CHAPTER XV. 



SHOEING OP HOESES. 



History. — Archaeologists have paid but little attention to 

 the history of the art of shoeing horses, consequently we find 

 it difficult to determine the precise period at which it was 

 first practised. The early Eomans, we are told, used a 

 covering probably woven of hemp or rushes, which enclosed 

 the whole foot, and was tied round the fetlock by a cord : 

 this kind of shoe they called solea spartea. This, however, 

 must have been very inconvenient and troublesome, as they 

 would require to be repeatedly renewed in the course of a 

 journey. Something more durable had to be substituted, so 

 wcvfind that mention is next made of the solea ferrece, or 

 iron shoe. Writers are not agreed as to how the Romans 

 attached these solea ferreee ; some suppose that they were 

 attached to a leather sock bound on by a thong of the same 

 material ; others again suppose that they were acquainted 

 with our modern methods of fastening them. This last 

 opinion is in some measure confirmed by the discovery of 

 old iron shoes, in some of the Roman remains in England, 

 having nail holes punched in them of a square shape. It is 

 evident that the Britons had some sort of protection for the 

 foot of the horse, either at the Roman invasion, or soon 

 after, from their having a name for it ; they called it pedal, 

 — from the celtic ped, a foot. Some suppose that horse- 

 shoeing was introduced into Britain at the Norman Invasion. 



