ECONOMY OF THE GOODENOUGH SHOE.
A horse-shoe that the united voices or the shrewdest and ablest managers
in the country commend--inasmuch as it enables cripples to work,
frequently restores them, and maintains soundness where that quality
exists--need not be recommended on the ground of economy. Such a
horse-shoe could not be dear. But it takes all sorts of people to make a
world, and the pressure to the square inch of mean men is not to be
governed by safety-valves or regulated by gauges. There are too many men
who will use the thing that costs the least outlay, even if it tortures
or kills the horse. On the point of first cost we may say that if our
shoe had no advantage over the hand-made shoe in preserving the natural
action and growth of the foot, thereby retaining the powers of the
animal in full vigor, it would still be cheaper than the common shoe. It
is sold slightly higher than the clumsy pieces of bent iron called
horse-shoes by mere courtesy, and its lightness gives one-third more
shoes to the keg, while there is no expense of calking, which, in labor
and material, is equal to three cents per pound. Upon the point of
durability, it is well settled that the heavy shoe will not last so long
as the light one with frog-pressure. A horse set upon heavy shoes grinds
iron every time he moves. The least interposition of the frog will
reduce the wear very materially, and if the frog is well on the ground,
a horse will carry a shoe until he outgrows it.
A horse-railroad superintendent said to the writer, "We don't wear iron
nowadays, we wear _frog_ and _cobble-stones_; nature provides frog and
Boston finds cobble-stones." When the Goodenough shoe is put for the
first time upon a dry, half-dead foot, and the frog brought into lively
action, growth is generally very rapid. We have often been compelled to
reset the shoe, cutting down the wall, in ten days after shoeing. Many
horses that have been used upon pavements and horse-railroads, have
acquired a habit of slipping and sliding along, catching with heel-calks
in the space between the stones; such horses do not at once relinquish
the habit, and wear their first set of our shoes much more rapidly than
the subsequent set, after they have assumed the natural action of their
feet. But, economical as a light shoe that will long outlast a heavy one
may be, the great saving is in the item of horse-flesh.
The value of the horses employed in the actual labor of the country
reaches a startling sum total.
The vast importance of the horse in the movement of business, was never
so fully understood and deeply felt as during the year past, when the
epizootic swept over the continent, paralyzing all movement and every
form of human industry. Even the ships that whiten the seas would furl
their sails and steamers quench their fires but for the labors of the
horse. During the epidemic the canal-boats waited idly for their patient
tow-horses and railroads carried little freight; the crops of the West
lay in the farmers' granaries and the fabrics of the Eastern loom and
varied products of mechanical industry crowded the warehouses; even the
ragpicker in the streets suspended his humble occupation, for the
merchant, unable to transport rags, refused to buy them of the gatherer.
The investment of national wealth in horses being so enormous, any means
that adds to the efficiency of the horse greatly enhances the general
prosperity.
[Illustration: PERFECT SHOE AND HOOF.]
[Illustration: IMPERFECT SHOE AND HOOF.]
It is an old English saying, that "a good horse will wear out two sets
of feet." The meaning of this adage is obvious: a good horse's feet are
useless at the time when his other powers are in the prime. Mr. Edward
Cottam, of London, in his "Observations upon the Goodenough System,"
states that London omnibus-owners use up a young horse in four years;
that is, a horse of seven years of age goes to the knackers at eleven,
_pabulum Acherontis_; and the only noticeable cause of their failure is
from diseases of the feet. A horse properly shod and cared for should
endure five times as long. In this country horses fail in the feet, and
are called old at an age when they should be in the fullest activity.
This is a double loss, for every horseman of experience knows that if an
old horse is sound and vigorous he has some great advantages over a
young one. He is safer in every respect, "way-wise," seasoned, steady,
and reliable. He and his owner are old friends and companions and can
not part but with a pang of regret. A good horse, well cared for, should
work cheerfully until he is thirty years of age; yet how few are able to
perform genteel service after fifteen! It is a sad sight that of the
high-mettled, noble animal, once the petted darling of wealth, caressed
by ladies and children, and guarded so that even the winds of heaven
might not visit him too roughly, fallen through the successive grades of
equine degradation, until at last he hobbles before a clam-wagon or a
swill-cart--a sorry relic of better days.
