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A MANUAL OF

: LC HORSE HYGIENE.

FOWLER & WELLS, PUDLISHERS,
FRE OER OAT ACA

 
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HORSES:

THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET.
A

MANUAL OF HORSE HYGIENE,

INVALUABLE FOR THE

VETERAN OR THE NOVICE:

POINTING OUT THE TRUE SOURCE OF ‘“‘ MALARIA,” ‘DISEASE WAVES,”
INFLUENZA, GLANDERS, ‘'PINK-EYE,” ETC.,

AND HOW TO PREVENT AND COUNTERACT THEM.

BY
pp
clk. PAGE, M.D.,

Author of ‘How to Feed the Baby,” ‘Natural Cure of Consumption,” ete.

WITH TREATISE AND NOTES ON SHOEING,
BY

SIR GEORGE COX AND COL. M. C. WELD.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED,

NEW YORK:
FOWLER & WELLS, PUBLISHERS,
753 BROADWAY.

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“CORNELL
UNIVERSITY,
M LIBRARY 7

  
 
 

  
 
  

COPYRIGHT, 1883, BY
FOWLER & WELLS.

EDWARD 0. JENKINS,
Printer and Stereotyper,
20 North William Street, New York,

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TO

THE “MERCIFUL MAN”
WHO WOULD
SACRIFICE EVEN HIS PREJUDICES
FOR
HIS HORSE’S GOOD
AND

HIS OWN.

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CONTENTS.

PRES 1

Object of the Book......... 0... cece eee cece ree eeeee 5
Request to Readers............ 0. ccc cece cee eee eens 6
“ Five-dollar Jockeys” sometimes Slandered........... 10
Why Horses are not Fed on Mince-Pie and Pickles....11-12
Foul Air and Disease in Stable and Home.......... 12-13, 29
Mistaken kindness to immediately Blanket a Steaming

Hlorsevisa sie acca seas an adadies gen atats wa dsenay 13-14
Instinct vs. Reason........ ccc cece cece eee ee eees 15
Cruel Kindness): si c005csenceaea ec aed saa and oe 16-38-48
How to transform a “Seedy” Horse............... 17-24-25
“Condition” in Horses 1c0 0322s asd oe aeaw ac dave nee ex 18
Why they go Lame suddenly ; Importance of Work.19, 74, 77
Blésh Ws. (Fats igatecatsiien ae seas aa wes pened daw ss ene 5 20
A Soft Horse—Fatty Degeneration................ 21-22, 61
Hint to would-be Race-Winners......... Dae ctein ahee's 23
Letter to Turf, Feld, and Farm...cccc cece eens 24
Two-meal System................... ieee 6 24-31-34-35-85-86
Extra Feed—When Injurious................. 20 ee eee 26
Dyspepsia or Indigestion—Symptoms and Cause....... 28-29
Importance of Rest before Eating, and Leisure after... 29
Wihiat © Kick ig silks deans nee ware eeaeldoadeees 30
Cause and Cure of “ Pulling” ; The Human “ Puller.”. .31-32
Popular Prejudice against Innovations..............-. 35
“Colds ’”—What this Disorder really Is, and How

Gaised spec cis sia asccsteicinecds Butea cree Dara eantac eens 37-38

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4 CONTENTS.

