462 THE HORSTC. 



be sure that tliej have been stamped so as to pass straight 

 through the shoe, and come out in the flat part of the web, and 

 not partly in the flat and partly in the seating. It is a very 

 bad plan to make them slant inwards, as most smiths do ; for in 

 driving a nail they have first to pitch the point inwards, then 

 turn it outwards, driving it all the time with the grain of the 

 crust, and at last they bring it out high up in the thinnest part 

 of the hoof, and have the weakest part of the nail for a clinch. 

 Now, instead of all this, if you make the holes straight through 

 the shoe, you have only to drive the nail straight, and it will 

 go through the shoe across the grain of the crust and come out 

 low down in the thickest part of the hoof, and give you a strong 

 clinch made out of the shank of the nail instead of a weak one 

 made out of the point. The advantage of straight holing is that 

 you are sure never to prick the foot in driving a nail, and you 

 get a firmer hold for the shoe. Everybody knows that a short 

 purchase across the line of the strain is stronger than a longer 

 one in the direction of the strain. 



The soundness of the hoi'se's foot, as far as shoeing is con- 

 cerned, depends more upon the number of nails and where they 

 are placed than upon any thing else ; for if the shoe is ever so 

 badl}^ formed, and the nail-holes are rightly placed, very little 

 harm will happen to the foot beyond the loss of a shoe ; but if 

 the shoe is of the best possible shape, and fitted to the foot in 

 the most perfect manner, unless the nail-holes are placed so that 

 the foot can expand, it must in the end become unsound. 



The portion of hoof that expands the most is the inner quar- 

 ter and heel. You must therefore leave those parts free from 

 nails ; and the way to do it is never to stamp more than two 

 holes on the inside of the shoe, one about an inch and a quarter 

 from the centre of the toe, and the other about three-quarters of 

 an inch behind it. It is quite clear that, if you nail both sides 

 of a horse's hoof to an iron shoe, the hoof will be held fast, and 

 cannot expand ; and, when the horse's w^eight forces the bones 

 of the foot down into the hoof, the tender lining of the hoof 

 will be squeezed against the shanks of the nails, and cause pain 

 to the horse at every step he takes. Tlie whole number of nail 

 holes should never exceed five ; three on the outside, and two 

 on the inside. I have proved, over and over again, that five 



