Horseshoes

[Macedon]

When were horseshoes invented? I had never really occupied myself with this question until I saw that in the Iliad (8.41, 13.21) horses were called "bronze-legged" (or bronze-hoofed), which, to me, sounds as direct evidence that some kind of horseshoes were used at least at the time of Homer if not long before that. A very unthorough and quick googling up brought up nothing about horseshoes that far into the past. Any ideas?

[Dan Howard]

Proper metal horseshoes nailed to the hoof? I thought around 1000AD. Other hoof protection may have been used earlier such as rawhide shoes.

[Vindex]

Does 8: 41 necessarily mean the horses were shod? My translation (Edward Earl of Derby 1868) says:

"...and straight the brazen footed steeds,
of swiftest flight, with manes of flowing gold..."

We know horses don't literally have golden manes so is it not more a stylistic description of the animals rather than a literal meaning of shod with bronze?

13:27 (ish) is a repetition of the same descriptive formula, but again I only have it in translation and not the original Greek.

But if you want a VERY vague idea of the oldest horseshoes try this:

http://www.wcf.org.uk/history

of this

http://www.equisearch.com/horses_care/he...rsesho610/

[richsc]

I have a very short 1894 monograph from the British Archaeological Assoc. by S Wells on "hippo-sandals". There are a number of sandal looking iron contraptions that have been found with a number of interpretations, one being that they were wrapped around the hoof. I have no other reference about them.

[Medicus matt]

Proper metal horseshoes nailed to the hoof? I thought around 1000AD. Other hoof protection may have been used earlier such as rawhide shoes.

Earliest nailed ones I know of from England are 9th century, becoming widespread in early 10th.