over them. Perhaps some of them may think it worth while to pick up their horses’ feet and examine them, and turn things over in their minds. Some of them will admit that they have become ‘groovey’ to an extent that is inexcusable, especially in men of science. Medical men are all masters of comparative anatomy; and here is a good opportunity for them to bring it profitably into use.
All modern authorities on the matter are of opinion that most horseshoes are made too heavy; and when horses are shod by contract, or by the year, their shoes are made heavier still. Youatt, not by any means a modern authority, says that ‘an ounce or two in the weight of the shoe will sadly tell before the end of a hard day’s work.’ The American trotting horse, St. Julien, lately trotted a mile in 2 min. 12¾ sec, being half a second less than the best time of Rarus; and we are told that his shoes only weighed fifteen ounces each on the fore feet, and six ounces on the hind ones. Rarus, as was until lately the custom with American trotters, wore very heavy shoes; is it not possible that Rarus may have been the better horse of the two, but that he was too much assisted with iron by his friends? Besides the weight of an ounce or two ‘telling sadly before the end of a day’s work,’ there remains the evil that it tells permanently upon the horse’s legs. There is, perhaps, no modern authority that has not been explicit thereon; yet heavy shoes are still most generally in use, in spite, also, of the old proverb, ‘An ounce at the heels tells more than a pound on the
