Nearly all horse-shoe nails are now made by machinery. They are well made, sound in structure, properly pointed, and with heads of a uniform size and shape. The machine - made nails are certainly better than the hand-made, and no fault can be found with them so long as the iron from which they are manufactured is good. A horse-shoe nail must be made of the very best iron, or it will break and cause shoes to be lost. According to the size of a foot so is the thickness of horn, and nails are chosen to suit this. Too large a nail breaks the horn, too small a one fails to hold the shoe on. The direction in which a nail is driven is very much controlled by the form of the nail-holes in the shoe. When a farrier finds that he cannot drive a nail with safety he should either have the shoe altered or decline to drive the nail. The direction which a nail takes in the horn is recognized by the sound and "feel" elicited by the hammer. In a thin foot it is a delicate operation, but in a strong hoof there is no risk whatever. The heads of nails when driven should fit the holes or fullering of the shoe. A small portion of the head should be visible when the nail is driven home. When the head is only flush with the surface of the shoe, and visibly does not fill the hole, the shoe is likely soon to be loose.

When a nail is driven through the hoof, its point is turned down and wrung off, so that a protruding portion is left. This is called a clinch. Just under it a notch is made in the wall with a rasp, and the clinch gently hammered down into it. A stroke or two of the rasp levels the whole and leaves the clinches smooth. Excessive rasping weakens the clinches and destroys the security of the shoe. When the shoeing is finished the clinches should be seen about equidistant from each other, with a good hold of the wall, and rather higher at the toe than at the heel.