Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/593

 softened, and permits a more exact adaptation. It is less solid, particularly in wet weather. When the atmospheric temperature, however, is less inconstant, its durability is greater. This phenomenon is not observed with hot shoeing (Reynal). The authors who wrote at the period when cold shoeing only was known, notice its want of solidity. Cæsar Fiaschi thus expresses himself in the middle of the 16th century: 'Je ne vois d'autre remede, eu égard au peu de solidité de cette ferrure, que de savoir soi-même brocher les clous ou de se faire suivre par un maréchal.'

'In campaigns, cold shoeing offers less resistance to the deteriorating action of humidity, mud, and bad roads. The veterinary surgeons who accompanied the expedition to Rome, in 1849, have described the inconvenience of cold shoeing in time of war, in connection with its defective solidity, and the difficulty in adopting it. . . . This system of shoeing always necessitates making the foot to fit the shoe. It is difficult of application in cases where regiments are on the march, if the farriers are obliged to seek for the horses in their billets. It takes a longer time, and is not so easy. Its duration is less among town's horses which run on paved roads, as they wear out their shoes in less than from 15 to 20 days.

'After this shoeing the horn is more brittle, and shoes are more frequently lost. Lastly, cold shoeing is less economical.

'Advantages of hot shoeing. In hot shoeing, the shoe is more readily adapted to the foot.

'The shoes which have been fitted hot to the hoofs are applied more equally. The shoeing is more solid, because