Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/45

 is no indication whatever that a metallic shoe had ever been fastened to it. Had such an article been used, the ancient Greeks would have left us more indisputable proof than a few holes only round the inside of the hoof of one of their statues. The holes were doubtless made for some other purpose, and it, is to be regretted that no description beyond this is to be found. This, however, will be referred to hereafter.

An allusion to hoofs of horses is frequently discovered in the Greek poets and writers of a later date than the days of Homer, but all negative the idea that they had any brass, bronze, or iron protection. Aristophanes (b.c. 427), for example, in his Comedy of the ‘Knights,’ makes the chorus address Neptune as the god ‘who loves the noise of the hoofs of horses and their neighing.’ Further reference to the noise made by the hoofs of horses will be furnished when we speak of the Romans.

The strongest evidence that shoeing was not practised among the Greeks of this period, is to be found in the great attention paid to the nature and durability of the hoofs by horsemen and others, and this testimony one would think perfectly convincing. Of these we may select Xenophon, the celebrated Athenian General, in whose eloquent writings enough will be found to satisfy the most incredulous in this respect. This celebrated cavalry officer appears to have carefully studied that animal's character and habits, and all the precepts he gives in his treatise on horsemanship are dictated with an amount of wisdom and humanity which has not, perhaps, been excelled since his day. The safety and comfort of that animal and his rider were ever before him, and his