ILLUSTKATED GUIDE. 75 



the nail, instead of a weak one made out of the point. 

 The advantage of straight holing is, that you are sure 

 never to prick the foot in driving a nail, and you get a 

 firmer hold for the shoe. Everybody knows that a short 

 purchase across the line of the strain is stronger than a 

 longer one in the direction of the strain. " The sound- 

 ness of the horse's foot, so far as shoeing is concerned, de- 

 pends more upon the number of nails and where they are 

 placed, than upon anything else ; but if the shoe is ever 

 so badly formed, and the nail holes are rightly placed, 

 very little harm will happen to the foot beyond the loss 

 of a shoe ; but if the shoe is of the best possible shape, and 

 fitted to the foot in the most perfect manner, unless the 

 nail holes are placed so that the foot can expand, it must 

 in the end become unsound. The portions of the hoof 

 which expand the most are the inner quarter and heel. 



You must, therefore, leave those parts free from nails ; 

 and the way to do it is never to stamp more than two 

 holes on the inside of the shoe, one about an inch and a 

 quarter from the center of the toe, and the other about 

 three-quarters of an inch behind it. It is quite clear that 

 if you nail both sides of a horse's hoof to an iron shoe, 

 the hoof will be held fast and cannot expand ; and when 

 the horse's weight forces the bones of the foot into the 

 hoof, the sensible laminge, connecting the hoof with the 

 bones, will be squeezed against the shanks of the nails, 

 and cause pain to the horse at every step he takes. The 

 whole number of nail holes should never exceed five — 

 three on the outside and two on the inside. I have 

 proved, over and over again, that five nails will hold on 

 a fore-shoe at any kind of work in any country, and at 

 any pace. When a shoe is properly fitted to the foot, and 



