556 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



navicular bone, you may make up your mind that he will soon 

 be very lame, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you may 

 attribute it to bad shoeing. 



The foot of a horse is composed of sundry lamina, combined 

 in such a manner as to form a perfect and most elaborate spring; 

 the elasticity of wliich can only be secured by giving it free scope 

 to expand and contract every time he moves. And this can be 

 accomplished by using five, instead of nine nails. And I fre- 

 quently use but three; being particular that the nails cross the 

 lamina, in the hoof, low, instead of high; and that there is a 

 good clip at the toe. The membrane lining the horse's hoof, is 

 exceedingly sensitive. This is an anatomical ilict, and must be 

 borne in mind by the smith, lest he wound it. Blacksmiths 

 always ask you for what kind of work you wish your horses shod; 

 and if you say to work before the plow, in a stiff clay, he will 

 put thirteen nails in each shoe, which is a barbarous and 

 unnecessary humbug, as three, or five nails, placed in a per- 

 fectly well fitted shoe, will hold it on better than more, at any 

 kind of work that you may feel disposed to put the horse to. I 

 will engage to have any horse shod, with three nails in his fore 

 shoes, and five in his hind shoes, and permit him to be used in 

 soft tenacious clay soil for a month, without detriment to them. 

 And I boldly assert, that no horse, either large or small, should 

 ever have more than five nails in a shoe ; and at the same time 

 that three will, at all times, and under all circumstances, be 

 sufficient, if the shoe is perfectly made and fitted. It is as 

 necessary that the shoe should be made to fit the horse's foot, 

 whatever shape it may be, as it is that the shoe should fit the 

 human foot. I never have yet met with a smith who did not 

 pare, trim, cut and burn the hoof to fit the shoe, instead of 

 arranging the shoe to fit the hoof. If you use five nails, place 

 three on the outside, and two inside. Tlie first one may be placed 

 one and one-half inches from the centre of tlie hoof in front; the 

 second in the centre of the quarter; and the third behind. On 

 the inside, place the first nail one and one-quarter inches from 

 the centre of the toe; and the second an inch behind it. You 

 thus avoid pressure on the sensitive parts of the hoof. When a 



