This invention is only another illustration, afforded this time by our Transatlantic cousins, of the wonderful originality pertaining to everything new with regard to hoofs and their armature. It will be seen that the 'idea' of the shoe is, if we refer to Fiaschi, at least three centuries old, or, if we look to our primitive models, perhaps as many thousands of years; while the method of applying it—or rather the art of leaving the frog and sole in their integrity—is an old story, repeated by almost every writer who had made the horse's hoof his study.
This will be at once apparent if we transcribe what the writer in the London newspaper has written, in order to attract attention to the new method. 'In 1860, Mr Goodenough invented and patented the shoe we are now about to describe, and has succeeded, we think, in securing all necessary protection to the hoof, and in removing, or reducing to a minimum, the bad effects of earlier methods. The principle laid down by Mr Goodenough is that the shoe should resemble, and preserve, as far as possible, the natural shape of the hoof, of which it is a continuation. The unshod horse has the under surface of his foot on a generally level plane, the frog and the whole margin of the hoof in contact with the ground, and the under surface of the sole, between the frog and the margin, somewhat raised by its own concavity. The Goodenough shoe is made precisely to follow the outline of the hoof for which it is intended, and to reach exactly to the bars, never projecting at all beyond the heel. Its upper surface is generally plane and true (fig. 199, see next page); its under surface is generally concave from the outer to the inner margin, the outer margin having, however, a narrow, flat
