Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/612

, just as necessity may require when preparing the hoof. The guiding power in this respect is considerably enhanced by a portion of the anterior extremity of the plate being bent downwards at a right angle to the knife, and to about the same extent as the end of the blade is turned upwards; this shoulder rests against the face of the wall of the hoof, and very materially aids the shoer in performing the most difficult and hazardous part of the operation—the cutting so close to the sensitive and vascular structures of the foot without injuring them.

Charlier's directions for forging the shoes are these: 'The most convenient-sized iron is that in bar ¾ × ⅝ for large shoes, and ⅝ × ⅜ for small ones; or even square iron, more or less thick, according to the strength required. From such bars the shoes can be forged with an ordinary hammer: the iron is cut off in lengths proportioned to the size of the shoe; one side is made at a heat, but without stamping the holes; the second side is formed at the second heat, the turning of the shoe to its proper shape being effected by principally striking its upper border around the toe on the beak of the anvil, so as to give it the natural inclination of the foot. A shoe thus turned is narrower on its upper or foot surface than its lower or ground one.

'The nail-holes are made in each branch or side, and are two or three, rarely four, in number; one at the side of the toe, another at the quarter or middle of the branch, and a third at the heel, all placed at regular intervals. In my trials of this system I have usually had only three nails