so HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



horses are made to stand on planks raised above the 

 ground, in order, I suppose, that the undefended hoofs 

 may be kept dry and hard. 



In selecting horses, Columella recommends that they 

 should have ^ luird, upright hoofs, hollow in the sole, 

 and round, with medium-sized coronets.' ' Elsewhere he 

 advises that the foal should be taken from its dam when 

 a year old, and pastured among the mountains and in 

 other exposed or inhospitable places, ' so that the hoofs 

 may be hardened to resist wear, and then become fitted 

 for long journeys.' ^ 



And Pliny, about this period, observes, in speaking of 

 mules, ' They are produced by an union between the 

 mare and the domestic ass ; they are swift, and have 

 extremely liar d feet' ^ 



Julius Pollux, a Greek, and the favourite and pre- 

 ceptor of the Emperor Commodus, in whose reign he 

 died (a.d. 238), has left us, in one of his works,"^ some ex- 

 cellent maxims concerning horses. Indicating the par- 

 ticulars in which a good horse differed from a bad one 

 he maintains that it is more especially in the nature of 

 their feet. ' A corpore quidem ungulae cavas, ut scilicet 

 quam vocant testudinem, elata sit, ne in solum impingens, 

 molestetur : hujusmodi enim ungula (ut Xenophon inquit) 



' Lib. vi. p. 50. ' Diiris ungulls et aids, et concavis rotundisque, 

 quibus coronae niediocres superpositae sunt.' 



^ Ibid. p. 63. ' Ut ungulas duret sitque postea longis itineribus habilis.' 



2 Hist. Natural. * Generantur ex equa et onagris mansuefaciis 

 mulae velocis in cursn, duritia eximia pedum.' 



* Onomasticon, lib. i. cap. 1 1 ; De Corpore et Animo Equi Boni 

 et Mali. 



