Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/696

 stamped shoe is in every way preferable. The square cavity, wide at the top and tapering to the bottom, gives a secure and solid lodgment to the nail-head, which of course should be of the same shape; it does not weaken the shoe, is easily made, can be placed nearer the outer or inner margin as required, and when filled with the nail is as capable of resisting wear as any other part. It is usually better to have the nail-holes stamped 'coarse;' that is, at some distance from the outer margin of the shoe, and neither inclining outwards nor inwards.

The number of nail-holes through which nails are to be driven should be as few as possible. Every nail penetrating the crust may be looked upon as a source of injury to it; and with a shoe bedded in a solid manner on the crust and sole, as I have recommended, and diminished in weight to the utmost degree compatible with endurance for a certain period, it is astonishing what a small number of nails is needed. The ordinary heavy seated-shoe is damaging to the foot, not only because it rests on such a narrow basis, but also because its weight and instability necessitates its being attached by a large number of long thick nails which do great harm to the crust. For shoes worn by medium-sized draught-horses, I never allow more than six nails in the fore and seven in the hind feet; more frequently the fore shoes are retained by five nails—three outside and two inside, and the hind ones by three on each side. The nails are comparatively small.

For carriage and saddle horses, as well as hunters, four and five small nails are employed for the fore, and generally five and six for the hind shoes. It must always be remembered, that the retention of a shoe for a sufficient