AND HOW TO Wk.£P IT SOUND. 23 



No shoe should ever be nailed to the foot until it has been 

 ascertained that the pressure of the hands is sufficient to 

 keep it steadily in its place, and preclude any appearance 

 of daylight between it and the foot ; for, if the shoe does 

 not accurately correspond to the surface of the foot, but is 

 disposed to shift about upon it, the nails will be exposed 

 to a constant strain in order to keep it in its place; whereas 

 they should merely have to hold it to the foot, and not, as 

 it were, to keep it there by force. 



The shoes should not be permitted to remain on the 

 horse's feet more than two or three weeks without removal ; 

 for in that time the heads of the nails will have become 

 worn, and, from fitting the holes less perfectly than before, 

 will admit of a trifling motion of the shoe upon the nails ; 

 whereby the holes in the hoof will be enlarged, and the 

 security of the shoe endangered. Another reason for re- 

 moving the shoes, is the opportunity which it affords of 

 paring away those portions of horn which in a state of na- 

 ture would have been worn down by contact with the ground. 



The next circumstance to be considered is one of vital 

 importance to our subject, as upon it depends the amount of 

 disturbance that the natural functions of the foot are destined 

 to sustain from the shoe ; viz., the number and situation of 

 the nails which are to secure it to the foot. If they be 

 numerous, and placed back in the quarters and heels, no 

 form of shoe, be it ever so perfect, can save the foot from 

 contraction and navicular disease. If on the contrary they 

 be few, and placed in the outside quarter and toe, leaving 

 the inside quarter and heels quite free to expand, no form 

 of shoe is so bad that it can, from defective form alone, pro- 

 duce contraction of the foot. 



Three years ago I commenced a series of experiments 

 upon shoeing, with a view, among other things, of ascertain- 

 ing how few nails are absolutely necessary, under ordinary 

 circumstances, for retaining a shoe securely in its place. 

 The subjects of my experiments were six horses of my own, 

 and three belonging to friends ; the nine among them repre- 

 senting very fairly the different classes of pleasure horses ; 

 not indeed including hunters or race-horses, each of which 

 require a separate and totally different treatment, but car- 

 riage horses, ladies' horses, and roadsters ; and they also in- 

 cluded the common variations in form and texture of the 

 generality of horses' feet. 



When my attention was first directed to the subject of 



