The Goodenough Horse-Shoe.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 34, 6 July 1870, Page 6

The Goodenough Horse-Shoe.

The difficulty of preserving the horse’s foot in a healthy state has long been an interesting question to the owners of horses in every part of the world, but more particularly so to the residents of large cities, where the hoof never comes in contact with anything more yielding than the macadamised road. Attempts have been made at various times to remedy tho evils resulting from the old-fashioned style of horse-shoeing, but hitherto with onlypartial success. The Goodenough method of shoeing horses promises to do more than any previous attempts, if indeed it does not entirely do away with the present system of horse-shoeing. The system is extensively practised in England, and the results are so favorable that it has been adopted in France, where it is used in the Imperial stables. It is also very largely used in India and America, where those who have tried it state that trotting horses can travel with much greater speed than when shod on the old plan. The principle laid down by Mr Goodenough is that the shoe should resemble and preserve, as far as possible, the natural shape of the hoof. The weight of the horse being mainly sustained by the crust of the hoof, this shoe is designed to form a continuation of that crust to the ground in iron, and it is so contrived that no pressure is put on the sole of the foot. The frog is allowed to rest on the ground, and thus prevents contraction at the heels, and causes a healthy deposition of sound horn to the hoof. The shoo used is a narrow webbed one, made to follow the exact contour of the horse’s foot. It is concave on the ground surface, in imitation of the natural foot, and never projects at all beyond the heel. It has a narrow flat bearing upon tho ground, portions of it being cut away so as to leave a central toe calk and two smaller calks on either side ; the nail holes are punched in the space between the calks and counter sunk, so that the nail heads are completely buried in the shoe. The method of applying the shoe is as follows ;—A shoo which precisely fits the outline of the hoof is' selected. That portion of the surface on which the iron will rest is cut or rasped to the proper depth, leaving tho centre of the sole, the frog, and bars untouched ; the shoe is applied cold and tho hoof rasped until the horn and iron come in perfect contact in every part. It is then nailed on in the ordinary manner. The advantages claimed for the Goodenough system are as follows : —lt eventually prevents slipping, overreaching, and interfering ; it remedies contracted feet, corns, saudcracks, and split hoofs ; the horse has a good foothold and never slips ; the shoe being applied cold, does not injure and weaken the horn by burning as in tho common method. Tho guide knives and rasps render shoeing on 1 this principle so easy that tho method j will bn of great benefif to residents in tho I country at a distance from a farrier's, i There is also a great saving in tho weight 1 of the shoe, the Goodenough shoe being | fully IQ per cent lighter than the one in i common use. An agency of the “ British Goodenough Horse-shoe Company” has beer.tf‘tab!ished in Melbourne, and several I- mrse-wners have determined to give the I avsttr n fair trial.