Page "Horseshoe" Paragraph 8

The nailed shoe was a relatively late invention.

The ancient Greek horse trainer Xenophon mentioned nothing about horseshoes in his treatise on the care of military cavalry, nor did the Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae by Vegetius Renatus, written in the 4th or 5th century AD, mention nailed-on shoes, though he accurately enumerated everything connected with an army forge in the time.

Similarly, in an edict of the Emperor Diocletian from AD 303, which set maximum prices of goods and services, the price of saddles, halters, and bridles are enumerated, as well as the price of a veterinarian for " cutting the hair and hoof of each animal.

" Horseshoes are not enumerated in the edict.

There are early literary references in the Quran, circa AD 632, to " war-horses … which strike fire, by dashing their hoofs against the stones …" which, if taken literally, is an effect that would have been obtained by shod horses, as barefoot hooves striking stone do not create sparks.