Horseshoe.

This is coolbert:

"For want of a nail the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe the horse was lost.

For want of a horse the rider was lost.

For want of a rider the battle was lost.

For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail."

As it was as Bosworth 1485? As it was in Russia 1812? As it is now in Ukraine 2022?

"Napoleon in Russia"

"The Soldiers' Experience on the Campaign of 1812"

"Was it the Horseshoes?"

That retreat from Moscow by the French 1812 as dolorous as it was compounded by the French horses pulling baggage train of Napoleon's army not shod with the proper horseshoes? Slow and slipshod [literally so it seems] horse-drawn wagon movement a marked impediment further exacerbated by the French troops their greed and avarice such they would abandon loot as pillaged from the Russian?

dolorous: adjective - - Marked by or exhibiting sorrow, grief, or pain. Full of grief; sad; sorrowful; doleful; dismal Occasioning pain or grief; painful

Think in the modern context the Ukraine Conflict 2022 Russian soft-skinned wheeled vehicles flat tires due to improper maintenance causing a forty mile [sixty-four kilometers] traffic jam.

“ ... for nearly forty miles [sixty-four kilometers] I had to pick my way through the army’s procession of horse-drawn vehicles. Everyone was laden with useless baggage.” - - French Colonel Count Roguet.

“Flogged [horses] until they were covered with blood, and their knees torn with frequent falling, they were found incapable of overcoming ordinary obstacles, through loss of strength and want of means to prevent their slipping on the ice.”

“ ... some Cossacks … seeing a gun and several tumbrils at the bottom of a ravine, with the horses lying on the ground, dismounted, and taking up the feet of several, hallooed, ran, … danced, and made fantastic gestures like crazy men … they pointed to the horses’ shoes and said— God has made Napoleon forget that there was a winter in our country…” 

HEY! Nobody ever said war was going to be easy, did they!

coolbert.