Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/245

 and incessant work sufficing to wear it off naturally as it tries to get beyond the iron. The necessity for paring the feet is only perceived when horses have been for a long time fastened in front of the tent without doing any work, or have remained long in the Tell. In such a case, the Arabs simply make use of the sharp-pointed knives which they are never without. This method has the further advantage, that if a horse casts a shoe he can still proceed on his journey, as the sole remains firm and hard. 'With you,' they say, 'and with your practice of paring the foot, if the horse casts a shoe you must pull up, or see him bleeding, halting, and suffering.'

In Syria, however, the hoofs are shortened, and the wall pared level with the sole. The shoes are somewhat circular, or pear-shaped, and riveted, welded, lapped over, or left open at the heels. The annexed figures represent a Syrian shoe and nail (fig. 73); shoes and nails worn in the provinces of Constantine, Oran (fig. 74), and Algeria (fig. 75); also a shoe from Morocco, found in a Moorish farrier's tent after the battle of Isly (fig.