804 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



may be sufficient for a light fore shoe, six or seven for a 

 heavy shoe. In the hind shoes, the strain being greater, 

 it is always customary to place more nails than in the 

 fore. 



Both high and low nailing are damaging to the feet. In 

 low nailing an insufficient hold is taken, the shoe gets cast, 

 and the wall breaks away. In high naihng the nail-holes 

 remain too long in the wall, as it takes some weeks for 

 them to grow out. Wherever a nail is driven in the wall 

 the portion of horn external to it becomes brittle, so that 

 high nailing induces a brittle wall. 



Nails should not be too large, but selected according to 

 the size of the shoe. Large nails in small feet are very 

 destructive and not always free from danger. The direction 

 taken by the nails is important ; at the toe they can slope 

 and take the same angle as the wall fibres, but at the heel 

 they must be more upright so as to avoid running the risk 

 of injury in the thin wall. Clenches must be slightly 

 bedded in and hammered down. 



The chief evils caused in shoeing are produced by the 

 knife and rasp. With the former the sole is thinned out, 

 sometimes until it springs under the thumb. This in days 

 gone by was supposed to facilitate the hoof mechanism, but 

 as the function of the sole is the protection of the sensitive 

 sole within, it is obvious it cannot be too thick or strong 

 for this purpose. The exfoliated sole can be pulled out at 

 each shoeing, but a knife should never touch it. 



The bars are frequently thinned or cut away under the 

 impression that by so doing more spring is given to the 

 foot! 



The foot pad which forms one of the chief anti-concussion 

 mechanisms is invariably pared away, under the extra- 

 ordinary misconception that it is a dangerous excrescence, 

 and cannot be too effectually removed ! 



It is inconceivable that any rational person looking at 

 the horse's foot could ever hold these ideas, yet they are 

 universal outside the veterinary profession. It would be 

 quite as reasonable for the hard skin on the weight-bearing 



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