Artistic Horse-shoeing^ 



CHAPTER I. 



ANCIENT HORSE-SHOEING. 



Horse-shoeing- has been practiced in one form or another 

 ever since the horse in remote ages was tamed and sub- 

 dued for the uses of man. At first the shoes were doubt- 

 less constructed of raw hides, and extended sufficiently 

 high on the hoof to admit of being" fastened around it in 

 some way. When man learned to convert iron ore into 

 iron that, by the aid of fire, could be forged into any shape 

 desired, it soon occurred to some inventive mind that shoes 

 might be fashioned of iron and nailed to the horse's foot in 

 some wa3^ The man to conceive the idea of nailing shoes 

 to the feet was doubtless the first oue who had ever under- 

 taken to study the anatoni}^ of the foot. The idea, perhaps, 

 may have been suggested by examining some old foot that 

 in the process of decay of the animal to which it belonged, 

 had naturally, on account of its hard substance, survived 

 longer than the fiesh or even the bones. This primitive 

 anatomist saw that if care were taken a nail could be 

 driven into the hoof without touching^ any sensitive point. 



