Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/50

 that when they suffer from being ridden they become useless.’ He also, in the treatise on horsemanship, speaks of the water used to wash the horses' legs as doing harm to the hoofs by, I suppose, softening them, as the spirit of his teaching was to keep them hard and dry. He makes no mention whatever of any defence for the horses' feet; though he notices the fashion of defending the legs of soldiers by embattai or leggings (εμβΑται), and in passing them under the feet, he says, they might also serve as shoes. These may have been used in cases of emergency for horses, but nothing is said on this point. He specifies horse-armour and its value: ‘Since, then, if the horse is disabled, the rider will be in extreme peril, it is necessary to arm the horse also with defences for his head, his breast, and his shoulders. But of all parts of the horse we must take most care to protect his belly, for it is at once a most vital and a most defenceless part; but it is possible to protect it by something connected with the housings. It is necessary, too, that that which covers the horse's back should be put together in such a way that the rider may have a firmer seat (than if he sat on the horse's bare back), and that the back of the horse may not be galled. As to other parts, also, both horse and horseman should be armed with the same precaution (so that the armour may not chafe).’

In a treatise on hunting, ascribed to this author, in speaking of the horse, it is remarked: ‘Before the task is accomplished, he falls, the hoofs worn off.’ And in another work he incidentally relates that certain people of