Let me enjoin you, for humanity's sake, that when you first undertake to shoe a young animal, you will not forget the value of kind treatment. Keep its head turned away from the glaring fire, the clinking anvil, &c., &c. Let the man whom he has been accustomed to, the groom or owner, stand at his head, and talk to him kindly. When you approach him for the first time, let it be without those implements you are to use in his shoeing. Speak to him gently, then take up his foot. If he refuse to let you do this, let the person having him in charge do it. A young animal will allow this with a person he is accustomed to, when he will repel a stranger. By treating him kindly you can make him understand what is wanted; by abusing him you will only frighten him into obstinacy. When you have got the animal under perfect subjection, examine the foot carefully, and you will find the heels, at the back part of the frog, entirely free from that member, which is soft and spongy. When the foot is down, resting on the ground, grasp the heels in your strong hand, press them inwards towards the frog, and you will immediately find that they will yield. You will then see that what yields so easily to the mere pressure of the hand will expand and spread out when the weight of the body is thrown on it. This should give you an idea of what you have to do in shoeing that foot, and your practical knowledge should stand you well in an argument with any of those "learned professors," who declare the foot of the mule does not expand or contract. In truth it is one of its necessary conditions. After being a long time badly shod, nearly or all of this necessary principle of the foot will be lost. You should therefore study to preserve it. And here let me give you what little aid experience has enabled me to do. You will observe the ground surface of the foot, no matter how high the arch may be, to be at least half an inch wide, and sometimes more than an inch, with the heels spread out at the 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.