580 
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON SHOEING. 
They have always a tendency more or less to bind and split the 
hoof; the fewer, therefore, that we make use of, and the greater 
distance we keep them from the heels, the better; provided they 
fulfil their intention, which is to keep the shoe firmly attached 
to the hoof: but every attempt to invent a shoe which could be 
fixed on the foot without nails, so as to answer any general or 
useful purpose, has hitherto been unsuccessful. Mr. Bracy 
Clark and others have exerted much ingenuity in efforts to attain 
this desirable object, but to little or no purpose; and perhaps it 
is beyond the art of man. Mr. Percivall’s Horse Sandal is a very 
pretty contrivance, and may be useful in many situations, but it 
is not a horseshoe. Nails are, therefore, I say, a necessary evil; 
but the fewer perhaps we use the better, and their arrange¬ 
ment is a matter of some importance. 
Every nail that enters the hoof is to be regarded more or less 
as a wedge driven into wood, having a tendency to break and 
split it. Some hoofs, like some pieces of wood, are certainly 
much more difficult to rive than others ; but the more numerous 
our wedges, and the closer we drive them, the more certain we 
are of splitting and breaking both the one and the other. The 
common practice with us in the British Isles has always been to 
drive the nail along the centre of the crust or outer wall of the 
foot, and as high as possible, in order to take a good hold ; a 
method of driving the nail, it must be confessed, which gives it, as 
a wedge, its fullest force, and is often very destructive to the 
outer shell of the hoof. The French mode of nailing is much 
less objectionable in this respect: their nail-holes being punched 
much coarser, and with a direction outwards, the nails only 
traverse the crust obliquely; taking a short but at the same 
time a strong hold of it. This method certainly breaks and 
injures the hoof much less than that in common practice amongst 
us; but it also has its objectionable points, as I have before ob¬ 
served. It should, at first especially, be put in execution very 
carefully, else some of the nails will be apt to make side way 
pressure against the sole, and thus be the cause of lameness. 
It may not, perhaps, signify much, whether the nail-holes be 
simply stamped, or punched through what is called a fullering; 
in both their direction may be the same, that is, slightly slanting 
outwards. Their degree of hold or distance from the outer rim 
of the shoe must depend very much on the perfect or broken 
state of the horny box. But in no instance are the nails to enter 
beyond the white rim which marks the line of junction between 
the horny sole and bottom of the crust. If this system of nailing 
be carefully practised at first, and steadily persevered in, its ad¬ 
vantages will be apparent. 
In putting this plan of nailing into execution, it is necessary 
