12 



care should be taken to raise all the clenches,'" and eveiy 

 approach to violently wrenching it off should be scrupulously 

 avoided : dragging the nails with their turned down ends through 

 the crust, not only inflicts pain upon the horse by their pressure 

 on the sensitive parts within the hoof, as is evinced by his 

 flincliing, and struggling to free his foot from the grasp of the 

 smith, but separates the fibres of the horn beyond that, which 

 is necessary, and interferes with the future nail hold. If after 

 the clenches have been raised, the shoe resist a moderate 

 effort to displace it, the nails, which apj^ear to retain it the 

 most, should be partly punched out ; by this small trouble 

 much future inconvenience will be saved ; tlie enlargement 

 of the nail holes prevented ; and the crust left in a firmer 

 and sounder state to nail to. 



The foot, being relieved of the shoe, should have the vuider 

 surface of the crust rasped all round ; to do this effectually 

 in a strong foot requires a degree of force, calculated to 

 arouse the fears of the immformed, and to make them 

 suspect something hke wanton destruction of the hoof ; it is 

 however only removing those j^fii'ts, which in the unshod foot 

 would have been worn away by contact vnth the ground ; 

 the practice is ftirther beneficial in detecting any stubs, that 

 may have been left in the nail holes. 



The operation of preparing the foot for the shoe is a matter 

 requiring both skill and judgment ; and is moreover a work 

 of some labor, when proj^erly j^erformed. It will be found 

 that the operator errs much oftener by removing too little, 

 thfiu too much ; at least it is so with parts, that ought to 



* Plate 1, fig. 2. 



