Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/581

 the hoof, lay the secret of dispensing with so many nails; and this was a veritable progress in the art of farriery, for which Mr Miles deserves every credit. His great error lay, as we have seen, in cutting away the sole, through a false idea that it descended, and in applying heavy, clumsy shoes. The improvement could not make amends for the mistakes.

The hind-shoes had no calkins, properly so called, but only long thick projections from the ground surface — a mere elongated form of calkin. They were not side-clipped at the toe for hunting; rather, a mistake, as a hind-shoe secured in this way is much safer for horse and rider than one with a single clip at the middle of the toe. They had usually two or three nails more than the fore-shoe.

Through a defective knowledge of the anatomy of the hind-foot, the shoe was nailed on in the same manner as in the fore one—the inside nails being all clustered together near the toe on the unilateral system, to allow the hoof to expand. This was undoubtedly a mistake, as every farrier knows that the hind-hoof differs from the fore one in being thickest towards the heels of the crust, and thinnest anteriorly, and that the least injurious and most secure nailing is always found at the former part. This mistake may have caused the failure of his method of shoeing in Algeria.

The composite method of shoeing devised, or rather made somewhat popular, by Mr Miles, was chiefly, as may be perceived, founded on the fantastic lateral-expansion