Prevention of the “ Distemper ’—Its Cure.......... 39-40-41
Cold Air not necessarily Pure............0.eeeeeeeeee 42
Hand-Rubbing ws. Drugs......... 0.20. e cece cee eee 42
Danger of Medication. ......... 0c. cee cece eee e eee nee ‘42
Concerning the Use of the Blanket.............. rrr 43
The Natural Coat the best.......... 0.0 cece eee nee eeee 44-45
Clipping =A. (Hints ic. scsiencece ates tate tee ae ieee 45
Eating and Digesting—The Difference; Kind Treatment. 46
Over-driving—Overwork. ........ 0.0.0 cece e nee eees 47
A Safe REMC Ys tases cscs a selec plea es Oaidw. «whan ais nena ne 48
Chest Founders evne vevcies ocigs seeens Mere taiele settee 48
Chronic Disease—Cause............cc cece cece ee ee eees 50
Hints relating to Food and Drink..................... 51
Ste Backii cee. dees Mss ei ee ae ae eee ee TESTE TASS es 54
Serofulas: ouiee + eet ate Towa ee sams tees etawtan 264 56
Glanderss suis sine os de aed eee x older clog 6 SERGE RES sees 57
Kidney Complaints; Relation of “ Condition” to Re-
served Force or Staying Power...........-.05-005 58
Quantity of Food................. is areeaeees oa Bs 63
One’s Meat another’s Poison......... ccc cceeeeeeeees 67
The best Feed..3 accntar cress sa seauwneuns Heads sas 70.
Corn on the Cob; Flatulence; Cribbing............... 71
“Enough is Better than a Feast”; The Horse-of-all-
Work: wissiie ated aed baa eileen ee oo noa x oa hess Sak 76
From the Dump-cart to the Track...............020005 76
 Grassing Out gsc ise syaaies Seshs seaweed caisesee 77
About: the Appetite... vsccesaw heels vias ssmoecadieees 80
Feeding of Road Horses; What a _ Father-in-law
Leathe vigiad wide nenieg agra etd Sas oc upes tees oclectie es 81
How a Truckman avoided Lost Time, and Improved
the Condition of his Horses..................000. 83
Horsé=Car LOVe ssc ices neue bene saavee sets bo Dai ateeiubcty 84
Trying to “ Make a Horse Laugh!”................005 87
Mr, Planit’s: Testimony 2.00.0; S00 sainns eS ive een os 87

First-class Stables; The Eternal “Mash!”

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CONTENTS.

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5
Veterinary Practice; Founder; “Counter-irritation”’

With @ Vengeance :..iciedessie se sig ces ve veda weees 92
Eating the Bedding; Rules that may be Safely Tried.. 96
Check Reingc.cw aie hesseiw caine taeda newman geews 99-125
Blind etsiss ccciicaeatoasscaciesag ds ames see asm ates ues 100

PART II.
ed SHOEING.
~Ignorance — not Cruelty—to Blame for the Horses

Prémature Decayes sic vsiecsisdhy ss ghesutaegereue sea 103
Value of Horse Property. ............... eee eee eee 104
Normal Age of the Horse......... 02... cece eee eee eee 105
Lord Pembroke’s Opinion of Grooms.................. 106
Chief Source of the Horse’s Suffering................. 107

- One Cause and Cure of Swelled Legs...........:...... 107
Unnecessary Work; Value of Brakes.................. 108
A Common .Fallacyiiu ios s ies case sseneysaeevscees sae 109
Man forestalled by Nature............. 0. cece eee cece IIo
Effect:of Shoe Nailsisccets sae im senses ed deals wee aes III
“Inconceivable Cruelty,” as defined by Mr. Mayhew.... 113
Sir George Cox’s Logical Deduction.................. 114
Specious Arguments......... 0.20 cece cece ee pen eeeee II4-115
Not Theory, not Book, not Hobby, but Extended

PRactiCe.. cia sa vice eevee es dae ss see tomew ses 115-116
IMProveMent poccus cy ois wae vee ees vane Ves Bee aH 119
Running Barefoot over Rocky Hills in Wales, etc...... 120
Direct and Indirect Benefit of Reform; Everybody but

the Blacksmith Benefited; A Count’s Experience.

120-121
Is Judgment Based on Knowledge to Settle the Ques-

tion? The Opinion of the Lancet................ 122-123
Adequacy of the Natural Foot for all Demands; Inde-

pendence of the Unshod Horse.................44. 124
26 ‘CONTENTS.

Xenophon’s Experience Coincides with Lord Pem-
broke’s ; Modern Writers Shirking.......... 125-126-127

French and English and Mexican Army Experience.... 128

Humanity and Self-interest Going to Prevent Human
Ignorance and Conceit from continuing to Mar the

Work of Godisccccekd sens otecixe esa teres ang 130
The Zrzbune and Mark Lane’s Express on Other En-

lish, EXPETIEN CEs wei lodee <aaaia sete so be Maa eGR 131
Col. Weld’s Experience... ..........cecceeeeee eee eeees 133
The Training and Character of Horses................ 139

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PREFACE.

