HORSE-SHOEING

New Zealand Mail, 24 September 1902, Page 65 (Supplement)

HORSE-SHOEING

“Humanitas” writes to the “Australasian” : —The fact of having a, valuable horse nearly ruined by bad or careless shoeing has made mo anxious to say a few words on this subject. It does seem strange that horses alone of all animals should be the only ones whose feet do not permit them to remain useful to the full term of their bodily powers. As a rule, long before they show signs of advancing age, their feet render them unfit „for anything, except the very humblest kind of work. Even an old working bullock can be used until age unfits him tor the exertion of his strength. Not so with horses. After a few years’ work, even when they have been taken special care of, most horses begin to ®how signs of weakness in their feet. I cannot help feeling assured that the secret of their short sphere of usefulness arises from the present system of shoeing. Corns and contracted feet are certainly due to this cause, and to this alone. An unshod horse would never suffer from corns or contracted feet. It appears to me that the nails in norses hoofs are often brought out too nigh, and then as soon as the hoof begins to grow and expand, the nails are pressed m upon the sensitive parts of the foot, to which they are. already most perilously near. In other cases, and this happens frequently, the shoes are made too small, and when fixed firmly on (often far too firmly), the fioot is rasped away all round to the size of the shoe. Nails are also frequently driven much too close to the fr; y ll6 thing has often struck me, this must show the unwholesome effect of nails in the hoof, that on the removal of the best-placed shoe from a horse s foot, after being on no longer tna,n a fortnight, there is always more or less an offensive odour from the foot, fit is strange that we should be still shoeing our horses as our ancestors did hundreds of years before us. There are few other matters in which he keen wit) of the inventor has not made changes for the better. Surely some clever genius can devise a better system of shoeing than the present mu a w 1110)1 nails would bear no part, ihat it can and will be done sooner or later 1 a m morally certain. Such an invention would enable horses’ feet to last twme as long as they do now. , something simple, and admit tab] o of easy removal and replace,.ol y-' l t must also admit of being v ghtened or loosened with ease, that

the horse’s foot, when resting, may be relieved of all pressure. I am certain poor horses suffer from tight shoes just as frequently as ever human beings do, bub as they cannot help themselves they have simply .to bear it. Even if a shoe of this kind cost a little more than the present one, few would begrudge the extra cost on a good horse. There is much here awaiting the genius of some clever inventor, and the man who can aohievo the desired result would not only deserve a medal from the Humane Society, but would undoubtedly make a large fortune.