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History of Horses & Shoes
Excepts from Henry Heymering, RJF,
CJFJ. P. Mgnin --- (1865), as quoted by Fleming (1869), says:
'We place the invention of horseshoeing about the fifth or sixth
century before our era (i.e. around 500 BC).
In the
1800's worn out horseshoes were used to make horseshoe nails,
and worn out horseshoe nails were then welded together to make
musket barrels. With that kind of recycling effort it seems
unlikely that any samples of ancient horseshoes would still
exist (unless re-worked into another object). Despite the fact
that iron was rare and valuable and very easily re-used,
archaeologists have discovered a few specimens of shoes which
they think date back to a century or two BC.
I'm
not certain how they determine the age of horseshoes. Fleming
(1869) seems to indicate that much of it is done simply
according to the depth at which they are found -- the deeper,
the older. Oftentimes old shoes were found 6 feet or more
beneath a city as excavations were being done for sewer pipes.
Some shoes seem suspiciously new -- Fleming notes one dated
about 80 BC that contained titanium. Other shoes seem
suspiciously vaporous -- Fleming quotes Chifflet's discovery of
one horseshoe In a 5th century (AD) tomb: 'an iron shoe... was
so eaten away by rust, that while I was trying to cleanse the
nail holes... the rotten iron broke in pieces..."
The
tombs of royalty frequently contained several of their finest
horses, money, jewelry, and other valuable possessions, and so
would seem to be an ideal place to find examples of old
horseshoes, but Bracy Clark (1831) notes that other tombs of the
early Middle Ages do not contain horseshoes (even though they
contain horses, and iron bits). Yet the suspicions that horses
were shod In the early Middle Ages increase.
In the
8th century. the likelihood that horseshoeing has been invented
increases even more. Armorers were kept extremely busy with all
manner of offensive and defensive iron work from crude battering
rams to fiendishly delicate chain mail. There are folklore tales
of Charlemagne having shed his own horse, and having broken a
horseshoe in two with his bare hands. About 790
the
Catalan forge was developed. It increased by 7 fold the rate at
which iron which can be produced from ore (Smith, 1966). But it
is not until 910 that we find the first written record of iron
horseshoes (Leo VI 910) -- what else could he have meant by
'crescent figured irons and their nails' while listing equipment
to be carried by his cavalry (Clark 1831)?
Finally, by the Crusades, there can be absolutely no doubt --
horseshoeing is widely popular all across Europe. Guibert de
Nogent (as quoted by Severln 1989), speaking of the Crusades
wrote: "Truly astonishing things were to be seen, things which
could not but provoke laughter: poor people shoeing their oxen
as though they were horses....' While horses may have been shod
earlier, the Crusades finally made shoeing important, and
immensely popular. Iron had become cheaper and more plentiful.
The crusaders favored the big Flemish horses -- which had weak,
flat feet from being raised on the damp lowlands. Armorers could
make anything from iron, and were putting it all over the
knights' and horses' bodies. Shoes not only protected the
horses' weak feet, but gave the knights a psychological
advantage over those they were attacking. Would you rather be
run over by a barefoot horse, or one with iron shoes? Would you
rather be kicked barefoot, or with an iron shoe? What a sight to
see an armored horse and rider charge you with sparks flying
from their feet!
More to come on the history of Horseshoes.
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