SHOEING. 109 



without heating it. Native shoes are generally 

 perfectly plain, i.e. flat on both sides, and, unless 

 specially made, are never " seated," i.e. sloped on the 

 foot surface, or " bevelled," i.e. sloped on the ground 

 surface. As a rule, the nail-holes are what the smith 

 calls too fine, i.e. they are too near the outer rim 

 of the iron, and to get a hold the shoe has to be 

 brought back so that the horn projects over the iron. 

 To obviate this the smith removes the toe with the 

 rasp, thus weakening the horn at the very place 

 where it is required to be strong. The shoes are 

 generally somewhat too small also, and to get the 

 nail to take hold they have to be set back in the 

 same way as when the nail-holes are too fine. A 

 native smith, unless he has been shown how, never 

 knows how to turn down the point of the nail after 

 it has been driven through the hoof to form the 

 clench ; he never cuts off the superfluous part, but 

 turns it round in a curl with the pincers, and, 

 needless to say, this is exceedingly likely to cause 

 brushing. Another great fault is his fondness of 

 pairing and slicing away the frog and sole, which he 

 will have to be stopped in doing. I have seldom 

 seen a horse pricked in shoeing by a native, but if 

 left to themselves they never get the bearing true, 

 and as a result corns are of common occurrence. 



