SHOEING. 239 



is that it, the nail, turns imvard when the horse is worked, 

 causing lameness to ensue ; and, thirdly, to avoid these 

 evils, he points his nails so far outward that the outer 

 crust cracks, splits, and chips away, in time occasioning a 

 difficulty about finding any place at all capable of afford- 

 ing holding properties for the necessary nails. 



It is owing to this evil that riders are so frequently incon- 

 venienced by their horses' shoes becoming partially detached 

 from their feet. The weakest portion of the chipped hoof 



FOOT WITH FK.ACTURED HORN. 



yields first, the remaining fastenings follow, the shoe wags, 

 the nails lose their hold — with, perhaps, the exception of 

 one or two, — when the foot is raised its covering hangs 

 pendulous from it, and when again put down some nail still 

 remaining in the shoe pierces the plantar surface of the 

 foot, or, perhaps, even penetrates the cofiin-bone, and 

 prolonged lameness follows. " This may be, and no doubt 

 is, all very true," I fancy I can hear some reader say ; 

 " but what on earth am I to do ? I cannot shoe my 