The question is so plain that we hesitate to argue with intelligent
people to prove that, if the old system of shoeing destroys the value of
a horse in middle life, half his money value is sacrificed to
ignorance--a waste that might be saved were nature's laws regarded. That
part of the argument which demands that the faithful, devoted servant
merits humane treatment and the best intelligence of the master in
securing his health and comfort can not be forgotten and need not be
urged upon the attention of the true horseman.
FINAL OBSERVATIONS.
To be _rational_ in any course of action is, primarily, to follow the
leading of reason, and by that guidance to arrive at correct
conclusions.
It is the opposite to the method which is _irrational_--regardless of
reason, and therefore leading to conclusions erroneous and absurd.
Rationalism is opposed to ultraism, to vehement, officious and extreme
measures--while it would seek more excellent ways, it holds fast to that
which is good.
Rationalism in medicine is the method which recognises nature as the
great agent in the cure of disease, and employs art as an auxiliary to
be resorted to when useful or necessary, and avoided when prejudicial.
In our treatment of the hoof, we would seek to know the cause of the
horse's troubles, firmly believing that he is endowed by nature with
strength to perform the service man demands of him, and that he is not
necessarily a helpless prey to torturing diseases of the minor organs;
and, indeed, subject only to that final, unavoidable sentence, which in
some form nature holds suspended over all animate existence.
Having by the aid of reason ascertained the cause of defects, we would
assist nature to relieve them; we have therefore called this little
hand-book of suggestions from our experience, RATIONAL HORSE-SHOEING.
OPPOSING FORCES.
Having taken upon ourselves to reform evils, rooted deep in old customs,
and to abolish abuses older than our civilization, we have to meet with
discouragement and opposition in various forms.
Even the enlightened and well-intentioned hold back incredulous. This
form of opposition finally examines, being led thereto from motives of
economy and the promptings of humanity; it usually approves and
assists, but is often carried back by indolence, when it discovers that
it must join us in the loud battle we are forced to wage all along the
line against fierce interests and bitter prejudices.
We attack with slender array, but unflinching purpose, the gloomy powers
of ignorance that are allied to doubt and indifference. These contend
under the prestige of a thousand years of possession.
Ignorance and Prejudice are twin giants that renew their life upon each
other; they are as old as chaos, and are invulnerable to the weapons of
ordinary warfare. Like the fallen angels, they are--
"Vital in every part,
And can but by annihilation die."
One of the Greek fables, typifying the struggle of man against
circumstances, was a story of the battle between Hercules and Antaeus,
son of the Earth. The fight was long and doubtful, for whenever the
mortal was felled to the ground by the power of the vigorous god, his
force was renewed by contact with the breast of his mother Earth, and
he sprang to his feet and recommenced the never-ending strife.
This contest between the god, and the mortal born of earth and sea, is
the poetical type of the unceasing toil of man in the Valley of the
Nile, against the sandy waves of the Lybian desert, always encroaching
upon the cultivated soil, and demanding year by year new exertions to
repress their advance.
So, in our attempt to establish a better system of utilizing the powers
of the horse in the service of man, we have each day to meet the same
enemy, renewed by contact with the sources that foster and reinforce
ignorance. But as persistent labor conducted the beneficent waters of
the Nile in irrigating channels through the arid plain of the desert,
until upon the inhospitable edge gardens bloomed, fields of grain waved
in the breeze, and the date-palm cast its grateful shade upon the
husbandman--so we make healthful progress, and enjoy a widely increasing
triple reward--first, in the thankful esteem of our fellow men;
secondly, in the relief we afford to a noble animal; and last, in the
substantial return which the highest authority has adjudged to honest
labor.
REGULAR WORK.
We wish all readers of this book to understand that the directions
herein given for shoeing apply to horses whose owners expect them to
work regularly after shoeing--from the very hour in which the shoes are
set.
We do not propose to "lay up" horses, or to put them to rest in "loose
boxes," nor yet to "turn them out to grass." One of the chief
difficulties we have had with wealthy owners has been from the tendency
to keep the horse _out of work_ when we have got him into a condition
where we want exercise to stimulate the alterative process we propose.
A cure of any foot disease we have described, will be much more rapidly
effected if the horse has his regular work upon the roads or pavements
to which he is accustomed, no matter how hard they are.
We hope that it has also been noticed, that we do not propose to cure
spavins, splints, navicular disease, or to restore the natural action
of a horse where ossification of cartilage is well established.