170 SHOEING. 



the horfe is faid to be pricked in (hoeing) is 

 the oblique direcflion of a nail, which, taking 

 an improper and inverted courfe, either per- 

 forates, or in its progrefs prefles upon the 

 inner fole, pundluring feme of the foft parts, 

 thereby producing certain lamcnefs : which, 

 rjot immediately difcovered, tends to inflam- 

 mation, that too often terminates in a remote 

 formation of matter conftituting a cafe of the 

 moil ferious confequence, 



A third caufe is the inconfiftent method of 

 forming the web of the flioe too wide for 

 the foot of the horfe, and railing it fo much 

 or hollowing it out ?M round t/jc inner edgc^ 

 as to give it a palpable convexity when fixed 

 to ti'ie hoof. By this convexity round the in- 

 ner edge of the w^eb, the fupport becomes 

 unnaturally partial, and even in the conftant 

 weight of the horfe only (vv'ithout recurring 

 to adtion) conftitutcs an oppofition to its ori- 

 ginal purport ; for the invariable preffure 

 upon the curved part of the llioe only muft 

 raife in the furrounding parts fuch a propor- 

 tional counteradlron, that the harder the horfe 

 bears in aclion upon a hard furface, the more 

 muft every motion tend to force the very nails 



from 



