Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1909-04-14
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DRAFT HORSES.
Tendency to Defective Fore Feet 10 a
Great Weakness.

think. the weakest point in our
draft horses to-day is defective fore
feet. AS nearly as can estimate from
the INVESTIGATIONS made IN the second
hand sete saAbles in Chicago, where
fully &N@Nant. of the draft horses
that re''ts5d upon that citys streets
are thrown aside, at least rs per cent.
OF the draft horses are rendered use
less after few years service because
of lameness. the seat of which is in
the fore feet.
You go onto the market In. Chicago
with a bunch of god draft horses for
sale, the first Iart of the horse the
buyer looks at is the fore feet, and If
they are not sound and right, the price
is Immediately cut down.
The fore feet are the most impor-
tant part of the horse from the users
standpoint in the United States to-day,
and very little attention is paid to
that point as rule.
The second weakest point is in the
hook joint, and about IL per cent. of
the draft horses in our large cities are
discarded because of weak, defective
and unsound hook joints. These Two,
the fore feet and the hook joints, are
points which we should consider care
fully.
Now, what are the weaknesses in
the feet? We are using in this coun-
try more Percherons than we are of
all other draft breeds together; they
are the breed that seems to be the
best suited to our American people.
and the Percheron horses fore feet is
perhaps his weakest point. Many of
them are too small; not small perhaps
at the surface of the ground, but small
where the hoof and the hair Join at
the hoof-head or coronet. This Is the
particular part of your Percheron
horses fot, which you should ex.
anime carefully In looking for weak
ness in a breeding horse. Get good
large hoof-head, with plenty of depth
and width in hoof at the heel, then see
that the pastern or ankle blends nice
ly into the hoof. The ankle from the
fetlock joint down to the foot In the
Percheron is frequently very short
and very straight, and If long, sets
too far back. Pasterns should have
an angle of about as degrees, but
should be clean and smooth and show
lots of quality of fiber and give full,
nice, round blending of the bone and
sinew into the hoof. Now, then, the
foot itself. Get a foot that is wide in
the heel and deep from coronet to
ground surface. Get horse with
hoof that is dense, that is, closeness
of the fbers altogether. You do not
want 1oof in which the fibers are
not laid closely together, giving you
a smooth, hard, bone-like horn. A
hoof that is not smooth on its surface,
dense and close f1bered, will not hold
the shoe and will wear off very quick
ly if not shod.
When you look at the bottom of the
foot, get one that is concave, followed
up in the center and with good,
large, full, well-developed frog. The
frog is one of the most important
parts of the horses foot, the cushion
which is placed there by Nature to
break the >concussion as the horse puts
his foot to the ground. Very frequent
ly, as our horses are shod in this
the weight comes all outside
on the rim of the foot, which is not
to bear all the weight, but
we have so shod the horse in many
instances that the frog is all drawn
up and shriveled and the sole is fiat
tened out