Plate of French horse shoes 19th century

These plates were found in books on practical farriery. This one plate was found by Norman Comben and this is a copy. It shows the wide range of different shoes for a variety of lameness and other problems. Nothing much has changed, they show hock support shoes, and pedal bone rotation shoes, with a variety of plate bottoms that clearly would have supported the frog. In the 1780’s the arts of Farriery and Veterinary were divided by Vial St Bel (1750-1793) established a Veterinary School in Lyon and then arriving in London in 1788. In 1823 a veterinary school was set up in Edinburgh by William Dick. It was the beginning of the end of the farrier or blacksmith being a horse doctor.