222 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



them to the proper size. The shoes had no calkins, as 

 the horses did not require them either when at rest or 

 when going at full speed, because of the nails with which 

 they were fastened on, and which had large oblong heads, 

 in shape like the hea?-t of a pigeon. He also mentions 

 that when horses were lightly worked, ' it was thought a 

 good custom to shoe them only for half the year; so 

 that, during war, the hoofs may stand wear a long time 

 without shoeing.' 



Though all the Arabs are cognizant of shoeing, and 

 the advantages to be derived from it, yet, as we have seen, 

 among the most valuable properties of a horse, they cer- 

 tainly attach very much importance to hard, strong, and 

 sound hoofs. Abd-El-Kader explicitly mentions, that 

 the best Arab horses for traversing stony ground without 

 being shod, are those of the Hassasna tribe in the 

 Yakoubia. Horses are not shod in Muscat,' and never- 

 theless perform long journeys. 



It may well be considered very strange that none of 

 the celebrated Arab hippiatrists of the early or middle 

 ages, and whose treatises are yet extant, speak of the 

 farrier's art. My researches have been fruitless in this 

 respect. Abou-Bekr, the author of Naceri, a popular 

 Arab work on the horse, and which is supposed to have 

 been written in the 14th century, never mentions it save 

 as an orthopodic resource. Hizam, an ancient veterinary 

 writer, recommends castration for horses whose hoofs are 

 naturally thin and undeveloped, on the supposition that the 

 horn is always thicker and stronger in emasculated animals. 



It is curious to observe, that the circular shoe is yet 

 ' Stocqiieler. Fifteen Months' Pilgrimage, vol. i. p. 7. 



