24 THE HORSE'S FOOT, 



nailing, I was employing seven nails in each fore, and eight 

 in each hind shoe. I then withdrew one nail from each 

 shoe, thus reducing the number to six in .he fore, and seven 

 in the hind shoes ; and finding at the end of a year that the 

 shoes of all the horses had been as firmly retained as former, 

 ly, I withdrew another nail from each shoe, leaving only 

 five in the fore shoes and six in the hind. I found, however, 

 that six nails would not retain the hind shoe of a carriage 

 horse, without allowing it sometimes to shift ; so I returned 

 to seven in the hind shoes, and have continued to employ that 

 number ever since : but five have retained all the fore shoes 

 as firmly during the whole of the last year and a half, as 

 six had previously done. 



I have invariably directed and superintended the whole 

 operation of shoeing during these experiments ; and have 

 always been very careful to mark that the nails were not 

 driven high up in the crust, but brought out as soon as possi- 

 ble ; and that they were very lightly driven up before the 

 clinches were turned down, and not, as is generally the 

 case, forced up with all the power that the smith can hring 

 to bear upon them with his hammer. I mention these cir- 

 cumstances to show that my object really was to ascertain 

 how little would retain a shoe, and to what extent the foot 

 might be relieved from the evil of unnecessaiy restraint; a 

 matter sometimes of great moment, and at all times desi- 

 rable. 



The clinches should not be rasped away too fine, but 

 turned dov/n broad and firm. The practice of rasping the 

 whole surface of the hoof after the clinches have been turned 

 down, should never be permitted ; it destroys the covering 

 provided by nature as a protection against the too rapid 

 evaporation of the moisture of the hoof, and causes the horn 

 to become dry and brittle. 



Two of the horses alluded to above, worked for some time 

 with only four nails in their fore shoes. 



I have detailed these experiments with a view to expose 

 the groundless nature of the fear that expects to cast a shoe 

 at every step, unless it be held to the foot by eight or nine 

 nails, driven high into the crust. If the presence of a nail 

 in the crust were a matter of no moment, and two or three 

 more than are necessary were merely useless, there would be 

 no great reason to interfere with this practice of making 

 " assurance doubly sure ;" but it is far otherwise, — the nails 

 separate the fibres of the horn, and they never by any chance 



