'HORSE-SHOES.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Some weeks ago you noticed the controversy then going on about horse-shoes. Your well known desire to help on the humane 'treatment of animals leads us to hope that you will give us space to state our experience. Some six or seven years ago we began having some of our horses shod, for the fore-feet, on the " Charlier " principle, or a method akin to it.
We had shoes made of about one-third the usual weight, of half the width, and of rather harder iron. In putting them on, the hoof was not cut or pared, with the exception of a small groove made in what we may call the edge of the foot ; into this the shoe was inserted. By this system, the horse's hoof is on the ground, as if he were unshod, but it is protected from breaking by the thin rim of iron at its edge. We found the shoe answer admirably, but the difficulty in getting it made and put on prevented us using it on more than a few horses until quite lately.
We should like to state a few instances in which it has produced wonderfully good effects, but dare not trespass on your space. We have found no horses that it does not suit, and for young horses running on to the London stones, for horses with tender feet or corns, and to prevent slipping, it is of great service. We have lately been able to use it to a larger extent, and have now some forty horses, of all sizes, from the cob to those of seventeen or eighteen hands, at work on the London stones and country roads, shod in this way. These, Sir, are facts, which your readers can verify.
From a business point of view it is also important. The use of these shoes would, in London alone, by preventing the laming and wearing-out of horses, save many thousands of pounds every year.—We are, Sir, &c.,
JOIDT &HITHER AD SON.
1 Upper East Smithfield, E., July 30th.
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