FARRIERY
.—The ART of FARRIERY consists in the peculiar mode of discovering one disorder from another, by a discrimination of predominant symptoms, and the administration of medicine particularly applicable to that peculiar species of disease. It also comprehends and includes the operations of BLEEDING, CROPPING, DOCKING, NICKING, BLISTERING, FIRING, &c. as well as the cure of wounds, and the long train of ills and accidents to which the horse is incident. This ART (or more properly science) now struggling to become respectable, has hitherto continued in a state of the most wretched sterility for the reasons so clearly explained under the last head; to which may be added, the very impressive consideration, that its PROFESSORS have not been permitted to retain the least personal weight in the scale of society; on the contrary, have been generally held in the most trifling estimation, and consequently destined to associate only with the lowest and least polished classes of every description.
The degrading, dirty, and inferior offices to which the manual or operative FARRIER must incessantly become liable in the course of his PRACTICE, renders it readily to be believed, that those whose EDUCATION have been sufficiently liberal to qualify them for a scientific initiation in the STUDY of PHYSIC and ANATOMY, as well as a perfect knowledge of the PROPERTY of MEDICINE, cannot be expected to descend to the rough and laborious business of the FORGE, making, fitting and setting the SHOES, as well as many other equally difficult and hazardous operations to which the subordinate must perpetually become subject in the course of his practice. Hence it is fair to infer, that the liberal education, and acquired polish, of the VETERINARY SURGEON, will so ill accord with the sensations of the SHOEING or black smith, that they will be found incompatible with each other; and, until a more extended idea, and generous compensation, is adopted by the public, to render the MEDICAL MONITOR, (or veterinary surgeon,) and common shoeing-smith and operative farrier, two distinct and separate branches, the practice of FARRIERY and VETERINARY MEDICINE will never attain the improvement of which it is so clearly capable.
FAWN
—is the young of the BUCK and DOE, called a fawn during the first year. A fawn is secreted by the dam in the fern, or long grass, with great care, during the first weeks, and seldom accompanies the mother but by night. In royal PARKS and CHACES, a certain number are annually killed when fawns of about three months old, to prevent the district from being overstocked; this is generally done by COURSING with GREYHOUNDS, which is most excellent sport, the greyhounds being frequently beat.
FEATHER
.—The centrical division, and different directions, of the surrounding hair in a horse's forehead is so called: they are also frequently seen upon the neck on one or both sides the mane, and sometimes upon the hind quarters, and are considered natural ornaments: their similitude to a feather of the first plumage has given them this appellation.
FEATHER WEIGHT
,—in the SPORTING WORLD, signifies the lightest weight that can be put upon the back of a HORSE, in whatever MATCH he may be engaged, and totally depends upon the will of the owner; who is not under the necessity of bringing his RIDER to the scale either before or after the race, in an engagement where "feather weight" is particularly expressed. On the contrary, when a horse runs for any PLATE, MATCH, SWEEPSTAKES, or SUBSCRIPTION, at a fixed weight, according to his AGE, HEIGHTH, or QUALIFICATION, his RIDER must be publicly weighed upon the course previous to starting; and at the termination of every heat, if the rider dismounts before his horse is led up to the SCALES, (generally affixed to the starting-post,) or when there, not weighing his proper weight, the HORSE is deemed distanced, and can start no more for the prize in question.