cases, 'but this shoe must be set on with nails, and therefore it is needful that the rider learn to drive a nail if need be, whereof he must have always store about him, together with hammer, pynsons, and "butter," handsomely made, and fit for carrying; without these the horsemen of Almany never travel, neither is there any gentleman that loveth his horse but can use these instruments for that purpose as well as any smith.'
He gives various drawings of shoes, chiefly borrowed from Fiaschi, and heavy and clumsy. The 'Planche' shoe for weak heels is only a more formidable model of the modern bar shoe (fig. 181).
 |
| fig. 181 |
The drawing he also gives of a nail is that of our present square-headed nail.
All the shoes have the square hole and no fullering. This is not mentioned anywhere; so that I may be in error in assigning it so early a date in England.
Sensible as are many of Blundevil's remarks, yet we cannot avoid concluding that he was greatly in error in recommending paring and rasping, particularly to such a ruinous extent. The terrible injury inflicted on horses by this unwise and barbarous practice, in addition to very faulty shoes, has hung like a curse upon these creatures up to the present day. Blundevil has in this respect been largely followed.
Michael Baret,[1] in his treatise on horsemanship, published 50 years later, speaking of teaching a horse to pace
- ↑ An Hipponomie, or the Vineyard of Horsemanship, pp. 97, 112. London, 1618.
