SHOEING, 273 



to prevent interfering, the most fatal injuries to the foot may 

 occur. 



The Nails. — The blacksmith should know the work the horse 

 is intended for, so that he may make the nails to correspond. 

 The nails generally used are too coarse ; they cut up the hoof 

 too much. They should be as fine as possible to have suffi- 

 cient strength, and if the shoe is properly made and fitted 

 there is but little danger from too fine a nail. Some smiths 

 may say "a fine nail will not drive," but if the nail is not made 

 unnecessarily long, its being fine will have but little to do in 

 preventing its driving. There is no necessity of the nail being 

 any longer than just sufficient to come through enough to make 

 a neat clinch. 



Driving the Kails. — This is a most important part of the 

 shoeing-smith's business, for in performing it there is danger 

 of wounding the foot so as to bring on incurable disease. When, 

 we consider that many shoers know nothing of the anatomy 

 or structure of the horse's foot, we can but wonder that they 

 perform their work without doing much more injury than, 

 they do. 



For the draught-horse, one used for drawing, or pulling, the 

 nails should be driven so as to incline toward the heel about 

 the width of the nail. When the nail is driven in this direc-- 

 tion, the strain in drawing, or pulling, does not come square 

 across the nail, but slightly in the direction of its length. The' 

 horn of the crust is less injured by driving the nails so as tO' 

 incline backward, for they take nearer the direction of its grain,. 

 The nails should be driven so that they will all come out ex- 

 actly the same distance up on the crust; if not, some nails will 

 have greater strain on them than others, and be liable to come- 

 loose. Neatness demands that all should come out in a line, 

 and there is much more danger of bringing the nails out too 

 high up than too low down. There is no need of the nail com- 

 ing out high up on the hoof, for it does not add to its security, 

 and injures an unnecessary amount of the horn of the crust. 

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