That this shoe really belongs to the period of the crusades is proved by the numerous horse pictures which have been preserved from that time; of which we will mention the manuscript of Heinrich von Veldecka ("Eneidt")[4] in the year 1180, which belongs to the most valuable parts of German history of art.

   [Footnote 4:  “Wanderungen des Aeneas” (Travels of Aeneas).]

This south European Hunish horseshoe had remained the standard form during the middle ages and until the thirty years war, at least in South Germany.  The shoe was continually improved, and reached its highest point of perfection about the time of the “Bauern-krieg” (Revolution of the Peasants), at a time when, under the leadership of the Renaissance, the whole art of mechanics, and especially that of blacksmithing, had taken an extraordinarily great stride (Figs. 20 and 21).

[Illustration:  FIG. 20.]

[Illustration:  FIG. 21.]

The shoe (Figs. 22 and 23) is found in Franconia, in all places where, in the sixteenth century, battles had been fought with the rebellious peasants.  We may, therefore, be justified in fixing its origin mainly from that period, for which also speaks its high perfection of form.  We find here still the bent-up heel and toe (the latter broad and thin) of the south European form.

The staved rim of the Spanish Arabic Turkomanic shoe is observed to be undergoing a change to that of a groove.  The broad surface of the shoe evidently led to the beveling of the same, so as to lessen sole pressure.  The size of the nail holes remains still like that of the Huns; but the unsunk southern nail heads yet serve to improve the hold on the ground.  The calks were next placed forward, perhaps from an uncultivated sense of beauty, or from the high bending up of the hind part of the shoe, which would necessitate a high and heavy unsightly calk.

From this time on horseshoeing in south Germany fell back very quickly, and loses all scientific holds of support after the thirty years war.  In the mean time toe protection in the form of a calk had spread from the colder north over southern Germany; whereas this north German invention did not find favor in England in consequence of her mild oceanic climate.

[Illustration:  FIG. 22]

Also, the calks in England, as well as in the southern countries, on the same ground, therefore, with good reason, could at no time be adopted.  This did, however, not interfere with the use of the calk in the colder south Germany, where after a use of nearly 1,500 years it has maintained its local and climatic adaptation.  Notwithstanding the occasional aping by foreigners, it has remained victorious in its original form, and has been chosen in many countries.