PRECURSOR OF THE HORSESHOE 73 



have a way of covering them up when they look 

 over them, for fear that a handsome shape set 

 upon tender feet, as often happens, may take in 

 the buyer as he hangs open-mouthed over fine 

 haunches, small head, and stately neck. And 

 they are right." 



At this time the ancients did not shoe their 

 horses, though it is generally believed that the 

 Romans often covered the hoofs of their mules 

 with a sort of cap made of leather, which they 

 then tied about the fetlock. 



These caps or coverings were named solecz, 

 and in the majority of cases had a thin plate or 

 sole made of iron. Nero is said to have used 

 for his 2000 mules plates made of silver instead 

 of iron, and Pliny declares in his famous 

 "Natural History" that Nero's ridiculous wife, 

 Poppaea, used plates of gold for the same 

 purpose. 



It seems more than likely that caps of this 

 pattern may have been worn by some at least 

 of the horses of the immortal Ten Thousand, for 

 it is recorded that during the great retreat an 

 Armenian explained to a group of Greeks how 

 best to protect their horses' feet when snow lay 

 thick upon the ground, and the way he recom- 

 mended was to wrap them up as described. 



