2 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. ^ 



tures which have submitted themselves to domestication 

 and toil for the benefit of the human species. 



The varied uses to which he has been subjected, since 

 taken from a wild state, and the willing and cheerful man- 

 ner with which he has undergone fatigue, and performed 

 duties which are, one would think, quite foreign to his 

 nature, have all been owing to his com.bined and un- 

 equalled qualities of strength, courage, speed, fidelity, 

 and obedience, as well as docility ; and though his great 

 value depends essentially upon a just disposition of these, 

 yet more especially is it as a living machine, capable of 

 moving or producing motion, and communicating it to 

 inert masses at all times and in nearly all situations, that 

 he is to be prized. 



Where, and at what period of the world's history, he 

 was first brought into a state of servitude ; vv'hether at one 

 or more points of the earth's surface man commenced to 

 utilize his noble attributes, we know not. Certain it is, 

 however, that some of the pre-historic races of the human 

 family sought his aid ; and the ancient Aryans, more than 

 three thousand years ago, as we learn from the Riga-Veda, 

 in their home towards the upper valley of the Indus, loved 

 and bred the horse, harnessed him to their chariots with 

 spoked-wheels, and made him assume the principal part in 

 their greatest religious sacrifices. 



The history of mankind abundantly testifies, that 

 every possible use and application of this animal, whether 

 in war, commerce, or pleasure, seems to have been antici- 

 pated by the most ancient peoples ; proving the earliest 

 sense aad conviction of his immense importance to man. 

 Those old-world nations which, long ages ago, most largely 



