Page:Horses and roads.djvu/203

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187

CHAPTER XX.

QUESTION IN THE ‘FIELD’ AS TO AN UNSHOD HORSE WORKING IN LONDON—NO ROADS TOO HARD FOR AN UNSHOD HORSE—XENOPHON ON HARD, ROUGH STABLE FLOORS, ETC.—ERRONEOUS IDEA OF ‘SOMETHING NICE AND SOFT’ TO STAND UPON—FLINT ROADS OF HERTFORDSH RE—‘YOU CANNOT TREAT AN ORGANIC BODY AS IF IT WERE AN INORGANIC ONE’—BRACT CLARK, ‘THE MISERABLE, COERCED, SHOD FOOT’—BRACY CLARK ON DIFFERENCE OF GROWTH OF HORN IN THE SHOD AND THE UNSHOD HORSE—FAILURE OF BRACY CLARK AND MILES TO PRODUCE A PERFECT HORSESHOE.

The ‘Field,’ in its issue of May 1, 1880, contains the following:—‘Last week I saw in the City a brown horse without shoes drawing a full-sized brougham: his feet seemed particularly sound and Well-shaped. It would be interesting to learn the method of treatment, and the length of time necessary to fit a horse for use unshod on the London stones. If the owner should see these lines, perhaps he will give your readers the benefit of his experience.’

This communication proves that there is at least one more unshod horse going sound in our midst, and that he has excited the interest of at least one observer. Although this gentleman does not directly express it, he seems to imply his wonder how the