ESSAY ON SHOEING H0KSE8. 135 



more than one rivet. So soon as the process of riveting is com- 

 pleted, the crack or fissure may be dressed with a small quantity of 

 strong spirits of hartshorn, then bind a piece of tape firmly around 

 the foot, and keep the latter cool by frequent spongings of cold wa- 

 ter. A bar-shoe, affording equal pressure around the crust and frog, 

 is to be applied ; two nails on the inside and three on the outside, as 

 remote from the heels as possible. This form of shoe is, under the 

 above circumstances, the best that can be applied ; yet, in case of 

 quarter-crack, perhaps a plain shoe, applied so as to bear upon the 

 heel under the crack, may answer better than the bar-shoe. 



The reader will perceive that I recommend the use of a gimlet for 

 perforating the walls of the hoof. It may be proper, however, for 

 me to remark, that in case the walls be thin, such an instrument can- 

 not be used ; therefore the smith must either use an awl or a brad- 

 awl, for if he drive the nail, or clinch, without first perforating the 

 hoof, the fibres of the latter are unnecessarily separated. 



From what I have already written in reference to the art of shoe- 

 ing, the reader will probably infer that there is no great difficulty in 

 shoeing a strong, well formed foot ; and all that is necessary in the 

 preparation of such a foot, is to level the crust and sole, and scrape 

 oif any loose portions of horny siibstance that may be found on the 

 sole, frog, or bars. The nails — two on the inside and three on the 

 outside — should be placed as near the toe as is consistent with the 

 security of the shoe ; the heads of the nails should be " sunk, or 

 counter-sunk," so that when traveling on the road or on paved 

 streets, the nails remain immovable, and thus the shoe is not likely 

 to get loose ; and the same will be held firmer to the foot if torsion 

 be practiced. Torsion signifies twisting, and is performed in the 

 following manner : after the nail has been carefully driven home, and 

 before it is cut or broken off prior to clinching, it must be seized or 

 inclosed in the fangs of a pair of pincers, and then twisted several 

 times so as to give it a sort of cork-screw end ; the screw thus 

 formed is extended to the upper part of the nail, within the fibres of 

 the hoof, and of course requires much more force to draw it than 

 when a nail remains untwisted. The nail being thus twisted, it is 

 cut off and clinched. It appears to me that this method is far supe- 

 rior to that heretofore practiced. 



The surface of the shoe which bears on the ground should be hol- 

 lowed — concave — for by this means the horse is enabled to get a 

 secure foothold ; and such a formation corresponds with the natural 

 form of well formed feet, which are, in the undomesticated state oi 

 the animal, always concave. 



When the bottom or sole of a horse's foot is flat or convex, instead 

 of concave, it is at the sam^ time much thinner and less capable of 

 bearing pressure. The shoe for such a foot should be broader than 

 the ordinary one, and must have a good flat seat at the region of the 

 junction of crust and sole. This form of foot being naturally weak, 

 in consequence, perhaps, of some hereditary predisposition, great 

 care is required in nailing the same, otherwise the nail is apt, it 

 driven too far in an upward direction, to enter the sensitive tissues, 

 and thus the horse is pricked, as the saying is. 



Finally, the feet of horses are often variously deformed, in conse- 

 quence of predisposition lurking in breed, from bad management, 



