Every horse, as a rule, is supposed to be shod once a month; but so great is the variety in size and formation in feet, and in the degrees of toughness and rapidity of growth of the hoof and sole of different horses, and even on different feet of the same horse and at different parts of the same shoe, that no particular pattern or form of shoe is prescribed. This is left to the skill and judgment of the farrier, to make according to the shape of the foot with which he has to deal. In this particular branch of his business he is far superior to the village blacksmith or the more pretentious shoeing-smiths in large towns, even London itself, where many veterinary farriers keep a lot of shoes by them that have been made by machinery; and, as a rule, they pare, cut down, and model the poor horse's foot to fit _their_ shoe, instead of making the shoe to fit the peculiar conformation of the foot. Hundreds of valuable horses used by civilians are constantly ruined by the pernicious practice of cutting the hoof and sole of the horse's foot into a shape quite contrary to that intended by Nature, who has cast it in a mould necessary and proper to support the horse's weight or the peculiar shape of its legs, which differ more or less in all animals, although the basis of their construction is essentially the same. All unnecessary loading of the horse's foot with iron is carefully avoided; and if any farrier is caught in the reprehensible practice of applying a red-hot shoe to the foot, he is very severely dealt with.