PRICKS IN SHOEING. 215 



contact with the concealed portion of an old broken nail. Hence, 

 before putting on a shoe, all good shoeing smiths are most careful 

 to see that no " stubs " of this kind are in the wall of the hoof. 

 The injury done by " drawn nails " is generally more serious, and 

 always more difficult of detection and treatment than when the 

 offending nail has been left in. A " drawn nail " is the term used 

 to denote a nail which, in the first instance, has been driven in a 

 wrong: direction, and then removed. As a shoeing smith who 

 pricks a horse is almost always held in a court of law to be liable 

 for any damage therefrom ensuing, notwithstanding proof of the 

 exercise of all reasonable care and skill ; it may be taken for 

 granted that the man who inflicted the injury, whether carelessly 

 or by pure accident, is not the best person to conduct the practical 

 investigation of the hurt foot. It is evident that the thicker and 

 broader a nail is towards its pointed end, the more liable it will 

 be to lame a horse, if driven close, and as a nail, when in use, is 

 apt to break only at a point close to its entrance into the wall of 

 the hoof, the thin end should have no more substance than is 

 necessary to afford its clinch a secure hold. The happy medium 

 between undue su-bstance and undesirable weakness is attained, as 

 a rule, only by machine-made nails of a good pattern. Some horses 

 are especially liable to get pricked on account of the walls of their 

 hoofs being abnormally thin. Others are equally or even more apt 

 to suffer from this injury by reason of unsteadiness while being 

 shod. As the wall of the hoof diminishes in thickness from the toe 

 to the heels, and is thinner on the inside of the foot than on the 

 outside (Fig. 72) ; the nearer to the heel a nail is driven, the 

 greater the danger of pricking the horse ; and a horse is more apt 

 tff get pricked on the inside heels or quarter than oii the outside. 



Horses which have " worn " fore legs sometimes go lame soon 

 after being shod, on account of their heels having been unduly cut 

 down, and increased strain being, thereby, thrown on the ligaments 

 and flexor tendons of the legs. This form of lameness may easily 

 be mistaken for that arising from a prick in shoeing. 



MODE OF DETERMINING THE SEAT AND EXTENT OF 

 THE INJUEY. — If the horse, on the nail being driven, flinches 

 evidently, from pain, and thereupon goes lame, he has probably 

 been pricked ; especially, if the point of the nail has not come out, 

 or has appeared high up on the wall ; or if we have had reason to 

 suppose, from the dull sound of the hammer, that the nail has 

 penetrated the quick. The appearance of blood, on a nail being 

 withdrawn, will also be clear proof of this accident having 

 occurred. If lameness be observed after the nails have been 

 driven, first of all see if any of them have been driven " higher ' 



