Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-10-14
Agricultural.


Owners Of horses have long believed shoe
ing to be a necessity and that without shoes
the feet Of working horses would soon be-
come worn so as TO cause lameness. That
shoeing horses has been the universal custom
for so long time, raises strong presump-
ton in favor of the practice. We might rea-
son that the horseshoe never would have been
devised had there not been an apparent ne
cessity for it. On the other hand, there are
theoretical reasons that seem to have some
weight in favor of barefooted horses. Nature
evidently designed horses to be able to travel
without shoes. II furnished the horses foot
with an elastic cushion, relieving the jar of
the football and tending, when the animal is
in rapid motion, to make II light and rebound
ing All this is destroyed by a thick shoe
that will not permit any part of the horses
weight to fall upon the cushion. The solid
part of the hoof rests upon the shoe, and on
hard road the horse travels as he would II
the hoof had been made solid, with no elastic
cushion to relieve the jar of the football.
There is no doubt that lameness frequently
results from this cause. If the hoof is pared
before setting the shoe, so that the weight of
eho hOASo AVbNo phAhJ upon hho AipBi eho hn'
ural use of this elastic cushion is in a meas
ure preserved; but it is difficult to set a shoe
and keep it in position, so as not to interfere
with any of the natural functions of the foot.
II it were possible to use a barefooted horse
without wearing his feet so as to make them
sore and tender, he would perhaps travel bet
ter and be less liable to lameness than If shod.
1t has been claimed that it is not only posi-
BILE but practicable to use horses without
shoes that, for ordinary driving shoes are
not only useless, but worse than useless, for
most horses. A few have made the expert
ment of using their horses without shoeing.
One of these is a gentleman well known in
this part of the state-L. s. Walker, Esq, of
Grafton. He has fine-looking black horse
that he has driven for the past four years,
most of the time without shoes, only using
light, thin ones in the winter when there was
danger of slipping on the ice. He says his
horse has never been lame or footsore in con-
sequence of being used unshod. He has
sometimes driven it barefooted fifty miles q
day. Owning this animal when it was a colt
three years of age, like others he supposed it
must be shod. The shoes had been removed
for time in consequence of temporary
lameness, from which the colt had fully re-
covered, when he started for the shop with
the shoes, intending to have them reset; but
the animal stepped so nicely without them,
that, after reaching the blacksmith's he con-
cluded to let well enough alone, and returned
with the barefooted horse, which he has con-
tinued to use without shoes except for a short
time in the icy season.
We have read of several instances where
the experiment of usi2g, unshod horses has
been tried with success but such trials have
not invariably proved favorable to the bare
foot theory. In some cases, the feet have be-
come so worn and tender that the horse was
useless until the shoes were replaced. The
feet of a horse that had never worn shoes
would naturally become very tough and less
likely to wear or break off than the hoof of a
horse that has been shod. The feet of boy
accustomed to go barefooted become 80 tough
that he walks with his bare feet over the
toughest ground without difficulty. The fail
ure of some horses to endure bare feet may
be owing to their having been accustomed to
wearing shoes just as a man would be una
BILE to take off his shoes and walk barefooted
over rough ground where boy, with feet
toughened by long use without shoes, would
pass without inconvenience
1t is not very uncommon for horses to be
used without shoes for the hind feet. wri-
ter that seems to have given considerable at
tention to horses and who has tried using
them for farm work with bare feet, is of the
opinion that generally only the forward feet
need shoeing.