The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-04-19
Law should Require High Standard OF
Competency from HOrseshoers Cor
Humanitarian Reasons.
HoRsESHoEING A PROFESSION
Mr.. EGAN THINKS 1T SHOULD BE a
RECOGNIZED As SUCH.
Horses Used on Hard City Streets
should Be Particularly Well
Cared For.

Is horseshoeing a profession? Dennis
Egan, who has spent lifetime at the forge
and anvil, says it is profession and should
be so recognized by law. The claim he
makes TO its recognition as a profession Is
based on humanitarian grounds largely. X
is not new among the organizations OF far
riers in this country. The national asso-
citation has discussed legislation in aid OF
the profession and the Indiana association.
at its last session in Evansville, urged leg
islation that would so dignity and protect
ii. But no law carrying out this scheme
was presented. One more commercial was
that making shoeing services lien upon
the animal shod. This law was not passed.
Mr.. Egan has been horseshoer for over
thirty years. Indianapolis has known him
most of that time. He is a jovial. thrifty
man, whose industry has now made him
the master of a shop of six furnaces, and
he wears the leather apron only OCCASION
ally.
"Shoeing is a profession, a science" he
said yesterday. There are many men who
can handle a rasp and use knife, but
they are not scientific shoers All that the
men who ask legislation recognizing the
profession hope for is the protection OF
those who are capable against those who
are not. for the horse is animate and in his
use there is nothing more important than
that he be shod. ] have found many men
who never cared whether a horses shoes
were properly put on or not. / have con-
tempt for such men. Any man who has as
ISOLATED with horses as much as / have will
realize the fidelity of that animal to man.
If every man was compelled to wear shoes
that did not fit his feet and his feet be-
came sore and his limbs bad he would ut
ter loud complaints. Yet many of those
men would care nothing IL their horse
showed as plainly as IL could that it's feet
were badly shod and that IL was In con-
slant pain. So from humanitarian stand
point alone horseshoeing should be recog-
nized as a profession and those protesting
it be required to make plain their compe-
tency.
ETHICS OF SHOEING
There are other trades the law does not
require standards for. There are all classes
of carpenters. The poor ones are, like poor
shoers. worth only what they merit But
the carpenter deals with the inanimate and
causes no injury. But a good horse once
committed to the hands Of a bad sheer may
be condemned to life of pain as well as
one of labor.
1.-The organized master horseshoers be-
lieve that this is unnecessary. The men
who merely make a shoe and nail il on as
best they can are not good workmen. Most
of the shoers in Indianapolis are men who
try to shoe a horse properly. and in doing
this they make the foot comfortable and
increase the service value of the animal.
But there are some who are not educated
enough in the business to recognize the
differences in hoofs and know little OF the
anatomical conditions
1t is the idea of Mr.. Egan and many other
horseshoers that, upon humanitarian
grounds, the State should require all pro-
Tossing the art of shoeing TO pass an ex-
animation as to their anatomical knowl-
edge as well their mechanical skill The
two go together. they argue. The foot OF a
horse is to them always a new and interest
ing problem. Some hoofs incapable OF
proper shoeing-that is. proper shoeing will
not accomplish all in some that II would IN
others.
The reason of this is that the horse was
intended to go unshod. Civilization has
brought innumerable things 10 make the
service of the horse fraught with difficulty
and pain. The farm horse is the best dis
posed of the family, for he has soft foot
ing nearly all of his life. The city horse Is
compelled to travel with iron shoes over
pavements hard as iron and has little OF
the comfort of the pillow horse.
Farriery has literature Of its own. Eu-
ropean writer's were in vogue with Amer
lean horseshoers until the last decade.
when the conditions In this country made
their advice obsolete. Indianapolis has 40
miles of hard pavements, and over these
pavements thousands of horses must per-
form their daily labor. Nature. IL is con-
tended, did not design the horses focs for
such constant service, and consequently the
horses foot is heir to many Ills that may
be alienated only by correct farriery. This
correct farriery includes humane treatment
of the foot in shoeing.
AN AMERICAN AUTHORITY
The chief exponent OF legal recognition
of horse-shoeing is William Russell. OF Gin
cinnati. He is looked upon the Ameri-
can authority on shoeing He has written
an authoritative work on scientific horse
shoeing and in this work takes a high
stand for the protection OF the horse against
inhuman shoeing. He assumes that a man
who establishes himself as blacksmith an
nounces to the community that he Is capa-
BILE to do first-class work. The general
public he declares, is incapable OF know
ing whether the work is properly or I'm
properly done and may not find IL out even
after the horse Is measurabiy ruined for
service and condemned 70 torture. In
deed" he says. "a majority OF people seem
to think that horses foot is only a hard
horny macs. without capacity for pain or
feeling that may be hacked, pared. burned
nailed and mutilated at will by any ap-
prentice or other person who chooses TO
claim ability enough TO fasten a piece OF
iron 10 what he seems 10 consider as q
mere piece OF inanimate matter. This n
a great mistake. The horses foot Is q
beautiful structure. highly organized. con-
tanning nerves. blood vessels. delicate joints
and other organs and mechanism. whose
arrangement plan and purpose should be.
at least. in part. known by the farrfsr.- A
farrier who does not know the structure
OF a horses foot Is Incompetent.
Mr. Russell has interested humane So