280 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



shoe should be eased at that point, and not at the heel. 

 This, I believe, would save many horses from quarter- 

 crack. I suggest that the reader consider this, and then 

 follow his own judgment. The nails, as I have said, 

 should be quite small, and driven in more gently than is 

 the custom. There is no reason why the smith should 

 strike a blow at the little nail-head as strong as he 

 would deliver at the head of a spike in an oak-beam. 

 The hoof of the horse is not an oak-stick, and the 

 delicately-pointed and slenderly-headed nail is not a 

 wrought-iron spike; and yet you will see the nailer 

 whack away at them as if it was a matter of life and 

 death to get them entirely set in at two blows of his 

 hammer. Insist that the nailer shall drive his nails 

 slowly and steadily, instead of using violence. In this 

 ease, if his nail is badly pointed and gets out of the 

 proper line of direction, no great injury is done. It 

 can be withdrawn, and a new one substituted, without 

 harm having been done the foot. But the swift, blind, 

 and violent way prevents all such care, and exposes 

 the horse to temporary if not permanent injury. The 

 heads should be no larger than the groove, or notch, 

 which receives them. If these are not large enough 

 to be sunk in, then that portion of the head which 

 protrudes should be rasped or filed down level with 

 the shoe. Gentleness should be exercised in clinching 

 the nail. Never allow a smith to touch a rasp to the 

 outer surftice of the hoof Nature has covered it with 

 a thin filament of enamel, the object of which is to pro- 



