Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-19
HORSES FEET.

The Popular Science Monthly for Febru-
airy prints a very interesting paper by
Sir George w. Cox, from Fro-er's Mag
azine, on the subject of horses feet. The
purpose of the article is to demonstrate
the utter folly and mischief of the practice
of shoeing horses. Such an attack upon a
custom which has become matter of blind
faith with the majority is certain to elicit
the most angry rejoinders from the old
school, but no matter what notions and
prejudices it runs counter to, we are of
opinion that Sir George Cox has proved his
case. He shows that the long catalogue
of diseases to which the feet of horses in
civilized life are subject, are attributable
entirely to the pressure of the shoes upon
the hoofs. He shows that when horses
become lame they are made so in ninety
nine cases out of hundred by the unnat-
ural distortion of their feet by the I'M
scientific and irrational manipulation of
the farrier. He shows that nature gave
~ NhS iAOASS q iOihJ iOi ito lOOO
which was amply sufficient to protect it
against any kind of ground, and that if
nature is left alone she is abundantly COM
petent to take care of the health of her
creatures. The hoof of the horse is meant
to be elastic to expand and contract with
pressure. But man in his perverse ignor-
ance has undertaken to improve upon ma
ture, and has thought to make better and
stronger hoof than nature could. So he
has invented horseshoes, and with them
troop OF equine ailments all of which
come In their train.
No horseshoe that gives complete salts.
faction has ever been invented, and no
horseshoe which is not liable to do more
harm than good. The superstition that
horses cannot 60 without shoes is one which
has no justification in fact Observation
and experience show that horses will 90
better without shoes than with, after
little practice, and those that are unshod
soon acquire hardness of hoof capable of
resisting any kind of road. In all the ami
NAL creation we find that each creature is
fully adapted to its surroundings, and that
its means of locomotion, self-defense, and
food gathering, are the best that could be
devised under the circumstances. The
foot of the horse is no exception to the rule.
Nature did not send the horse into the
world half-equipped. She did not leave
him with feet so tender that unless some
other power than hers supplemented her
labor, he would perish through this def
cheney. On the contrary, she gave to him
foot which was admirably contrived to
answer all the purposes to which horses
in its mechanism to be desired or i'm.
proved.
Man, however, often most foolish when
he thinks himself most president, knowing
nothing of the wisdom of Nature, thinking
great deal of his own, undertook to carry
the work of Nature further than she had
ever contemplated. So the horse was shod,
and Notwithstanding the fact that he has
been subject to various forms of lameness
and foot disease ever since, whereas he
was previously free from all ailments of the
kind, it is held as an article almost of re.
hgious faith that he must be shod. OF
late years, however, Science has been in
serting the thin edge of the wedge into
this time. honored fallacy, and there is
growing evidence that eventually the old
ideas will be discarded, and that actual
demonstration will at length, no matter
after what resistance, drive superstition
and custom from the field
The fact that whenever the disuse of
horseshoes is tried, the results speedily
Justify the course, renders it certain that
the no-shoe party will triumph in the end.
And there is not a single argument for
merly used by the advocates of shoeing
which is not now proved to be erroneous.
For instance, it was claimed that though