Hippodonomia, or, The true stucture, laws, and economy, of the horse's foot : also Podophthora, or A ruinous defect in the principle of the common shoe detected; and demonstrated by experiments : with a proposition for a new principle of shoeing, which abundant practice has since confirmed / by Bracy Clark.

  • Clark, Bracy, 1771-1860.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hippodonomia, or, The true stucture, laws, and economy, of the horse's foot : also Podophthora, or A ruinous defect in the principle of the common shoe detected; and demonstrated by experiments : with a proposition for a new principle of shoeing, which abundant practice has since confirmed / by Bracy Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    conjecture, the clear and intelligible exhibition of the cause of so much mischief and suffering, cannot be of trifling importance ; for men are not likely to endeavour to avoid that, of the danger of which they are not sensible. And I have now the satisfaction of observing in this second edition, the first having been published about twenty years ago, that this conjecture has been fully verified, and more than one shoeing establishment is now in extensive ope- ration in this metropolis, giving, by a yielding shoe, relief to hundreds of horses from these cruel and ruinous measures. The present method of shoeing was, I apprehend, first introduced about twelve or thirteen hundred years ago, and has continued to this day without any very material changes in it, and apparently without any suspicions being entertained of the fact which I am about to expose, at least any consistent demonstrative evidence of it, as far as my knowledge extends ; the obvious abuses in the practice of this art having chiefly attracted the notice of those who have written on these subjects. Tenderness before, exists among horses in different degrees so universally, that every man accustomed to riding looks for it, and uses his precautions accordingly; nay, so frequent is it, that it is regarded by some as almost natural to the animal; and it is also a matter which the knowing ones in horse-flesh, as they are some- times termed, are not displeased with : they pick up a cheap horse that has fallen down, or been sold with loss, on account of his tripping dangerously—one which, from his high value, they could not otherwise obtain ; and by severity of bitting, and by tormenting him with the whip, or spur, or both, (continually inflicting pain, or supporting the apprehension of it,) they conceal, and overcome as it were, the suffering of his feet, and escape the mischiefs to which others, using means less cruel, might be exposed. Such is the mer- ciless system which practice has taught them for rendering useful horses so mutilated. And many also, in the superior conditions of life, are frequently expending large sums of money in order to obtain the healthful and agreeable services of these animals, in riding on