tion: 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
t