Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/608

 frosts of winter, but when the roads are greasy or leaded (plombé), on the granite pavement, where so many horses fall, or on the rolled asphalte, which, although a calamity at present, may become a great boon, in saving horses and carriages, be easier kept clean, diminish the noise, dust, etc., if my shoeing is adopted.

'What falls, sprains, and accidents of every description will be avoided in preventing horses from slipping! Perfectly firm on all kinds of pavement, they will be more light in hand, more easy to drive, will be less fatigued, and tire their riders less, will travel more quickly, and we will not so often see those premature failures of the limbs for which the curative art can do so little, and which cause such heavy losses to the owners of horses.

'My shoeing is also opposed to the development of corns (bleimes) and contusions, caused either by the ordinary shoes or the interposition between them and the sole of stones, pebbles, or other hard bodies, since the branches of my shoe do not bear on the corners of the sole, and no foreign body can fix itself there, or bruise the living structures.

'But that which more particularly makes my method of shoeing superior to all the other known methods is, I repeat, the fact of the foot being allowed its liberty of action, all its vertical and lateral elasticity, however trifling this may be at the lower part of the hoof, or whatever may be the combinations it determines there; in this respect it evidently opposes wasting of the hoof and contraction of the heels, that destructive affection which ruins a considerable number of valuable horses.

'At first sight, this precious result of my shoeing may