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RATIONAL HORSE-SHOEING.
by
WILDAIR.
PREFIX.
Since the publication of this little volume we have made changes in our
horse shoe with a view to adapt it especially to Army use. Our design
has been to make a shoe that any Army farrier can apply in a cold state
without the use of any other tool than a knife to prepare the hoof, and
a hammer to drive the nails. Our success in this attempt has been so
complete that we are now using the pattern designed especially for Army
use in all our contract work.
The shoe is rolled without a heel calk, so that the frog-pressure may be
readily secured without heating and drawing the iron:--the nail holes
are punched so that the nail furnished by us with the shoe may be
driven, without the use of the pritchel to punch out the holes. The
shoe, being made of the best quality of iron, may be bent cold to adapt
it to the shape of the hoof.
Officers will at once see what a vast saving there is in the
transportation of shoes--requiring no forge with its heavy outfit--and
which are less than half the weight of the clumsy old patterns.
[Illustration: THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH.]
RATIONAL HORSE-SHOEING.
by
WILDAIR.
With Illustrations.
New York:
Published by Wynkoop and Hallenbeck,
No. 113 Fulton Street.
1873.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
Wynkoop & Hallenbeck,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
INTRODUCTION.
In presenting the observations contained in the following pages, we are
aware that we appeal to practical men who judge by results, and have but
slight patience with mere theory. We wish, therefore, to state clearly
at the outset, that the system of horse-shoeing herein advocated, and
the shoe offered by us to accompany it and accomplish its purpose, are
the result of years of patient study of nature, and actual experiment;
and that although we have had to contend with ignorance and interest on
the part of the farriers, and indifference and prejudice on the part of
owners of horses, we have finally succeeded in interesting the most
practical and capable men in America, England, and France in the
matter; and, at the time of this publication, thousands of horses,
engaged in the most arduous labors of equine life--upon railways,
express wagons, transfer companies, and other similar difficult
positions--are traveling upon our shoes, their labors lightened by its
assistance, their feet preserved in a natural, healthy state, and their
lives prolonged to the profit of their owners and the advancement of
that cause--one of the evidences of the progress of our age in true
enlightenment--which has for its beneficent object the prevention of
cruelty to the dumb and helpless companions of our toil.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
The first application of the Goodenough shoe is almost invariably to the
feet of horses suffering from some one of the forms of foot disease,
induced by the unnatural method of shoeing. Our system is intended for
sound horses, to supply the necessary protection to the feet, and to
keep them in a healthy condition. Our rules for shoeing, embodied in our
circular of instructions, are applicable to sound horses, and disease
must be provided for as exceptional.
Men are careless and, as a rule, unobservant; they go on in the old way
until the horse flinches in action or stands "pointing" in dumb appeal to
his owner, telling with mute but touching eloquence of his tight-ironed,
feverish foot, the dead frog, and the insidious disease, soon to destroy
the free action characteristic of health. It is when this evidence brings
the truth home to him that the neglectful master, eager to relieve the
animal, tries our system. To such masters we must say, do not expect that
the imprudence and neglect of years can be remedied in an instant. The age
of miracles long ago passed away. We do not propose to cure by formula,
or bell and book. There is no "laying on of hands"--no magical touch of an
enchanter's wand.
Remember always that pain is the warning cry of a faithful sentinel on
the outpost, that disease is at hand. Disease is the punishment
following a violation of the laws of nature, and can only be escaped by
restoring natural conditions.
Remember also, that "Nature," so called by Hippocrates, the earliest
systematic writer upon medicine, never slumbers nor fails in duty, but
strives with unerring, active intelligence to prevent disease, or to
cure it when it can not be prevented.
When the measures and processes of the physician are in harmony with the
natural intention, disease may be cured; when they are adverse in
application, the patient dies, or recovers in spite of art.
A great French philosopher powerfully remarked: "Nature fights with
disease a battle to the death; a blind man armed with a club--that is, a
physician--comes in to make peace between them. Failing in that, he lays
about him with his club. If he happens to hit disease he kills disease;
if he hits nature he kills nature."
We wish to be understood that in all things we would assist and
facilitate the action of nature, under the artificial restraints of the
horse. If we fail in this, or offer obstruction, our occupation is gone.
The world has no time to listen to our theory, no use for our practice.
