Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-07-16
Care of Horses.

After more than twenty yers's ex-
perience as horse owner, a cores
pondent of the Colonial Farmer
undertakes to set down little Of
his experience concerning the man
agement of that noble animal.
Commencing when the foal is
day or two old, 1 60 to it, and pass
my hands down its face, along its
back, and down its legs to the
hoofs, hind and fore, not to mes
merise or charm the animal, but
to accustom it to being handled, a
thing which can not be commenced
too soon. Foals are animals that,
when quite young, have more sa-
gacity, and are more tractable and
easily taught than any other ami
NAL, so whatever you want them
to learn, commence before they are
old enough to make resistance, and
depend upon it, they will never for
get it. Put halter on it, and lead
it about, but be careful not to let it
break away from you. Be very
kind and gentle toit, but show that
you are its master.
next proceed to the horses feet.
Horses hoofs are things of the
greatest importance; for who would
want to follow q lame horse at
either work or pleasure. Many
things ruin the feet of horses, which
1 cannot pretend to touch on, but !
will try TO point out few errors
which any man can see and cor
rect, the greatest of which is leav
ing their shoes on toe long. This
hurts the hoof, strains the leg, and
causes lameness in every shape.
In the winter this has worse effect
than in summer, as then the feet
are more dry and clean, whereas in
summer they are wet, and the mud
and heat of summer will rot the
hoofs and cause the shoes to fall
of. | have known horses shoes
nailed on in the fall, and not taken
off until the next summer, when
they would fall off in the pasture,
practice which seldom fails to
bring on lameness. A horses shoe
should never be on longer than
three months, and two months are
very often too long. Horses hoofs
were meant by nature to go bare,
and run on the earth in their natural
state, and as long as we drive them
on such, they need no shoeing; but
when we drive them on paved
streets, hard roads, etc, we have to
shoe them, and stop the wear that
nature meant should be on their
hoofs. The consequence is that the
shoe binds the boot, and often causes
contraction and many other evils,
when nailed too far to the heel, left
on too long, or when the hoof is
not sufficiently pared down between
the shoeinas. See that the shoe il
not nailed too far to the heel. Any
, intelligent man can see when a shoe
has been on long enough, and take
it off, when it may be left off day
or two, or longer, as the case may
be. A drive over soft snow, few
days blowing or narrowing, or the
like, would spread the foot and helI
to counteract the effects of shoeing
Always see that the hOof is proper
: " pared down before the shoe il
again put Oh. l have often seeI
the hoofs of old horses greatly i'm
proved by being left bare a few
weeks in pasture. There are many
: other things that hurt horses feet
{ as too poor iced, too high feed, to-
hard driving.
The most natural feed for tn
horse is what he can pick for him
self. but as we cannot let him ru
l and pick his own living, let his fee
be as near natural as possible. To
high or two low feed have both
bad eff, ct, but as different indiVid
I uals will form very different notion
1 of whaG high and low feed are,
= will try and point out what L col
slider the middle course to be. Ha
alone, be it ever so good, is not f