The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1869-11-24
Care of Horses.

rience as a horse owner, a correspon-
dent of the. Colonial Farmer, under
takes to set down little of his expe.
rience concerning the management OF
that noble animal:
Commencing when the foal is day
or two old, I go to it and pass my
hands down its face, along its back
and down it's legs to the hoofs, hind
and fore, not to mesmerize or charm
the animal, but to accustom it to being
handled, thing which cannot be com
menced too soon. Foals are animals
that, when quite young, have more
sagacity, and are more tractabIe and
easily taught than any other animal,
SO whatever you. want them to learn
commence before they are old enough
to make resistance and depend upon it
they will never forget it. Put halter
on 1t and lead it about, but be careful
not to let it break away from you. Be
very kind and gentle to it, but show
that you are its master.
l next proceeded to the horses feet.
Horses hoofs are of the greatest impor-
lance, for who would want to follow a
lame horse, either at work or for pleas
ure? Many things, ruin the feet of
! horses, which [ cannot touch on, but /
will try to point out a few errors which
any man might see and correct, the
greatest of which is leaving their shoes
on too long. This hurts the hoofs,
strains the leg, and causes lameness in
every shape. In winter this has a
worse effect than in summer, as then
the feet are more dry and clean, where
as in summer they are wet, and the
mud and heat of summer will rot the
hoOfs and cause the shoes to fall off,
l have known horses shoes nailed on
in the fall, and not taken off until 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 we drive them on
such they need no shoeing, but when
we drive them on paved streets, hard
roads, &c, 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 hoof, and of
ten causes contraction, and many 9TH
er evils, when nailed too far to the
heel, left on too long, or when the hoof
is not sufficiently pared down between
the shoeings. See that the shoe is not
nailed too far to the heel. Any intelli-
gent man can see when a shoe has
been on long enough, and to take it
off, when it may be left off a day or
two, or longer, as the case may be. A
drive over soft snow, few days plow-
ing or narrowing, or the like, would
spread the foot and help to counterfeit
the effects of shoeing. Always see
that the hoof is properly pared down
before the shoe is again put on. I
have often seen the hoofs of old horses
greatly improved by being left bare a
few weeks in pasture. There are
many other things that hurt horses
feet-as too poor feed, too high feed,
too hard driving.
The most natural feed for the horse
is what he can pick for himself, but as
we can not let him run and pick his
own living let his feed be as near nat
ural as possible. Too high or too low
feed have both bad effect, but as
different individuals will form very
different notions of what high and low
feed are, I will try and point out what
consider the middle course to be-
Hay alone, be it ever so good, is not
fit feed for horse, whether working
or idle. They need grain, with an oc-
casi0nal feed of roots, bran mash, or
something to keep their bowels open.
Horses need regular feed. The feed |
generally find best for horses is about
twelve pounds of hay and from nine to
twelve quarts of oats, given in three
regular feeds, with feed of raw ,pota-
toes once a week when idle or at gen
at hard work. The practice of feed
ing horses all the hay they can eat
when idle has many bad effects !;
whereas, if they get three small feeds
they will stamp about in the stall, and
take exercise between feed, which will
keep their legs from swelling, &c.
But remember, | do not advocate
small, feeds of hay without grain A
very cheap way of feeding horses, and
not a bad way, is on straw, with fair
allowance of oats. l have tried great
many experiments, and have found
horses always to do better on straw
than horned cattle. Horses will do
better on straw, provided it be good,
than they will ON hay only, without
grain in both cases, but of course they
must not be stinted. The main point
with farmer who keeps horses is to
use them in such way as will give
them all the strength and agility the
animal is capable of, and to work them
all they can stand without injuring Ell
ther. The poor, halt-starved horse is
the animal any man ought to be
ashamed of; but on the other hand,
the pampered and over-fed and half
worked horse, though he may look
nice to some, is an animal l would not
advise the farmer to keep, as such an
imals are more liable to lose than any
other. .-.....--
ANEcD0TE OF ADMIRAL FARRAGUT.
The following anecdote of Admiral