GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 45 



try and at any pace; and I again advise you to 

 employ that number, placing three on the outside 

 of the shoe and two on the inside, because I know 

 from experience that with the very commonest care 

 on the part of the smith they will hold a shoe 

 through any difficulty of ground or pace. But I am 

 prepared to prove that they are more than suf- 

 ficient for the purpose, and to show that many 

 smiths can and do keep on a fore-shoe by tliree 

 nails only — tico placed on the outside and one on 

 the inside. 



It is very nearly seven years since I have had 

 more than three nails in the fore-shoe of any one 

 of my six horses, and they are all shod with thick 

 felt and stopping; some of them do not require 

 the felt, but, having begun it as an experiment 

 some years ago, and finding no inconvenience from 

 it, I have gone on with it. In a former work I 

 published several cases of horses having done a 

 variety of work with only three nails in each fore- 

 shoe ; and I may now add another, which happened 

 to a horse of my own last year, and which ought 



