THOMAS BLUNDEVIL ON SHOEING. 461 



cases, ' but this shoe must be set on with nails, and there- 

 fore it is needful that the rider learn to drive a nail if need 

 be, whereof he must have always store about him, to- 

 gether with hammer, pynsons, and " butter," handsomely 

 made, and fit for carrying ; without these the horsemen 

 of Almany never travel, neither is there any gentleman 

 that loveth his horse but can use these instruments for 

 that purpose as well as any smith.' 



He gives various drawings of shoes, chiefly borrowed 

 from Fiaschi, and heavy and clumsy. The ' Planche ' 

 shoe for weak heels is only a more formidable model of 

 the modern bar shoe (fig. 181). The drawing he also 

 gives of a nail is that of our present 

 square-headed nail. 



All the shoes have the square hole 

 and no fullering. This is not men- 

 tioned anywhere ; so that I may be 

 in error in assigning it so early a date 

 in England. 



Sensible as are many of Blunde- ^^' '^' 



vil's remarks, yet we cannot avoid concluding that he was 

 greatly in error in recommending paring and rasping, 

 particularly to such a ruinous extent. The terrible in- 

 jury inflicted on horses by this unwise and barbarous 

 practice, in addition to very faulty shoes, has hung like 

 a curse upon these creatures up to the present day. 

 Blunde vil has in this respect been largely followed. 



Michael Baret,' in his treatise on horsemanship, pub- 

 lished 50 years later, speaking of teaching aliorse to pace 



' An Hipponomie, or the Vineyard of Horsemanship, pp. 97, 

 112. London, 161 8. 



