ON SHOEING. 117 



introduced the unilateral system of what he called " half- 

 nailing," which consists in affixing the shoe by nails on 

 the outside and round the toe only, leaving the inner 

 side totally unsecured. 



By theorists it was, of course, asserted that this arrange- 

 ment would prove to be defective and inefficient. In 

 practice, however, not only is the contrary the result, 

 but, on nearly thirty years' experience, we are enabled 

 to maintain the apparent paradox that in riding along 

 or across any and every description of country, a shoe, 

 when half -nailed, is more secure than when wholly 

 nailed; in fact, that it is insecure almost in proportion 

 as it is tightly nailed, and secure in proportion as it 

 is loosely nailed. 



The reasons are obvious. 



When a horse is standing still, or lying fast asleep in 

 his stable, his shoes are, of course, firmer when wholly than 

 when only half-nailed. So soon, however, as, mounted by 

 say a heavy man, he begins to move, there commences, 

 out of sight of every human eye, a desperate, and in 

 deep ground a subterranean struggle between the works 

 of Nature and of Vulcan the blacksmith, or, in plainer 

 words, between the expansive efforts of the frog and 

 hoof and the arbitrary metallic shoe that is restraining 

 them. 



At each step the contest is renewed; and while, by 



