ness by buying young horses and keeping them
sound by a natural system of shoeing.

STUMBLING HORSES.

This annoyance is frequently caused by undue use of the toe, when the
heel is lame and sore from contraction and corns. When the horse has the
frog well on the ground and uses his heel without shrinking he is not
apt to stumble.

TO INCREASE COMFORT.

In dry weather, or when a horse with a hard, lifeless hoof is shod with
the Goodenough shoe, and shrinks from the unaccustomed pressure of the
frog on the ground, nothing is so grateful to his feet as cold water.
The hose turned on them is a delicious bath; or if he can stand for an
hour in a wet place, or in a running brook, he will get infinite comfort
from it. We have sometimes rapidly assisted the cure of contraction, in
the city, by manufacturing a country brook-bottom in this simple way:
Put half a bushel of pebbles into a stout tub, with or without some
sand, let them cover the bottom to the depth of two or three inches,
pour on water and you have a good imitation of a mountain brook. Put
the horse's forefeet into this, and let him bear his weight upon the
frog. The first time he will grow uneasy after a few minutes, but when
his frog becomes natural in its function he will be glad to stand there
all day.

Do not carry this treatment to excess. Moderation is the most
satisfactory course in all things. Abjure utterly all oils and greasy
hoof dressings, they are pernicious recommendations of unreasoning
grooms. They fill the pores of the wall, and injure in every way. Nature
will find oil, if you will allow circulation and secretion, through the
action of the frog.

"Stuffing the feet," is another wretched, groom's device. A horse has a
dry, feverish hoof from contraction, so his hollow sole, denuded of its
frog, is "stuffed" with heating oil-meal, or nasty droppings of cows.
When this sort of thing is proposed, remember _Punch's_ advice to those
about to be married, "Don't do it."

CHAPTER VIII.

ECONOMY OF THE GOODENOUGH SHOE.

A horse-shoe that the united voices or the shrewdest and ablest managers
in the country commend--inasmuch as it enables cripples to work,
frequently restores them, and maintains soundness where that quality
exists--need not be recommended on the ground of economy. Such a
horse-shoe could not be dear. But it takes all sorts of people to make a
world, and the pressure to the square inch of mean men is not to be
governe