44 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



knees, not too large, nor yet inclining inwards, and 

 hard hoofs,''' showing that the latter were an essential 

 quality in unshod horses. He also asserts that the hoofs 

 are injured by standing in manure, as the horn thereby 

 becomes softened.^ 



Q.. F. Horace (b.c. 30), in one of his famous satires, 

 alludes to the mode of buying horses as practised by a 

 certain class in his day. ' This is the custom with men 

 of fortune ; when they buy horses they inspect them 

 covered : that if a beautiful forehand (as very often hap- 

 pens) be supported by a tender hoof, it may not take in 

 the buyer, who may be eager for the bargain, because the 

 back is handsome, the head little, and the neck stately. 

 This they do judiciously.' ^ And the same author, in one 

 of his admirable Odes, alludes to the sound caused by 

 the horses' unshod feet on the smooth flagstones of their 

 wonderfully paved roads, and in a sense similar to that 

 noticed in the Greek writers already quoted : ' And the 

 horseman will beat the streets of the city with sounding 

 hoofs.' '^ 



It is interesting to note, that the poetical epithet 

 of 'sounding foot.' is almost constantly applied to the 

 horse by various writers, at this and a later period. For 

 example : 



Virgil (b.c 20) in the ^neid, exclaims, ' Infatuate ! 



' De Re Rustica. ' Cruribus rectis et equalibus, genibus rotundis 

 nee maguis, nee introrsum speetantibus, ungulis duris.' Lib. ii. p. 306. 

 Edit. Gesner. 



' ' Ne sternis comberat ungulas eavendum,' Lib. ii. cap. 7. 

 3 Book ii.. Satire 2. 



^ Et urhem 



Eqiies sonante verbernhil luignla. 



