Horses were first domesticated over 6,000 years ago, but it took quite a while for someone to get brave enough to take a piece of metal and use a nail to attach it to an animal's hoof. First they tied on woven grass or leather, and then it was metal, but still tied on. The Romans used the hipposand[...]
In 400 BC, in Corneto, modern day Italy, a tomb was being filled. The walls were decorated with frescoes of banquet scenes, dancers, and musicians. It contained a number of funerary objects, including vases, jewelry, and bronze objects. For over two millennia, it lay in silence. When it was finally[...]
Everyone knows what a horse shoe is. They have been decorations, good luck charms, the subject of legends and stories, and of course, protection for horse hooves. For the most part, we've just kind of taken for granted that horse shoes exist. But for such a basic looking piece of metal, it actually[...]
For thousands of years, humans have cared for horse hooves. We trimmed them, and stuck all sorts of things on their feet in an effort to make them not fall to pieces. There have been leather shoes, a trendy moment until 1000 AD for bronze shoes, and the for the longest time, iron shoes were the nor[...]