, are
to be found horses whose hoofs have any trace of protection. Records,
which describe to us the misfortunes of armies, 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.
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