568 AET OF SHOEING. 



unsafe and unsubstantial, as also difficult of execution in the 

 application of the shoe. 



As has been noticed, our nail-head was flattened conform- 

 ably to the crease or fullering, sufficient shoulder being given to 

 admit of firm retention of the shoe, when the substance of 

 both it and the head of the nail became reduced by wear. 



The early custom of creasing shoes adopted by the 

 English, did not necessarily make very material difference 

 in the principle of shoeing, compared with continental 

 practice. As we have had opportunities of witnessing where, 

 on the Continent, at the present time, the farrier is re- 

 quested to shoe a horse in the English mode, he under- 

 stands by that, that he is to make a crease round the margin 

 with a tool, does that, and stamps the nail-holes with his 

 pritchel, instead of with his ordinary stamp, then flattens 

 the head of his usually adopted nails, fits and applies the 

 shoe in his ordinary way, charges extra price, very justly, 

 for the trouble of shoeing English fashion; whilst in all re- 

 spects the horse is shod according to the ability of the man, 

 in his ordinary way, whether he be a Frenchman, a Ger- 

 man, or an Italian. Indeed, in the Austrian army, some 

 years ago, we observed among the officers' horses which 

 were ordered to be shod in the English fashion, that the shoes 

 were fullered, and then stamped with their ordinary qua- 

 drilateral stamp, such as we have described as used by the 

 French, they also used their ordinary quadrangular-headed 

 nail wise practice on the part of the farriers, as it was 

 simply complying with the form, while substantially their 

 own method was carried out unimpaired. 



From defects, which distinguished the English mode of 

 shoeing at the latter part of last, and beginning of the pre- 

 sent century, which in part consisted in the custom of fuller- 

 ing the shoes on the very margin, the nails took slender hold 



