outside quarter.  Do not cut away this important brace.  It is as necessary to the heel of the animal, to guard him against lateral motion, on which the whole of the above structure depends, as the toes are to the human being.  Curve the outside of the shoe nearly to fit the foot, and you will find the inside heel a little straighter, especially if the animal be narrow-breasted, and the feet stand close together.  Nature has provided this safeguard to prevent its striking the opposite leg.  After the shoe is prepared to fit the foot, as I have before described, rasp the bottom level—­it will be found nearly so.  Do not put a knife to the sole or the frog.  The sole of the foot, remember, is its life, and the frog its defender.  In punching the shoe, two nail-holes on a side, on a foot like this, are sufficient to hold on a shoe.  Three may be used, if set in their proper places, without injury to the foot.  Practice will teach you that any more nailing than this is unnecessary.  I have used two nails on a side on an animal with not the best of a foot, and very high action, and he has worn them entirely out without throwing either of them off.  Previous to punching the shoe, observe the grain of the foot.  It will be seen that the fibres of the hoof run from the top of the foot, or coronary border, towards the toe, in most feet, at an angle of about forty-five degrees.  It will be plain, then, that if the nails are driven with the grain of the horn, they will drive much easier, and hold better, and be less liable to cut and crack the fibers.

Another benefit can be derived from this process of nailing.  When the foot comes to the ground, the nails act as a brace to keep the foot from slipping forward off the shoe.  This renders that very ingenious foot destroyer, the toe-clip, unnecessary.  Then, in punching the shoe, hold the top of the pritchell toward the heel of the shoe, so as to get the hole in the shoe on an angle with the grain of the hoof.  Punch the holes large enough, so that the nails will not bind in the shoe, nor require unnecessary hammering or bruising of the foot to get them up to their proper place.  Prepare the nails well, point them thin and narrow; and, as I have said before, use as small a nail as possible.

When you proceed to nail on the shoe, take a slight hold at the bottom, so as to be sure that the nail starts in the wall of the foot instead of the sole.  Let it come out as high up as possible.  You need not be afraid of pricking with nails set in this way, as the wall of the foot is as thick, until you get within half an inch of the top, as it is where you set the nail.  Nails driven in this way injure the feet less, hold on longer, and are stronger than when driven in any other way.  If you have any doubt of this, test it in this manner:  when you take off an old shoe to set a new one, and cut the clinches (which should be done in all cases), you will find the old nail and the clinches not started up; and in drawing the nail out you will also find the foot not slipped or cracked; and that the horn binds the nail until it is entirely drawn out.  Indeed, I have known the hole to almost close as the nail left it.