Grosz[1] says that the shoeing of two horses is noticed in a Westphalian record of 1085.
In the year 1336, we find the Abbot of Waltersdorf, in Bavaria, making the following contract with his smith concerning the work to be accomplished, and its payment. 'He (the smith) is to make for his (the Abbot's) riding-horse three new steeled shoes (gestaehlte eisen) for two pence; and to repair three old ones for one penny. For two or three nails to fasten them, he is to receive nothing . . . . . and the work above stated is to be done with the Abbot's iron,' &c.
In 1400, a tax was fixed at Stuttgard for smith's work, and among other items, '6 heller (halfpennies or farthings) was to be paid for forging a new shoe.'[2]
Horses appear to have been early employed by the Germans to draw carriages or carry litters, for it is recorded that in the campaign of Arnulph or Arnold, Emperor of Germany, in Upper Italy, in 896, when returning across the Alps, a disease broke out among his horses which was so fatal, that, 'contrary to custom, oxen were employed to draw the litters instead.'[3] The use of horses in draught or carriage would have been very limited for Alpine travelling had they not been shod.
In Germany, as elsewhere at this early period, the blacksmith held a good position, if we may judge by the price of his wehr-geld, or 'blood-money.' The law of Gondebaud or Gombette, the most ancient of the barbarian codes, makes it manifest that the life of a smith
