ugh we find this horse most beautifully finished,
it was not shod.

[Illustration: FIG. 19.]

During the time of the crusades, 1096-1291, however, there appeared
suddenly in Germany a plate-like horseshoe of southern character
(Figs. 18 and 19), which was occasionally bent upward at the heel end,
and was very heavy. The toe was very broad sometimes, and was also
bent upward. In this form we have seen the shoes of the Balkan and
Pyrean peninsula. The shoe was remarkably narrow at the heel, and was
supplied with calks, which accounts for the highness of the back part
of the shoe. Frequently we find one calk set diagonally, but the other
drawn out wedge shaped, and sharp; so that there existed a great
similarity between this iron shank and that used by Count Einsiedel
for winter shoeing. Sometimes both shanks were sharpened in this way,
or were provided with blade-shaped calks well set forward. The form of
nail holes used was very characteristic of that of the Huns, but they
were decidedly smaller and square, as were seen in the African shoe of
the twelfth century. The nail heads were slightly sunk, which was
according to southern customs.

That this shoe really belongs to the period of the crusades is proved
by the numerous horse pictures which have been preserved from that
time; of which we will mention the manuscript of Heinrich von Veldecka
("Eneidt")[4] in the year 1180, which belongs to the most valuable
parts of German history of art.

[Footnote 4: "Wanderungen des Aeneas" (Travels of Aeneas).]

This south European Hunish horseshoe had remained the standard form
during the middle ages and until the thirty years war, at least in
South Germany. The shoe was continually improved, and reached its
highest point of perfection about the time of the "Bauern-krieg"
(Revolution of the Peasants), at a time when, under the leadership of
the Renaissance, the whole art of mechanics, and especially that of
blacksmithing, had taken an extraordinarily great stride (Figs. 20 and
21).

[Illustration: FIG. 20.]

[Illustration: FIG. 21.]

The shoe (Figs. 22 and 23) is found in Franconia, in all places where,
in the sixteenth century, battles had been fought with the rebellious
peasants. We may, therefore, be justified in fixing its origin mainly
from that period, for which also speaks its high perfection of form.
We find here still the bent-up heel and toe (the latter broad and
thin) of the south European form.

The stav