The education of the show pony is a matter of time and patience—chiefly of endless patience. Some grooms have a genius for it, and those who have not must secure the result by greater labour; but in any case, careful practice and regular and sufficient exercise are the chief means by which the showyard results are obtained. As in every breed, preparation for show tends to be overdone. Over-fattening, as has already been said, is the most prevalent fault; but the employment of bearing-reins is sometimes carried far beyond the point required for that effective control which is the only justification for tackle; and a prudent judge will never part from his work till he has seen the ponies without their trappings, and made sure that his selected winners can hold up their heads without the aid of straps. A more difficult problem lies in the tendency to the use of heavy shoes—a practice imported from the hackney stables to induce high action of the most useless and unsightly kind. A time may come when weights of shoes will have to be limited by rule; but it is to be hoped, rather, that firm and wise judging may convince exhibitors that true, sure, and clean action does not consist in the pounding motions produced by heavy shoeing. Good conditioning, development of muscle by exercise, and careful education are the legitimate preparation for show: everything else is a more or less successful attempt to deceive. The diseases of the Shetland pony are comparatively few; but one or two are apt to occur even in well-managed herds. Whenever the infection of strangles is brought in, it goes through the herd, attacking all the young animals and some even of the old.[46] If it occurs in winter it may be necessary, in severe frost, to bring patients under cover to protect their wounds from frost-bite; otherwise it is best treated by keeping them out of doors; and so treated it is rarely a dangerous disease. Its symptoms are well known—the running at eyes and nose, the abscesses bursting as they mature, and perhaps forming and bursting a second time. Open air and liberal feeding are its sovereign remedies. In the case of foals a special difficulty arises from their inability to use the muscles of the swollen throat to suck, and this difficulty—dangerous if ignored—can best be met by milking the mare at frequent intervals and teaching the foal to drink from a pail, which it remains able to do. Other troubles arise from worms—the common thread-worm and the deadly strongylus.[47] In all cases of the latter veterinary advice must be obtained. But the best protections against these and similar troubles arising through infection are, first, to keep ponies always on the cleanest ground that can be given them; and, second, to supply them constantly, in every field, with rock-salt to fortify their blood and stimulate their digestion.