ATTACHING THE SHOE. 6ji 



strong in the manner I have described, will suffer no in- 

 convenience in having the nails driven well home in the 

 shoe. Every nail should form a part of the shoe, and 

 scarcely project above it ; and when all have been firmly 

 wedged in, they should be tightly ' drawn up ' by ham- 

 mer and pincers. Nothing then remains to be done but 

 to bend down, or ' clench,' the small portion of the nail 

 that remains on the outer face of the crust, after the point 

 has been twisted off. This should be accomplished by 

 shortening the fragment with the rasp, so as to leave just 

 enough to turn over ; then with the slightest touch of the 

 knife or the edge of the rasp, the small barb of horn imme- 

 diately beneath it is cut away — no notch or trench must 

 be made, and the clench laid down flush with the general 

 face of the crust. No more rasping or cutting should be 

 permitted on any account. 



It is usually recommended that the wall should not 

 be rasped above the clenches ; they who give this re- 

 commendation are ignorant of the fact, that as much, if 

 not more, harm is done by rasping below than above 

 these rivets. Those who study what I have said con- 

 cerning the structure of the crust of the hoof will readily 

 enough understand how this happens. Over the whole 

 external surface of this part, it has been shown that a 

 beautifully fine translucent horn or varnish was spread, 

 to prevent undue desiccation of the horn, and con- 

 sequent brittleness. Immediately beneath this are the 

 dense resisting fibres, which are intended to resist wear, 

 and are most capable of supporting a shoe, through the 

 medium of the nails ; in fact they are the fibres which 

 ought to perform this duty, as beneath them, towards 



