Many beginners struggle with setting a horseshoe correctly on a foot. Setting a shoe properly and with precision is a skill all its own. To master this skill, there are a few principles that must be understood. Once you gain that understanding, you can then judge which principles apply to different situations in order to make shoe placement an easy part of the job.

It All Hinges On This

First, compare setting a shoe with screwing a hinge on a cabinet door with panhead screws. The area between the door and the frame can be adjusted by the placement of the screw. To tighten the seam, the screws can be placed in an area of the hole that is furthest from the door. When the screw seats in the hole, the shape of the head will pull the door tight, closing the seam. Placing the screw in an area of the hole closest to the seam will push the door away, and open up the seam. If the screw is placed in the center of the hole, the hinge will stay where it started.

Setting a shoe on a foot is a similar procedure. The primary difference is that we are dealing with rectangular holes and nail shanks, as well as a head that has a taper on at least three sides.

Since the nail has a sharp tapered tip that is much smaller than a nail hole, it is easy to move a shoe one way or another by…