Book: The Art of Horse-Shoeing

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trina1982

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I ordered this book from my local library just to have a look at (following the shoeing thread). It was first written in 1895 and I am stunned at how 'modern' all the contents of the first chapters are (that's as far as i've got).

One thing that had me giggling was a line about the original Barefoot Taliban ...

'The gentleman with a fad who occasionally appears in England with unshod horses at work is an unconscious imposter. He sets his little experience against the common sense and universal practise of others. No man of business would pay for shoeing if he could do without it'

Of course, in 1895 horses were still very much in full work as transport so I can appreciate it was a little different to today.

But, the basic principles of the foot are much what I have read on many barefoot websites (frog is weight bearing, don't touch the sole or frog being 2 points that jumped out at me)

I found it really interesting, and for you lucky people I've had a look and you can read it for free here....
http://www.archive.org/stream/artofhorseshoe00hunt#page/n9/mode/2up

Thought it might interest some of you.
Farriers (moorman, AG), what are your thoughts on the book? Is it massively outdated? It says on the blurb on the back that 100 years later (1995) it is still used by farriers as a valuable reference book.

Trina x
 
Thanks for the link, cracking read. Love the reference to 'places abroad, where horses are not shod, but ridden over grassland', quaint view of the world.

Cannot find any reference to feeding or diet, which says a lot about the thoughts and beliefs at the time.
 
I have recently taken to reading 'old' books about horses and horsemanship, all written around or referring back to the late 1890's and early 1900's.

What comes across, a lot, is that many 'traditional' methods are not traditional at all, and the practices described to train working, hunting and showing horses back at the turn of the century are a lot closer to what we would now term natural horsemanship than traditional.

I shall look out this book, as I am really enjoying reading the 'oldies'.
 
NeilM said:
I have recently taken to reading 'old' books about horses and horsemanship, all written around or referring back to the late 1890's and early 1900's.

What comes across, a lot, is that many 'traditional' methods are not traditional at all, and the practices described to train working, hunting and showing horses back at the turn of the century are a lot closer to what we would now term natural horsemanship than traditional.

I shall look out this book, as I am really enjoying reading the 'oldies'.
Click to expand...

Isn't it Pat Parelli that says something like 'it's so old it's new again'. That is what I felt when i started reading.

The author is quite damning of some people practising dodgy hoofcare. I wonder what he'd have made of HHO and the dodgy feet pics on here! He abhores rasping the hoof wall, dumping the toe, paring the sole, 'creating' concavity by using a knife. He also says you shouldn't trim to a predetermined trim, you should view the horse as an individual, and as a whole animal. I genuinely thought when i started reading that it would be very out of date and possibly barbaric in approach. How wrong was I!

Trina x
 
Just found an original (publ 1899) copy on Ebay and bought it.

If you want another interesting read, there is a lovely memoir called Horseman, written by Captain JH Marshall. He was a rider and horse dealer and it is another illustration of there being nothing new in the world of horses.
 
NeilM said:
Just found an original (publ 1899) copy on Ebay and bought it.

If you want another interesting read, there is a lovely memoir called Horseman, written by Captain JH Marshall. He was a rider and horse dealer and it is another illustration of there being nothing new in the world of horses.
Click to expand...

Thank you, i will look that one up.

Trina x
 
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