es, whose horses had run
their feet sore, we find on the contrary at a very early time, as in
Diodorus, regarding the cavalry of Alexander the Great, in Xenophon,
regarding the retreat of the ten thousand, in Polybius, regarding the
cavalry of Hannibal in Etruria, etc. It is also known that the cavalry
of the linguist King of Pontus, Mithridates the Great, at times and
specially at the siege of Cyzicus were delayed, in order to let the
hoofs of the horses grow.

On the contrary it seems strange that of the Huns alone, whose
horsemen swept over whole continents from the Asiatic highlands like a
thunderstorm, such trouble had not become known either through the
numerous authors of the eastern and western Roman empire or from
Gallia.

Horseshoeing, very likely, was invented by different nations at about
the same period during the migration of the nations, and the various
kinds of new inventions were brought together in Germany only, after
each had acquired a national stamp according to climate and
usefulness.

In this way come from the south the thin, plate-like horseshoes, with
staved rim, covering the whole hoof; from the Mongolian tribes of
middle Asia the "Stolleneisen" (calk shoe); while to our northern
ancestors, and indeed the Normans, must be ascribed with great
probability the invention of the "Griffeneisen" (gripe shoe),
especially for the protection of the toes.

All varieties of the horseshoe of southern Europe are easily
distinguished from the Roman so-called "Kureisen" (cure shoe), of
which several have been unearthed at various excavations and are
preserved at the Romo-Germanic Museum in Mentz (Mainz), Germany. The
shoes, Figs. 1 and 2, each represent thin iron plates, covering the
whole hoof, which in some cases have an opening in the middle, of
several centimeters in diameter.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.]

These plates, apparently set forth to suit oriental and occidental
body conformation, are either directly provided with loops or have
around the outer margin a brim several centimeters high, in which
rings are fastened. Through the loops or rings small ropes were drawn,
and in this way the shoe was fastened to the crown of the hoof and to
the pastern. Sufficient securing of the toe was wanting in all these
shoes, and, on account of this, the movement of the animal with the
same must have been very clumsy, and we can see from this that the
ropes must have made the crown of the hoof and pastern sore i