Horsing Around

As I was shelving books in the Rare Books Room, I found one that really didn't have much anything to do with medicine.

It is the charmingly titled "The Domestic Animal's Friend, or The Complete Virginia and Maryland Farrier, Being a Copious Selection from the Best Treatises on Farriery Now Extant in the United States." Whew! That's quite a title.

The book was published in Winchester, Virginia by J. Foster in 1818.

The book has two illustrations, which look to be woodcuts instead of line engravings.

What's interesting to me is how different the profile of the horse looks in 1818 than a contemporary horse today. 

The skeleton woodcut is in a pull out panel which must have been printed separately from the octavo which made up the rest of the book.  

Honestly, I haven't read the book, so can't comment on its contents, but I found it fascinating that a book on "farriery" is in our library!