FITTING AND APPLICATION OF SHOES. 81 



Clips are thin projections drawn up from tlie outer 

 border of shoes for the purpose of giving greater security 

 to their position on a foot. On heavy cart-horses, the 

 clips are sometimes of great size and encourage the idea 

 that the smith looks upon them as designed to assist the 

 nails to retain the shoe on the foot. They should liavo 

 no such purpose, their use being merely to prevent the 

 shoe shifting to one side. A clip should not be narrow 

 and high, it should be low and wide, so that its bearing is 

 taken against the lower edge of the wall. A high clip is 

 a most serious danger when shoes get loose and are 

 trodden on by the horse. The usual position for a clip 

 is at the toe, but there are occasions when two clips — 

 one at each side of the toe — are used. On some shoes, a 

 clip is placed at the outer quarter to prevent the shoe 

 being displaced inwards; this is more often required on 

 hind shoes. A clij) at the toe affords some assistance in 

 fitting a shoe exactly, and it also affords steadiness to 

 the shoe during the driving of the first nails. In 

 America clips are not used, and when American 

 machine-made shoes were first introduced into London 

 they were fitted without clips. I am bound to confess 

 that these shoes did not shift on the feet to any noticeable 

 extent, but they are now all fitted with clips, so I sup- 

 pose the workmen found they were an advantage. The 

 greatest evil resulting from clips is seen in slovenly fit- 

 ting, when the farrier with his knife carves out a great 

 hole in the wall in which to imbed the clip. As a clip is 

 flat, it cannot be fitted to the rounded face of the wall, 

 but all that is necessary is to reduce the round to a flat 

 surface with the rasp, so that the clip may rest on it, 

 care being taken that at the extreme edge the horn is not 

 left so prominent as to be unduly pressed upon when 

 the clip is driven close to the wall. It is easy to lame a 

 horse by violently hammering up the clip, especially 

 when the horn behind it has been so much cut away as 

 to leave only a thin protecting layer. A clip should only 

 be hammered up sufficiently to leave it firmly applied to 

 the wall. A bad workman, in making his clip, may spoil 

 the foot-surface of a shoe by causing a ridge on the bear- 



