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.

This mode of fastening evidently was also insufficient, and so the fastening of the shoe by nails was adopted.  These iron plates used for shoes were too thin to allow nails with sunken heads to be used, so only nails with blades and cubical shaped heads were applicable.  These nail heads, 6 to 8 in number, which left the toe and the back part of the heel free, served at the same time to secure the horse from slipping, which the smooth plates, covering the whole hoof surface, without doubt facilitated.

[Illustration:  FIG. 4.]

Shoes of this kind, after the old Roman style, with a very strong rim bent upward, likely proved very comfortable for the purpose of protection, in the Sierras of the Pyrenean peninsula, where they seem to have been in use for a long time; for in the twelfth century we find in Spain the whole form of the Roman shoe, only fastened by nails (Figs. 4 and 5).  At first the shoe seems to have been cut off at the heel end, but as apparently after being on for some time, bruises were noticed, the shoe was made longer at the heel, and this part was turned up so as to prevent them from becoming loose too soon, as both the Spanish horseshoes of this period show, and the acquisition was even later transferred to England (Fig. 7).