, 80, 81, 88, 129,
130
Douglas, Mr., on slippery shoes,
10
- the frog, 11, 72, 98
hoof ointments, 19
- stride, 34
hot shoeing, 36
weight of shoes, 43, 167
structure of the crust, 44,
136
average life of the horse,
60
structure of the sole, 72, 98
military farriers, 84, 121
thrush, 89
water, litter, grease, tar, 91
grass and roads, 94, 98
horseshoers, 117
navicular disease, 150
concussion and founder, 170
gutta percha, 171
GRA
Down hill, 2, 3, 7, 8, 11, 66,
86
Drugs, 17, 18, 19
D. S.'s letters, 223
EXPANSION, 46, 48, 50 61,
72, 95, 144, 158, 160, 185,
194
FALSE quarter, 31, 36, 151
Fashion, 41, 87, 88, 134,
166, 172, 173, 190
Fearnley, Mr., on blistering.
92
the horse's head, 131
the Charlier shoe, 140
wood pavement, 140
the larynx, 147
the hunter, 156
mutilation of foot, 179
calks, 179
shoes, 184
' Field,' the, newspaper, 40, 55,
72, 187
Fitting foot to shoe, 34, 35, 39,
106
Flints, 98, 191, 202
Flower, Mr. E. F., 26, 133, 134,
176
Foreign horses, 24, 88, 207
Founder (see Laminitis)
French army, 82, 207
Frog, the, 11, 37, 55, 56, 61, 66,
72, 74, 75, 89, 98, 137, 139,
144, 184, 189, 192, 194, 207,
221
Frost, 85, 86, 161, 191
pAUCHOS, 113
U Granite pavement, 58, 85,
88, 178, 182, 187, 198, 220
Grass, 56, 94, 101, 113, 114, 154,
159, 169, 202
INDEX.
227
GRE
Greasing the hoof, 91, 92, 104
Groggy
disease)
Gutta percha, 161, 171
HEAD, the, 28, 131
Hoof ointments, 19, 31,
46, 91, 186
Hope, Sir W., 194
Horn, growth of, 33, 58, 61, 80,
109, 112, 124, 195
Hot shoeing, 35, 36, 44, 65, 66,
76, 87, 102, 107, 120
Human skin, the, 95, 98
' Humane,' letter of, 220
Hunter, the, 156-164
ICE, 64, 85, 127
Impecuniosus on tips, 49
mutilation of hoof, 51
shoeing reform, 52
the Charlier shoe 54
india-rubber, 57
three-quarter shoe, 61, 110
ideas sprung from wrong
roots, 138
hind feet, 141
his horses, 156
it is the shoe that hurts the
horse, 203
Improved principles, 32, 37, 38
India, cavalry in, 83
India-rubber, 57
JENNINGS, H., trainer, 143,
U 145, 153
TTIDNEYS, irritation of, 25
A
T ARYNX, the, 147
Jj Laceration of horn, 73, 87,
136
MAY
Lady's horse, the, 165-168
Lafosse, 44, 45, 46
Laminitis (founder), 34, 65, 66,
157, 170, 175
' Lancet,' the, on shoeing, 125
Lawrence, Mr., 13
Life, average of, in the horse,
62
Litter, 22, 23, 24, 31, 91, 154,
182
Lock jaw, 174, 217
Ludgate Hill, 10, 12, 126, 127,
128, 129
Lunette shoe, or tip, 45, 109
Lupton, Mr., 30, 136, 137
MAYHEW on springs, 1
sprain of tendon, 11
servants, 14, 15
masters, 14
prejudices of ignorance, 25
aloes, physicking, 26
seedy toe and false quarter,
31, 97, 149
tips, 49, 167
expansion, 50, 96
veterinary surgeons, 51, 82,
96
nature a strict economist,
59
foot of donkey, 80
conceit of mankind, 81
spavin, splint, and ringbone,
90
the necessity of being ' prac-
tical,' 94
the necessity of attrition, 95
selfishness, ignorance, and
prejudice, 117
evil results, 134
different aspects of disease,
149
navicular disease, 150
the folly of obstinacy, 152
transpiration in the foot, 162
Q 2
228
INDEX.
