Horse-shoes and horse-shoeing : their origin, history, uses, and abuses . striking and interesting picture of the equip-ment and arrangement of a travelling party in Gaul, notto be found, in all probability, elsewhere ; and it maydoubtless be depended upon as a very faithful representa-tion. Mr Smith believes the carriage to be the rheda orpetorritum, of which Cicero, Ausonius,^ Isidore,^ ,* Juvenal, and Martial speak. He then adds: Thecustom of shoeing horses among the ancients has beenmuch discussed pro and con. If it could remain an un-settled question after the repeated discove
Horse-shoes and horse-shoeing : their origin, history, uses, and abuses . striking and interesting picture of the equip-ment and arrangement of a travelling party in Gaul, notto be found, in all probability, elsewhere ; and it maydoubtless be depended upon as a very faithful representa-tion. Mr Smith believes the carriage to be the rheda orpetorritum, of which Cicero, Ausonius,^ Isidore,^ ,* Juvenal, and Martial speak. He then adds: Thecustom of shoeing horses among the ancients has beenmuch discussed pro and con. If it could remain an un-settled question after the repeated discovery of iron horse-shoes themselves, among unquestionable Roman remains,the indications of the nails are so decidedly marked in thefeet of the mules in the Vaison monument, as to leave nodoubt that the artist intended to show that the mules wereshod; and we may conclude that the shoeing of horses,as w^ell as very many more inventions in the useful arts, Oratio pro Miloue; Philippica Secuiida j Attico Epist. Epist. vii. ? Origiuum, 1. XX., c. xii. Inslit. i. 5. ^;==^i^.. EARLIEST PROOF OF SHOEING. 151 commonly supposed of comparatively modem origin, arereally of a remote antiquity. Spurs and saddles are inthis category : of the former we can produce ancientexamples; the latter are indicated in monuments.^ This discovery by the talented English antiquarian (towhom I am indebted for the two illustrations of this relic)is a most important one for our subject, as it is theonly monument of the Romano-Gallic period, and isindeed the first of any ancient sculpture, exhibiting horsesreally shod. I use the term horses, as it is evidentMr Smith has overlooked the specific differences betweenthem and mules. The heads, ears, and general physio-gnomy are those of horses, and the tails, which in muleshave but little more than a tuft of hair at the ends, are heretruly equine. The limbs and feet are also widely differentfrom those of the hybrid, which are light, the hoofs beingparticularly small
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookde, booksubjecthorses, booksubjecthorseshoes
