Horseshoe nail

A horseshoe nail comprising:

• an enlarged head portion;
• a shank extending from the head portion and including generally planar front and rear faces, and a pair of side walls connecting the front and rear faces and having a narrower dimension than a width dimension of the front and rear faces;
• a front pair of corners connecting the front face to the side walls, and a rear pair of corners connecting the rear face to the side walls;
• the shank further including an upper shank portion, a lower shank portion and a middle shank portion located between the upper and lower shank portions wherein the front and rear pairs of corners of the middle shank portion define arcuate transitions from the front and rear faces to the side walls, the transitions extending along the entire length of the middle shank portion, the transitions defining a larger radius than radii defined by the front and rear pairs of corners of the upper and lower shank portions;
• the front and rear faces comprising planar faces along the length of the upper and middle shank portions;
• the side walls of the shank converging toward each other a first amount along the upper and middle shank portions, and the side walls of the shank converging toward each other a second amount, greater than the first amount, along the lower shank portion;
• a portion of the front face on the lower shank portion converging to a plane defined by the rear face;
• and
• the upper shank portion comprising a rectangular cross-section defined by sharply angled corners along the entire length of the upper shank portion whereby a full rectangularly dimensioned area of the nail is provided from the head of the nail to a point of engagement with a hoof to resist shear forces applied perpendicular to the length of the nail.