The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-04-18
Working Capacity Of UnshOd Horses.

IL 1t shall be found to be universally
true that those horses which are raised
on fat, soft soils have bones and hoofs
less solid and capable of resisting wear
than ose of horses grown on billy,
dry. and rocky lan d, the fact may ha e
tendency to greatly encourage the
raisins of horses on the plains and in
the mountains of the West, where some
attention has been directed to that in
dustry already. The ponies of Texas
and the plains &C tainly present evil
dence showing that the horses of those
bone and more enduring in muscle
and strength that his fellow of tie
moister districts east of the Missouri.
The amount and the severity OF the
service the pony of the plains is re-
9uired to perform. seems to the Eastern
man altogether beyond the powers of
any horse. Weighing scarcely s0J
pounds, the pony is expect to AIRY
saddle of some forty five pounds
weight, and on top of that rider of. it
may be, ~ pounds or more, over soft
sod, up steep and stony hills and down
slippery places, to swim strea Us. and
10 m Ike distance OF full hundred
miles on demand in twenty-fo hours,
and in an emergency to repeat the feat
the n xt day. Should bu alo weigh
ing anywhere rom 800 pounds TO ton
cross the cowboys path his much-en
during pony is expected, knows that he
is exEec ed, to hold by the lasso the
struggling beast until it is choked into
insens b lily, or gives up the ghost en-
tirely for the wa It of wind. seldom if
ever shod, these ponies have hoofs
viii h for long serv ce, usefulness, and
sold, fine texture are ualed by few if
any of those of horses which have borne
the infictions of the bla k miih art.
In carefully-considered article in
Land and va er the writer says: "In
Africa a horse working in POSTCARD
does. ba efo t, over bad ground. twen-
ty-four mi es in two hours. In New
Mexico h rses are ridden barefoot forty
miles day after day, and perhaps TWEEN
ty miles this will be over rough
mountain track. In Brazil little horses
Ct ey seldom exceed fourteen hands)
carry. slung across ack-saddles, bare
foot-for thev have ne er been shod =
some thirty two stone. Thus loaded. or
overloaded, they do tw nty to tn rty
miles per day. Their Journey may be
some 500 miles, and they load back the
same. In Eng and even race-horses
are shod To gallop over race-course,
which no doubt may be hard at times,
it is act ally thorght necessary to shoe
n horse! Here. where weight is of the
very utmost consequence, the heels of
the Engl III race-horse must be eighted
with plates! The fact that NJ arden, when
he ran barefoot in the Sardown Uerby,
rune :, 1882. beat, in t decid ng heat,
hi two shod opponents by tn ee lengths
Though in his rst race with them that
day arden, with his plate, on, could
only dead heat them), such fact as
weighs lit e with the horse Eng
lis man, W o will still be founi t, set
his thou hits opia ons ag inst facts!
Afte all at Ca be sal as far a ar
gument goes. he will still found to
prefer ere a Sc, ton; it will still be the
IL think this" and II ont think the
other" with him! But hen is no
horsey (and for tn most Part untrav
eled) Eng ,ishman, as rule, in the Ian
guage of .Freelau,e" in '.Ho ses q d
Cou Z tdtitc.
- ut many of our countrymen con-
nected with horses. dceming themselves
p actical men are too apt to think that
they have. as Mr.. Ransom -; rec
lance says, "gone into c, erthing,'
and they m y consider their knowledge
a to the real capability of the horses
hoof co uplete. Now, is it complete.
Is not shooting hors very much mat
ter OF routine with rs? / will give two
in tances in order to FRO tn
Some weeks ago / received letter in
which the tier said that h had been
told ty veterinary surgeon that if q
horse were worked ba efoot his hoofs
would wear ,wn to the gui k in a
few hours" Now, saw the ,ther day
a horse which has been do NC the work
of his master, p doctor, barefoot, not
for "a few hours" but for over five
years uring this time the horse must
have travelled, shoeless as he is, some
l.,0JO miles er Il not too good roads
of the east of London, and often with
heavy brougham beh nd him The
hoo'S of this horse are the admiration
o. veterinary surgeons. and they snow
no signs of undue wear. THIS horse
was unshod when eigat years old.
1 recent y saw pony Sc enteen or
Gig teen yea old. never shod cept
for short ii . WREN in the breakers
hands. This b eaker shod the pony.
1hls was done against the maste. .