Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/475

 broken and worn; but it is advantageous that it should project a little beyond the foot from the quarters back, so as to preserve the horn there; and behind the foot it should not be short, but exact and equal to the extremity of the heel, for if it surpass the heel the horse will likely forge (click or strike) with the hind feet; and if too short, if the heels are weak and tender, the animal may suffer pain and injury. In the next chapter, the same observations are made with regard to the hind-feet. In the eleventh chapter we have the mode of adjusting the shoe to the hoof. 'The shoe should be so fitted that the foot may suffer in no way through the carelessness of the farrier—that is to say, the hot shoe should only be applied to the hoof for as long a period as may be necessary to fit it well'

The nails are described in the following chapter. 'The nails ought to be large, moderately long, and neither flattened, hammered, or otherwise hardened. With ordinary horses eight or nine is the usual number; and with coursers or "Frisons," ten, and sometimes more. I do not wish to deny that with some hoofs six or seven nails are sufficient, but there are few of these. When the number is odd, the majority of the nails should go to the outside of the foot, which is the least sensitive.'

Chapter XIII. speaks of the bordure or pancette, sometimes added to the shoe, and which was nothing but a very wide sole. The other chapters up to the twenty-second, are devoted to the characters of various kinds of hoofs, and how to arm them. This chapter mentions the shoes necessary for young horses which, having been