300 SHOEING AND THE FOOT. 
except in the inside bevelling. For the hind foot, being 
generally much stronger, and therefore less liable to injury, 
the bevelling is not needed. 
The plates in which horses customarily run races are lighter 
than the ordinary shoes. The heels also are turned up in 
each plate ; but these are the only differences, the manner of 
fixing them being also the same as in ordinary shoeing, with 
this precaution—that in order to prevent breaking the crust of 
the foot, the nails are placed as much as possible in the old 
holes; a plan one cannot but agree with. I may add that in 
the autumn, or indeed at any other time, when the ground is 
very wet and “deep going,” plates, and more particularly the 
hind ones, may be dispensed with altogether. For in galloping 
through mud the feet sink into it, and the result is a certain 
amount of suction, the resistance of which is materially lessened 
if they have been freed from the incumbrance of the plates. 
I have so far confined my observations to the use of the 
common English shoe, because experience teaches me that 
for all purposes it is the best. But there are other kinds, as’ 
there are other theories on the subject of the number and 
disposition of the nails; and it will not be out of place to 
enumerate some of them. There are the French shoe, 
Mr. Turner’s unilateral shoe, Mr. Goodwin's, Mr. Westley 
Richard’s, Mr. Bracey-Clarke’s hinged shoe, Professor 
Coleman’s half moon, and others. Those of my readers who 
are curious on the point will find most of these minutely 
described in “ Stonehenge’s” admirable work on this and 
cognate subjects, Zhe Horse in the Stable and in the Field, 
a work to which I am indebted for some valuable hints on 
shoeing. There is not, however, that I know of, any existing 
account of Mr. Westley Richard’s invention, which I may 
therefore briefly describe. His shoe is a modification of the 
