74 THE HORSE OWNER's 



off square ; if you do, you will find it impossible to fit the 

 shoe properl}^ to the heels, and at the same time keep the 

 web as wide at the heels as it is at the toe, for one of the 

 corners of the shoe will be sticking into the frog, while 

 the other stands out beyond the crust. But if you cut 

 them off, as shown in the figure on page 38, you will 

 have no difficulty in bringing every part of the shoe into 

 its proper place on the foot. And there are no corners 

 left to prevent your fitting the shoe to the exact sweep of 

 the crust at the heels, and you are also enabled to keep 

 the web as wide at the heels as it is at the toe. At this 

 stage of the business, however, it is a good plan always to 

 leave the quarters and heels rather straight and wide 

 apart, till you have fitted the toe, because it is less trouble 

 to bring them in than it is to open them out after the 

 front has been fitted. 



THE WAIL HOLES. 

 You must next open the nail holes, but be sure that 

 they have been stamped so as to pass straight through 

 the shoo, and come out on the foot surface in the flat part 

 of the web ; and not partly in the flat and partly in the 

 seating. It is a very bad plan to make them slant in- 

 ward, as most smiths do, for, in driving a nail, they have 

 first to pitch the point inward, then turn it outward, driv. 

 ing it all the time with the grain of the crust, and at last 

 they bring it out high up in the thinnest part of the hoof, 

 and have the weakest part of the nail for a clinch. Now, 

 instead of all this, if you make the holes straight through 

 the shoe, you have only to drive the nail straight, and it 

 will go through the shoe across the grain of the crust, 

 and come out low down in the thickest part of the hoof, 

 and give you a strong clinch made out of the shank of 



