Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/480

 CHAPTER X.

For the remainder of this history, we will confine our attention to England and France, alone; countries which have vied with each other in researches into the functions of the horse's foot, and the best mode of protecting it by shoeing.

During the 17th century, there appears to have been an increasing desire to enhance the services of this noble animal, and, thanks to the influence of the Italian hippiatrists, the men who now began to study the horse in health and disease were capable of greatly adding to the small amount of knowledge previously possessed on the