The Portland daily press., 1880-12-24
FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER "a.
Should Horses Be Shod?

The question of shoeing horses is discussed
at length in Fraser's Magazine for December.
The writer thinks that horses are now worn
out at least fourteen years before they ought
to be and that in this the United Kingdom
loses S675. 600, 000every twenty-one years Diff
ferent causes for the injury of horses are men,
toned, but the writer thinks that abuses of
their feet are the most serious, and he asks:
eff the working of the Evolutionary system
leaves the horse wreck almost before he has
reached his prime, if the lessening of the
weight of iron and of the number of nails used
in fixing the iron has been followed by direct
and important benefits in every instance, if
even those who hold that a horse must be shod
have discovered that that which they look up
on as protection to the fore feet is merely
harmful to the hind feet, is it possible to stifie
the suspicion that this insignificant remnant
of system SO fruitful in mischief may have
no magic power, and, in short, that the horse
may do just as well without them?' In his
reply to this Re says:
THE plain truth is that differences in the
quality of soil, be it hard or soft, stony or
sandy, smooth and slippery, are of COMPARE
lively little importance to the horse whose
feet are as nature made them. In the words
Of Free Lance the unshod horse can success
fully deal with all roads, and assuredly no
one will dream of asserting that shod horses
can do this for on the setting in of frost, for
instance, they cannot be worked until certain
ceremonies have been gone through at the
blacksmith's forge. The unshod horse can
tread firmly on the slime of wooden paveme nts
l.x.A
in agony around him; he can gallop on ice, and
trot for miles together on the hardest and
toughest flint roads, with far more ease and
comfort than horses whose feet are shod with
iron or even with gutta-percha. Free Lance
rightly remarks that IF they could not there
would be an end of the thing, for evidently
the horse should be able to 60 anywhere and
everywhere at a moments notice. 1t seems
hard to produce the conviction that the natu-
raj sole of the horses foot is almost impenetra-
BILE, that it is so hard and strong as to protect
the sensible sole from all harm, and that all
feet exposed to hard objects are made harder
by the contact. provided only that the sole is
never pared. This adequacy of the horses foot
to all demands that may be made upon it, is
forcibly illustrated by Mr.. Bracy Clark, who,
like Mr.. Douglass and Mr.. Mayhem, contented
himself with striving to produce perfect
shoe, although he acknowledged that if we
wish to appreciate the full beauty of its struc-
ture, I'VE must dismiss from our views the
IulscTdUit, CO6ICeu, SuOu lou 6uLlfely, anu COIL
slider the animal in pure state of nature us
ing his foot without any defence Probably
Mr.. Clark thought that, though we may con
slider it in its natural state, few can ever so be-
hold it, as all horses in civilized countries are
in a greater or less degree brought under artl-
fetal conditions. The plea is fallaclous. The
horse is clearly intended by nature to serve as
a domesticated animal, and so long as we do
not interfere with the proper functions of any
part of the body (and the abomination of bear
ing reins and other such practices interferes
with them grievously and even fatality, we
bring it under no conditions which it was not
desgnedly calculated to encounter. Private
owners and companies whose horses must be
numbered by troops are naturally irritated by
the accidents constantly occurring on smooth
and Shiny pavements or on rough and hard
stone or flint roads, and in their disgust they
have offered rewards for the invention of
shoe which shall render the horse Indifferent
to the materials over which he has to pass, and
have clamored for uniform style of pavement
in all towns. 1t seems strange indeed that no
misgiving seems to cross their minds that they
are taking thought of the wrong surface, and
that they are scared by false terrors when they
dread the contact of the unshod hnof with
sand granite, flint, wood, or asphalt. 1t can
not, indeed, be too often repeated or too strong.
ly insisted on that the foot of the horse in no
way needs to rest on soft and yielding sur
faces. -s