Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/37

 would not probably be much gain in finally deciding as to which race of the human family, or to what age, the successful utilization of the horse by arming its hoofs with a hard rim of metal is due; and it would, perhaps, be more satisfactory and instructive to trace briefly the progress of the art from its earliest known introduction into the social economy of civilized nations, up to the present time, than attempt to seek its inventors in the perplexing obscurity surrounding this subject. But, as before noticed, the interest which attaches to all that pertains to the horse, and particularly to the management of its feet, by those people who were among the first to discover the beauties and merits of that noble animal, and to press its strength, fleetness, courage, and endurance