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CHAPTER VII.

EXPANSION ENTIRELY PREVENTED BY PRESENT MODE OF SHOEING, BUT FAVOURED BY ‘TIPS’—MAYHEW AND PROFESSOR PERCIVAL ON ‘TIPS’—’IT IS THE SHOE, NOT THE ROAD, THAT HURTS THE HORSE’—’IMPECUNIOSUS’ SAYS THERE IS TOO MUCH SAMENESS ABOUT ALL EXISTING WRITINGS ON THE HORSE’S FOOT, AND ‘ORIGINAL’ IDEAS ARE WANTED.

Recently, by means of photography, it has been demonstrated that in every gait beyond the walk the horse is, at every extension, bearing all his weight at a certain time on one leg only, and that he comes down with a shock on that one leg. What, therefore, expansion may amount to in an unshod horse at a gallop, or its tendency in a shod one, we have thus far been unable to discover. This expansion has long been admitted by most authorities, and they have studied how to allow for it. In fact this, and the prevention of slipping, have been the motives for many inventions. Most of them have proved failures in both directions; although some of them, after having been buried—like their authors—have been unearthed, pirated, and again presented to the public; but still no progress is made. The full shoe, even in its most perfect form, cannot allow expansion and contraction their natural scope; but,