Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-08-14
OUGHT HORSES TO he SHOD.

OUGHT AORsEsT TO BE sHOD.
The English Horsemen ana Doctors
Discuss the Question, ana Decide II in
the Negative.
New York Sun.
An interesting discussion as to wheth.
er horses should or should not be shod
mas recently sprung up in England.
Mr.. George Ransom, who has lived for
the last three years in Venezuela, and
ior many years previous in Brazil, be-
lieves that horses ought never to be
shod. Keep rasp and a large rough
me" he says, land use them frequent
ly on the bottoms as well as edges of
the hoofs, and on no account allow a
draw-knife on your premises, or your
man will be cutting away the bars and
frog, and pairing the sole, just as he sees
the farrier do, thereby altering the foot
from what the Almighty desinged it.
l except no class of horses, or any sea.
son, or any kind of road, or across any
country" Mr.. Ransome grounds his
belief on what he has seen in South
America, where the horses, both in city
and country, are unshod. He has
driven and ridden unshod hoses him.
self constantly ever since the year 1852:
and in Brazil he has often owned two
hundred horses ut one time, used for all
purposes, draft, saddle, and pack, and
not a shoe Oh any one of them. And
his horses were not working over grass
or sand, but over the toughest roads
imaginable. "In Brazil" he tells us
"pack-horses come down the country
from over eight hundred miles, about
SIX weeks journey, carrying the very
heavy load of three hundred and twen-
ty pounds, exclusive of saddle and
travelling necessaries. Yet they get
back again with return load all sound,
and not an animal among them is shod.
IL the cities, the streets Of which are
paved and asphalted, the European
Arabian, and other carriage horses
which cost very long prices, are all un.
shod, and so slipping is unknown"
Pull off your hores's shoes and gradu-
ally let him feel his feet, advises Mr..
Ransom, keeping the edges of the hoof
slightly rounded of with rasp to pre-.
vent the raveling up of the edges, and,
after year or two's experience, you
will become agreeably surprised by the
absence of corns, splints, and other
nuisances brought on by shoeing. An
other point made by Mr.. Ransom is
that while it is true that draft horses
have to dig their toes into the ground to
start n load, it is merely because thew
are shoe, land when left unshod thew start
with the flat of the foot, ana thus have
more holding surface. Three years
ago, on his arrival in Venezuela, whence
he has but just returned, Mr.. Ransom
bought two saddle horses for the use of
himself and servant. He writes:
II took two horses, fifty-two miles
apart, measured by myself with chain.
| was in the habit of riding from one to
the other on the same animal in one
day, and l kept them both during the
whole time, of course all the time I'm.
shod; and this in all seasons over n
country that embraced every descrip-
ton of road from swamp up to rocky
mountain passes. The worst road
know of is heavy clay with stone
mixed up in it, and after rain; vet even
this only brought out more strongly
the advantage of having no shoes to
deal with"
Mr.. Ransom's views are confirmed
by other gentlemen. Percy w. Doyle
says:
Every word he has written about
Brazil applies equally to Mexico, where
l lived for several years, and my ex.
perience is the same as his as to the
immense advantage of riding and driv.
ing unshod horses. The hoofs, by their
natural growth, are preserved from
many diseases, greatly produced by the
various systems of shoeing."
Mai. Gen. Robert G. Romer had ex.
perienced some years ago, when he
commanded battery of royal artillery
at Natal, in using horses without shoes.
"The horses were," he writes, with few
exceptions, unshod in their fOrefeet, and
none were shod behind, and / was in
the habit Of travelling the guns over
very rough ground, often over precipi-
tous, and at times very slippery, roads.
l am satisfied they did their work as
we'll and with greater comfort to thom-
selves, not to mention economy, than if
they had been shod. My own horses,
of which l had a good many during the
five years was in Natal, were never,
with one exception, shod, and l con-
stantly rode them, hunting and shoot
ing, and long distances"
Under the signature Of Pomingo-
larna," some one writes that his expert
ence of horses in Australia. extending
over number of years, enables him
partially to confirm the opinion express
ed by Mr.. George Ransom. In Aus
tralia, he informs us, numbers of
horses are used for various purposes