The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: the day the horse were, off and on, stepping along a stony road;
whilst being curried or when fidgeted by flies he will be forced to
use his hoofs just as much as if he were walking. Nor is it the hoofs
merely, but a surface so strewn with stones will tend to harden the
frog of the foot also.
[7] Lit. "A damp and smooth floor may be the ruin of a naturally good
hoof." It will be understood that the Greeks did not shoe their
horses.
[8] See Courier, p. 54, for an interesting experiment tried by himself
at Bari.
[9] Cf. "Hipparch," i. 16.
On Horsemanship |