MAT
May hew on farriers, 171
pride has no brains, 173
the multiformity of shoes,
185
grease and stopping, 186
organism of the foot, 194
unnatural restraint, 196
Mexico, 88, 130
Miles, on the horse's foot, 46,
114, 159, 196, 204
* Morning Advertiser,' the, ex-
tracts from, 83, 165
Moscow, retreat from, 82
Mules, 88, 177, 180, 181, 182,
183, 184
Mutilation of hoof, 32, 33, 35,
37, 43, 52, 58, 59, 66, 100,
104, 171, 179
\TAVICULAR disease (grog-
1M giness), 5, 37, 62, 150
Nitre, 17
Nostrums, 17
OCULIST, 146, 149
Oils, 92, 97
Osmer, 77, 116, 192, 195
Overreach, 90
Overshot fetlock, 151
PARENTS, 205, 208
Park hacks, 168
Pembroke, Lord, 14, 22, 29, 35
Percival, Professor, on tips, 49
Physic, 25
Poisoning, 18, 64
Pumice foot (drop sole), 5, 57,
58, 62, 97
Q
UITTOR, 5, 89, 90, 151
(ACE horses, 34, 144, 153
\t Rasping the toe, 79, 80,
112, 117, 122, 172, 195
SPA
Rest, 6, 25, 26, 97, 103
Ride and drive horse, the, 176
Ringbone, 5, 89, 90
Roads {see also Asphalte, Gra-
nite and Wood), 49, 55, 63,
66, 70, 79, 80, 81, 86, 89, 99,
101, 122,144,145,165,169,
180, 188, 190, 191, 192, 194,
202, 215
Roaring, 147
Royal Agricultural Society, 204
Roman horses, 45
Roughing, 58, 59, 86
Routine, 26, 67, 81, 82, 85, 153
Russell, American horse-shoer,
73, 75, 76, 147
Runaway horses, 2, 12
SAND, 85, 126, 127
Sandcrack, 5, 34, 36, 89,
90,97
Santa Fe (correspondent), 153,
177, 202, 215
Sawdust, 23
Scoop-toed rolling- motion shoe,
74
Seedy toe, 5, 23, 31, 34, 36, 89,
90, 97, 147, 149, 151
Seeley shoe, the, 105, 107
Servants, 7, 14, 15, 29, 30, 39,
61
Sidebones, 5, 39, 61, 89, 157
Sires and dams, 205, 208
Slipping, 5, 10, 31, 35, 45, 48,
58, 63, 70, 72, 85, 86, 126,
127, 135, 175, 184,202,222
Smither, Messrs., 43, 62, 63, 68,
88
Snow, 61, 85, 87, 161
Sole, the, 33, 35, 37, 55, 56, 57,
58, 61, 62, 70, 72, 75, 76,
77, 98, 101, 103, 104, 117,
137, 167, 192, 210
Spain, shoeing in, 36, 37, 106,
190
INDEX
229
SPA
Spain, mules in, 182
stables in, 190
Spavin, 5, 89, 90
Splint, 5, 39, 89, 90, 94, 104,
151
' Sporting Gazette,' the news-
paper, 161
' Sportsman,' the, newspaper,
143
Springs on vehicles, 1
' Standard,' the, extract from,
145
Stanley, Mr., on navicular
disease, 62
St. Bell, on shoeing, 58
Stevens, Mr., on the Charlier
shoe, 62, 63, 78, 163, 200,
204, 220
Stone pavement, (see Granite)
Stopping the feet, 19, 31, 58,
91, 92, 186
Straw, 22, 24, 182, 190
Stride, 28, 34
Swollen legs, 22, 157
TAR, 19, 91
Teeth, 148, 174, 217
Tendons, 5, 11, 27, 39
Three-quarter shoe, 61, 78, 119,
163, 213, 221
Thrush, 5, 89, 90
Tight shoeing, 106
Tips, 44, 45, 49, 55, 58, 61, 65,
66, 67, 77, 78, 102, 109,
110,112,120,140,144,154,
166, 193, 210-221
Toe, 34, 49, 55, 79, 80, 87, 109,
112, 121, 196, 213, 221
ZUL
Trainers of racehorses, 34, 143,
145, 153
Tramways, 105, 178
Transmission of disease, 205
Transpiration in the hoof, 162
Tread, on, 34, 39, 40, 61, 80,
137, 173, 180
TTRUGUAY, horses in, 88
TTEGETIUS on wood paving,
V 116
Veterinary dentist, 148
WATER-CURE, the, 91, 92
Weaving, 150
Weight of dirt, 158
-shoe, 35, 42, 77, 105, 158,
167, 171, 220
Wind, broken, 147
Windsucking, 150
Wood pavement, 85, 88, 126,
140, 198, 199
YENOPHON, 22, 116, 188
A
'OUATT, 26, 42, 77, 95, 158
f/ULU war, the, 83, 84
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