Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/613

 on the outer side and two on the inner, and always found that number quite sufficient, even in the largest shoes. With small ones I have only employed two nails on each side. To stamp these, the shoe must be frequently heated, as from the thinness of the metal it quickly cools; the holes so made are smaller than those of ordinary shoes, are oblong from before to behind, and rounded at the angles so as not to weaken the iron; they are formed by an untempered cast-steel punch provided with a very tapering and almost square extremity, the sharp corners being removed, and the point terminating like a grain of barley. An assistant holds the shoe in a pair of tongs on the anvil, and it is pierced from fine to coarse by light blows, the punch being withdrawn quickly, and straightened if bent, moistened to keep it cool, and dipped in grease to make it cut more promptly.

'To counter-pierce the shoe, it is necessary to have a thinner punch than that for stamping, and a little care is necessary to prevent the shoe being broken.

'It is of importance that the best iron be used, notwithstanding its high price; the expense is compensated for by only half the weight being required. It must not be brittle. Two old shoes furnish sufficient material to make a new one; hind-shoes are to be preferred.' The most delicate and difficult stage in the operation is, of course, attaching the metal to the hoof. Charlier's directions are as follows:

'1. The horse ought to have been shod a long time, in order that the sole may have acquired that so-called excess of thickness that is usually cut away by the farrier.