734 SHOEma. 



ground-surface of the shoe, the nail hole will soon become too 

 big for the head of the nail If, however, the nail heads project 

 beyond the ground-surface of the shoe, they will quickly get worn 

 down, or knocked oft'; the result being, in either case, that the 

 horse will drop his shoe. With a fullered shoe, though the heads 

 of the nails are larger than the nail holes, they will lie protected 

 in the groove. 



If a shoe is made of hard iron and has plenty of substance, it 

 should not be fullered; for if this be done, it will be difficult to 

 alter the distance of the nail holes from the outer edse, if re- 

 quired. The holes should be punched square and to narrow down- 

 wards (looking at the shoe when the foot is " picked up "). " The 

 square cavity, wide at the top, and tapering to the bottom, gives a 

 secure and solid lodgment to the nail head, which, of course, should 

 be of the same shape ; it does not weaken the shoe, is easily made, 

 can be placed near the outer or inner margin as required, and when 

 filled with the nail is as capable of resisting wear as any other 

 part " (^Fleming). 



Ordinary horse-shoes, as we are all aware, are made with the 

 fullering at an equal distance from the outside edge all round the 

 shoe; hence the nail holes have, of necessity, to be punched with 

 little or no reference to the thickness of the horn which their 

 respective nails are intended to pierce. Tliis faulty method of 

 fullering is a consequence of the adoption of the labour-saving 

 plan of making shoes out of straight bars of iron, in which the 

 groove that represents the fullering is parallel to the sides of the 

 bar (Fig. 191). Supposing, therefore, that the farthest back nail 

 holes are at the proper distance from the outside edge of the shoe, 

 the nail holes in front of them will be too close to it ; hence, to 

 obtain sufficient hold for the nails, the shoeing smith will be 

 obliged to set the shoe within the circumference of the wall, so 

 that there is a rim of horn left round the fore part of the shoe, 

 which rim, for the sake of appearance, has to be rasped down. We 

 have here the explanation for the all-butruniversal use of the rasp 

 on the lower part of the wall, among ignorant shoeing smiths, who, 

 having accepted a false system of fullering, are forced, in order 

 to keep the shoe on, to fix it in a manner which necessitates the 

 use of the rasp on the outside. Shoeing smiths who adopt this 

 faulty system of fullering, obtain increased hold for the nails by 

 directing the point of the nail more to the inside in the 

 thicker portions of the hoof than in the thinner parts. I 

 need hardly say that if, for convenience sake, the fullering 

 has to be ready-made in the iron and if we do not wish the 

 toes to be shortened (p. 726), it would be well to have the 

 fullering marked out for each shoe, and made with reference to the 



