Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/35

 wanted for travellers, and, with very little harness, fasten them to the carriage. In this state, they are without shoes, and seem perfectly wild; but it is surprising to observe how regularly and well they trot.’ Brooke, however, remarks, that ‘so dangerous are the wolves in some parts of Sweden that the peasants, on turning their horses out, generally tip their feet with iron, by which means of defence they are frequently enabled to beat off their ferocious assailants.’

It is well known that in many southern regions there is but little need for any attempt at shoeing. The littoral of Libya, and some parts of Arabia and Persia, furnish examples. In Tartary, whole tribes ride horses without shoes of iron, and in Senegal the French squadron of Spahis have no farriers, for the simple reason that they have no shod horses. In the East Indies, among some races shoeing is far from general.

So we can easily understand, that in certain parts of the world, horses have been and can be made serviceable to a certain extent without employing an iron defence. If one may judge from the paintings of Ancient Egypt and the sculptures of Assyria, where we see the horse portrayed with great skill, and with that minute perception of his external form which seems to us even now very remarkable, no protection for the hoof was ever had recourse to, and no remains of anything bearing a resemblance to such an appliance have been found. And though these countries were acquainted with many arts,