62 ON SHOEING. 



when this occurs, the half of the head of every nail 

 is gone, and with further wear of the shoe a further 

 portion of the head will be worn away. A nail 

 without its head, as without its clench, is useless. 

 A shoe, be it remembered, is held on by the head of 

 the nail and its clench. Without these a nail is 

 nothing more than a sprig. 



ofcienches. gg^ The cleuchcs before turning down should be 

 broken off as short and stubby as possible, and laid 

 down flat with the hammer without being filed either 

 before or after turning down, for any filing must 

 necessarily weaken the clench. It is quite possible 

 to turn down clenches perfectly smooth with the 

 hammer. 



The common practice of filing clenches has arisen 

 from a fear on the part of the farrier, lest he should 

 bruise the crust in hammering them down ; but this 

 fear need only exist where the crust has been dam- 

 aged and made thin by previous rasping. 



When a horse with average feet is well shod, the 

 clenches ought never to rise during a month. In 

 fact, the clenches do not in general really rise ; it is 

 usually th-e shoe that sinks into the foot, either 

 because the crust, which ought to carry it safely, 

 has been weakened by rasping, and thereby rendered 

 incapable of supporting the weight of the horse, or 

 because the shoe has shifted and got on to the sole, 

 or because the nails were not hammered home. 



