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 in 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.
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