200 



HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



fig. 67 



' Figure 6"] exemplifies a form of shoe of somewhat rarer 



occurrence. The specimens 

 found are generally small, cer- 

 tainly never larger than mid- 

 dle size ; they are narrow 

 throughout, some being 

 grooved and furnished with six 

 or eight nail-holes ; opposite 

 to which the outside edge 

 bulges a little. Instead of 

 having calks, the heel-ends of 

 the shoes become gradually narrower and thicker towards 

 the extremities. The nail-heads are wedge or chisel- 

 shaped, and project beyond the face of the shoe. 

 Judging from the size and shape of these objects, and 

 from the character of the nail-heads, they appear to have 

 served as winter shoes for riding-horses, and without doubt 

 were introduced by foreign cavalry. (From the end of 

 the 13th to the close of the i8th century, Stuttgart and its 

 vicinity was often visited by foreign troops, such as Im- 

 perialists, French, S[)aniards, and Swedes.) These shoes 

 are so oxidized and incrusted that they may well be looked 

 upon as several hundred years old. 



' Besides the horse-shoes just described, antique shoes 

 of peculiar shapes and different construction have been 

 found here and there in several places in and outside 

 Wlirtcmberg ; so that it is evident that at the ])eriod to 

 which they belong, the art of shoeing was in a very primi- 

 tive condition. Some few examples are provided with a 

 groove, while others have long quadrangular nail-holes, 

 often with o\al countersinking; some, again, are furnished 



