314 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
turned out in stony pastures, frequently become so 
foot-sore that they can hardly step; and before shoes 
were invented regiments of cavalry were sometimes 
disabled from the same cause. Certainly, if shoes 
were not necessary, such a clumsy device as that of 
skins, like sandals, bound about the horse’s foot, 
which were once in use, would never have been em- 
ployed. Historians tell us also that plates of metal, 
fastened by strings, served the same purpose for hun- 
dreds of years. Even the mustang’s feet lack the 
toughness of iron. “In the mountains,” relates Colo- 
nel T. A. Dodge, in a recent paper, “where the sharp, 
flinty stones soon wear down the pony’s unshod feet, 
this Indian [the Apache] will shrink raw hide over 
the hoofs, in lieu of shoes, and this resists extremely 
well the attrition of the mountain paths.” 
I have even seen it stated in books, that a horse 
unshod can travel on smooth ice better than if he 
were shod with corks. This, I say, has been stated 
as an absolute fact, and elaborate reasons have been 
given for it; and yet I know from my own experience 
that a barefooted horse is perfectly helpless on smooth 
ice. On rough ice indeed, or on snow-covered roads, he 
will travel fairly well without shoes, stepping shorter, 
of course, than if he were shod, but on smooth ice he 
cannot take a step with safety. Unshod colts are fre- 
quently lamed by slipping in icy barnyards or fields. 
I remember once narrowly escaping a fall while riding 
2, barefooted horse. In the middle of the street, which 
sloped a little to the sidewalk on each side, I had no 
difficulty ; but the horse shied off, struck the smooth 
ice, and we found ourselves skating down toward the 
gutter, with a prospect of tumbling when we reached 
