Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/578

, and two or three on the inside; the latter near the toe, according to Mr Turner's method.

Indeed, for many years this gentleman's own horses were only shod with three nails in each fore-shoe (of which alone I am now speaking). This was certainly a great improvement on the absurd fashion of studding the shoes all round with nails; and so long as the armature could be retained with safety, there was no reason why more than three, four, or five should be used. If Mr Miles could retain a heavy shoe with a wide cover, unsupported by the sole, which we have seen was removed altogether from it by paring, in addition to the bevelling of the iron, surely a light shoe resting on an unpared sole, in addition to the crust, would be still easier retained! The great secret of this retention of the shoe in Mr Miles's application of the one-sided nailing, lay in the excellent and careful method he adopted of fitting it accurately to the foot. The iron had a perfectly level and solid bearing on the crust, and this was accomplished without much trouble. Another curious circumstance to be remarked in his teaching is, that though he believed in the expansion of the heels to a very exaggerated degree, the shoe when fitted was to follow as closely as possible, and not project in the slightest degree beyond, the crust in this region. Consequently, it must have happened, that when the foot was put on the ground, and the asserted expansion took place, the hoof must have hung over the shoe to the amount of that dilatation, without receiving any support from it!

It was always a favourite theme with people who did not understand much about shoeing, or the nature of the horse's foot, to dwell upon the injury done to the hoof by