no SHOEING, 



the horse is said to be pricked in shoeing) is 

 the oblique direction of a nail, which, taking 

 an improper and inverte<l course, either per- 

 forates, or in its 'progress presses upon the 

 inner sole, puncturing some of the soft parts, 

 thereby producing certain lameness: which, 

 not immediately discovered, tends to inflam- 

 mation, that too often terminates in a remote 

 formation of matter constituting a case of the 

 ipost serious consequence, 



A third cause is the inconsistent method of 

 for mi no; the web of the shoe too wide for 

 the foot of the horse, and raising it so much, 

 or hoUowinGf it out all round the inner ed'^c. 

 as to give it a palpable convcxiii^ w4ien fixed 

 to the hoof. By this convexity round the 

 inner edge of the \Nidh, the support becomes 

 unnaturally partial, and even in the constant 

 %veight of the horse only (without recurring 

 to action) constitutes an opposition to its ori- 

 ginal purport ; for the invariable pressure 

 upon the curv^ed part of the shoe only, must 

 raise in the surrounding parts such a propor- 

 tional counteraction, that the harder the horse 

 bears in action upon a hard surface, the more 

 must every motion tend to force the very nails 



