342 ON PLATING RACE-HORSES. 



shoeing nail which may project, when tlie fullering is 

 not sufficiently coarse to let in the head of it. 



I will, for example, suppose an instance at a country 

 meeting at which it is the custom to run heats. When 

 a horse has run the first heat he is pulled up and rode 

 to the scale for the jockey to weigh; after which he is 

 led out from the crowd to some convenient place to be 

 rubbed over, and to be got ready for the second heat. 

 This being done, and the horse's clothes put on, the 

 boy who looks after him, takes up his feet, and if 

 rnecessay, he picks them out. But there is one thing 

 which the boy knows to be very necessary, and that 

 is to see that his horse's plates are not only on, but 

 that nothing has happened to them ; that is to say, he 

 must see that the plate is neither broken nor sprung 

 at the heel. Such things will sometimes occur when 

 the ground is hard, and the plates light, or when they 

 are not nailed close to the end of the heels. If a 

 plate is thrown or broken, a fresh one must be put on. 

 If a plate has sprung at the heel, it must be put right, 

 which may be sometimes done without taking it off, 

 provided the horse has very strong sound feet. When 

 a plate can be put right on the feet without removing 

 it, or without any risk of laming the horse, the method 

 of doing it is this, — the smith should place his pincers, 

 shut or nearly so, between the plate and the foot, and 

 by giving a gentle blow or two with his hammer on 

 the end or heel of the latter, he brings it straight again ; 

 after which, as the foot is strong, he may, in order to 

 prevent the same thing from recurring, take fresh hold 



