Having no other horses on whose hoofs I could exercise my art, I made my first essay on those of my own horse, if that could be called horse which horse was none, being only a pony.

Perhaps if I had sought all England I should scarcely have found an animal more in need of the kind offices of the smith.

On three of his feet there were no shoes at all, and on the fourth only a remnant of one, on which account his hoofs were sadly broken and lacerated by his late journeys over the hard and flinty roads.

"You belonged to a tinker before," said I, addressing the animal, "but now you belong to a smith.
It is said that the household of the shoemaker invariably go worse shod than that of any other craft.

That may be the case of those who make shoes of leather, but it shan't be said of the household of him who makes shoes of iron; at any rate, it shan't be said of mine.