n a short
time. One of these shoes[3] evidently was the object of improvement,
to prevent the animal from slipping as well as from friction, and we
therefore find on it three iron cubes 11/2 centimeters high, which were
fastened corresponding to our toes and calks of to-day, and offer a
very early ready proof, from our climatic and mountainous conditions,
which later occur, principally in southern Germany, that this style of
horseshoeing was not caused by error, but by a well founded local and
national interest or want.

[Footnote 3: Not illustrated.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.]

Aside from the so-called "Kureisen" (cure shoe) for diseased hoofs, we
find very little from the Romans on horseshoeing or hoof protection,
and therefore we must observe special precautions with all their
literature on the subject. It is because of this that I excuse Prof.
Sittl's communication in the preface of Winckelmann's "Geschichte der
Kunst in Alterthum" (History of Ancient Art), which contains a notice
that Fabretti, in some raised work in Plazzo Matti, of a
representation of a hunt by the Emperor Gallienus (Bartoli Admirand
Ant. Tab. 24), showed that at that time horseshoes fastened by nails,
the same as to-day, were used (Fabretti de Column. Traj. C. 7 pag.
225; Conf. Montlanc. Antiq. Explic. T. 4, pag. 79). This statement
proves itself erroneous, because he was not aware that the foot of the
horse was repaired by an inexperienced sculptor.

How then did out of this Roman cure shoe develop the horseshoeing of
southern Europe?

It was to be expected, with the Roman horseshoe, that the mode of
fastening became unsatisfactory and necessitated a remedy or change.
An attempt of this kind has been preserved in the so-called
"Asiatischen Koppeneisensole" (Asiatic cap-iron-sole) (Fig. 3), which
the Hon. Mr. Lydtin at Karlsruhe had made according to a model of the
Circassian Horse Tribe Shaloks, and also according to the reverse of
Lycian coins (called Triguetra).

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

This horseshoe plate, likely originating in the twelfth century,
covers the whole surface of the sole, like the Roman shoes, with the
exception of the wall region, which contains a rim 1 centimeter high,
and above this rises at one side toward the heel three beak-like
projections, about 4 centimeters high and 1 centimeter wide at the
base, being pointed above and turned down, which were fastened in the
wall of the hoof, in the form of a hook.

Th