Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/110

 A like conclusion was recently arrived at by M. Nickard, a careful investigator, who has examined all the accessible ancient records and monuments, in order to satisfy himself with regard to this subject; though, as an archaeologist, he has ignored this modern science.

So much for the written history of this art in the ages preceding the Christian era, and for some centuries subsequently. Notwithstanding the various assumptions put forward by modern writers, founded on obscurely written or incorrectly rendered passages, that nail-shoeing was in use, the balance of evidence, it will be seen, is of a negative character. The frequent allusion to the injuries caused by travelling; the mention of losses incurred in war-time by the horses breaking down from over-worn hoofs; the repeated occurrence of words implying that the feet were unprotected; the studied and judicious manner in which strong hoofs are spoken of and commended by the Greek and Roman horsemen; the limited use made of the horse, with its comparatively easily damaged hoofs, and the extensive employment of the mule and ass, inferior animals, but whose feet are so much better protected by horn;—all would go to prove that no effective armature for this vulnerable part of the horse's body was then known.

But we have noticed that a special device, though far inferior to that now employed, was had recourse to in the form of a sandal, which, though of a very inconvenient shape, and usually made of unthrifty materials, yet doubtless served for short journeys, and by being often renewed, answered to some extent for a longer space of time when a horse's feet had become tender from prolonged walking