Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/485

 shoe unto the horse's foot, in making nails of good stuff, and well fashioning the same, and finally in well driving of the said nails, and clenching of the same. But as neither paring nor shoeing is no absolute thing of itself, but hath respect unto the foot or hoof (for the shoe is to be fitted to the foot, and not the foot to the shoe), and that there be diverse kinds of hoofs both good and bad, requiring great diversity as well of paring as shoeing, it is meet, therefore, that we first talk of the diversity of hoofs, and then show you how they ought to be pared and shod.'

After describing the hoofs in a very quaint manner, and showing us, unwittingly, how much disease and defective form prevailed, and which arose, no doubt, from bad shoeing, paring the hoofs is next commented upon, when he talks about the 'butter.' This is the ungainly weapon or instrument long wielded with such fatal effect on horses' feet in England, and still in use on the continent. It appears to have been introduced into this country and France from Germany, the authors of the 'Origines de la langue Française' deriving it from bozen or botzen, to push, in Old German. In France, from an early period, it has been named boutoir, from whence Blundevil, who is the first to import it into our language, terms it 'butter.' Up to a recent date it was in use in England, and was known as 'butress.' Contemporaneously with its mention in the writings of the old farriers, do we find serious diseases of the feet noticed, and particularly contraction of the hoofs at the heels.

While Blundevil is advising that the heels of the fore feet should be gently pared, he recommends that ' the