And we hope that the thoughtful readers of these pages will see in our
intention, an earnest, honest purpose and belief, and that, without
affectation of science or pretense of superior knowledge, we base all
our efforts upon nature and common sense.
In following our instructions and attempting to use our method, _have
patience_, and note the result from day to day. The horse will quickly
tell you. His action will expose quackery and unmask pretension. He will
be no party to a fraud, no advocate of an advertisement.
SOUND HORSES.
A sound horse is, after man, the paragon of animals. "In form and moving
how express and admirable!" His frame is perfect mechanism, instinct
with glowing life, and guarded by the great conservative and healing
powers of nature from disease and death. His vitality is surpassed by
that of man, because man has the endowment of soul, and in his human
breast hope springs eternal and imagination gives fresh powers of
resistance. Like man, the horse conforms cheerfully to all climates and
to all circumstances. He is equally at home--
"Whether where equinoctial fervors glow
Or winter wraps the polar world in snow."
Amid the sands of Arabia his thin hide and fine hair evidence his
breeding; in the frozen north his shaggy covering defends him from the
cold storms and searching winds. The disadvantages under which he will
work are in no way so clearly illustrated as in his efficiency when
exposed to the evils of shoeing. Placed upon heel-calks, to slip about
and catch with wrenching force in the interstices of city pavements, or
loaded with iron-clogs, to give him "knee-action" and to "untie his
shoulders," he bravely faces his discomforts and does to the best of his
ability his master's will.
How quickly his active system responds to intelligent care and shows its
beneficial results! And when relieved from the abuses of ignorance, his
recuperative powers re-establish the springing step of youth.
CHAPTER I.
EVILS OF COMMON SHOEING.
Every horseman finds his chief difficulty in the fact that he has to
protect the natural foot from the wear incident to the artificial
condition in which the horse is placed in his relation to man. In those
important industries where great numbers of horses are used, and the
profit of the business depends upon the efficiency of the animal, the
question becomes a very serious one, and the life term of the horse, or
the proportion of the number of animals that are kept from their tasks
by inability, make the difference between profit and loss to the great
transportation lines that facilitate the busy current of city life. But
notwithstanding the importance of this subject, upon the score equally
of economy and humanity, the world is, for the most part, just where it
was a thousand years ago, possibly worse off, for the original purpose
of shoeing was only to protect the foot from attrition or chipping, and
but little iron was used, but, as the utility of the operation became
apparent, the smith boldly took the responsibility of altering the form
of the hoof to suit his own unreasoning views, cutting away, as
superfluous, the sole and bars, paring the frog to a shapely smoothness,
and then nailing on a broad, heavy piece of iron, covering not only the
wall but a portion of the sole also, thus putting it out of the power of
the horse to take a natural, elastic step.
In a short time the hoof, unbraced by the sole and bars, begins to
contract, the action of the frog upon the ground, which in the natural
foot is threefold--acting as a cushion to receive the force of the blow
and thus relieve the nerves and joints of the leg from concussion,
opening and expanding the hoof by its upward pressure, quickening the
circulation and thereby stimulating the natural secretions,--this all
important part of the organization, without which there is no foot and
no horse, becomes hard, dry, and useless. Then follows the whole train
of natural consequences. The delicate system of joints inclosed in the
hoof feel the pressure of contraction, the knees bend forward in an
attempt to relieve the contracted heel. In this action the use of the
leg is partially lost. The horse endeavors to secure a new bearing,
interferes in movement, or stands in uneasy torture.
Nature frequently seeks relief by bursting the dry and contracted shell,
in what is known as quarter or toe crack, and the miserable victim
becomes practically useless at an age when his powers should be in their
prime.
Every horseman will acknowledge that his experience has a parallel in
the picture here presented. Many men have at various times attempted
reform, but the difficulty heretofore encountered has been that the
mechanical application was in the hands, not of the owners and
reasoners, but in those of a class of men who are, for the most part,
ignorant, prejudiced, and, consequently, apt to oppose any innovation
upon the old abuses in which they have had centuries of vested right;
and it was not until the studies of Mr. R. A. Goodenough that there were
brought to bear veterinary knowledge, mechanical skill, and inventive
faculty, to overcome the stolidity and interest which have been the
lions in the way of true reform.