450 , HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



and curled upwards, probably for a foot the back tendons 

 of which were contracted, and caused the horse to walk 

 on the point of the toe (fig. 179). 



In Germany, the first veterinary treatises published in 

 which shoeing is mentioned are those by Albrecht, ' des 

 Kaiser Friederich huifschmid ; ' ' Horwart von Hohen- 

 burg f and Seuter.^ There does not appear to be any- 

 thing novel on the subject in these works, beyond what 

 we have already epitomized from the Italian writers. 



In 1598 appeared the excellent treatise of Carlo Ruini, 

 a Senator of Bologna, on the anatomy and diseases of the 

 horse ;"* in which the maladies and defects of the feet were 

 specially considered, and in a manner truly wonderful, for 

 that time. Indeed, his instructions for the relief or cure 

 of many foot maladies by shoeing are repeated in modern 

 days. PVom his descriptions, we learn that the cruel and 

 unscientific fashion of ope72mo-/;/ie/zee/5, as it is termed, and 

 paring the soles until the horn was quite thin, as well as 

 shoeing with high calkins, was producing those eflfects 

 with which we are so familiar now-a-days. His treatment 

 of contracted heels consisted chiefly in applying lunette, or 

 thin-heeled shoes, to allow the posterior parts of the hoofs 

 to come in contact with the ground ; and also to employ- 

 ing shoes with clips at the inner angles of the heels to grasp 

 the inflection of horn, named the ' bars,' so as to press them 

 outwards — a mode of expansion still very common on the 



' Das Kleine Rossarzneibiichlein. Benedig, 1542. 

 " Von der Hochberlimpten, Adeligen und Ritterlichen Kunst der 

 Reyterey. Tegernsee, 1577- 



3 Buech von der Rossarzney, etc. Angsburg, i j88. 



* Deir Anatomia e dell' Iniirmita dell Cavallo. Bologna, 1598. 



