128 HORSES: 



every limb of their body than were those which 

 Xenophon led from Cunaxa over the Armenian high- 

 lands to the walls of Trebizond ; yet we hear nothing 

 of any special difficulties arising from diseases of the 

 foot or leg. It may probably be said with truth that 

 the strain endured by those horses could be borne 

 only by unshod animals. Paul Louis Courier, the 

 French translator of Xenophon's treatise, was so 

 struck by the apparent soundness of his method, that 

 he put it to the test by riding unshod horses in the 

 Calabrian campaign of 1807, and he did so with com- 

 plete success. But that which with him was a volun- 

 tary experiment has been for others an involuntary 

 necessity. This was the case with many of our 

 cavalry horses during the Indian Mutiny, and their 

 riders have declared that they were never better 

 mounted in their lives. In the retreat of the French 

 from Moscow the horses, *' Free Lance " remarks, 

 lost all their shoes before they reached the Vistula ; 

 yet they found their way to France over hard, rough, 

 and frozen ground. In his invasion of America, 

 Cortes could not carry about with him the anvils, 

 forges, and iron needed for shoeing even the small 

 number of horses which he had with him. But these 

 horses did their work and survived it, and from them 

 comes the fierce mustang of Mexico, which still goes 

 unshod. There is great force in the remark of '' Free 

 Lance " that horses are not indigenous to America, 

 this being their first introduction, and that climate 

 and locality, therefore, have not that influence over 

 the hoof which they are commonly supposed to have. 