THROUGH many years’ acquaintance with the dis-
orders of man and beast, I have learned the principal
cause of abnormal conditions. To remove a cause is
to provide the sovereign remedy. The “medicine”
is no less worthy of confidence because costing abso-
lutely nothing and always at hand.

Instructions which are’ specially designed for the
benefit of novices, will, of course, be recognized and,
doubtless, approved of by the veterans who may
chance to examine the work. Where the suggestions
are evidently intended for the veterans themselves,
being in direct opposition to prevailing practices, I
trust that some will deem them at least worthy of
consideration and trial.

One object of this work is to recommend a re-
formed system of feeding, calculated to conserve vital
force at points where it is often expended in the most
destructive manner, viz.: the digestive and excretory
systems. If the digestive organs become diseased,
the excretories are certain to be overtaxed, since it is
their office to eliminate the foul products of indiges-
tion, as well as the normal waste of the organism.

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8 PREFACE.

Although placing special stress upon the advantage
of modifying the prevailing diet as to the number of
meals, the author is far from asserting that this is
imperatively necessary, providing that the total quan-
tity is not excessive, and the feeding is so timed (or,
upon occasion, omitted altogether, for a meal), that
the horse is never fed when tired, nor put to work
soon after eating. It is manifestly true that the oft-
ener he is fed the more difficult it is to guard against
the above evil. Having taken pains, as the reader
will observe further on, to put himself in communi-
cation with a large number of horsemen, for the pur-
pose of eliciting their views, and being desirous of
still further acquaintance among the craft, the author
ventures to request such readers as may feel so dis-
posed to address him, giving—for or against—the re-
sult of their experience after a trial of the system
recommended.

As stated in the opening paragraph, the chief aim in
the author’s mind is to prevent disease; hence such
suggestions as occur relating to curative measures,
are merely hints ez passant, no pretence being made
of classifying “diseases” or of prescribing specifics
for their “cure.” One thing, however, is certain, viz.:
That principle of treatment which is best calculated
to maintain health, is also best adapted to restore it.

CHARLES E. PAGE.
753 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, Azg, 15, 1883.

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HORSHS:

THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET.

IN undertaking the congenial task of writing a
short treatise on the horse, I have not in mind the
consideration of all of his various ailments—the
means, whether by drugging or what not, of “curing”
him of his “ diseases’”’—but rather having him, as we
do, at the start, in health, I would endeavor to show
how we may prevent disease. In a long experience,
dating from early boyhood, when I thought, as most
persons still think, that the principal, if not the
only, thing is to feed high and often, I find that with
horses as with men, more of them decline, become
“ seedy,” emaciated, and sorry sights to behold, from
overfeeding, or, what is nearly the same thing, under-
working, or from a combination of the two causes,
than from any lack of food or care, as the term “ care”
is commonly interpreted.

Most persons love a horse, and I have seldom found
an owner who would not go hungry rather than have
his horse go without food. He will say, “I will feed
my horse before I will myself,” and, in practice, too,
will do it. To be sure, there is seldom any con-

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Io HORSES :

flict between the two needs; we are all able to eat
too much and too often, and incline to serve our ani-
mals in the same manner. These things we do, what-
ever else is sacrificed or neglected. Even “hard
cases,” men who have not the means to purchase
a good animal—that is, a valuable one—and who
consequently are seen driving rawny-boned, consump-
tive creatures, and win the name of starving them—
.even these, as I have found upon diligent inquiry,
often take scrupulous care to feed three times a day,
and to give their poor dyspeptic horses more food
than they can possibly digest. They do this, all the
more because appearances are against them, and if it
does not come to their ears, they feel sure that their
neighbors and all who pass or meet them on the road,
are saying something about “ post-meat.”

If some gentlemen’s driving-horses had more of
this sort of diet—outdoor air and freedom from sur-
feit—they would not so soon fall into the hands of
“ five-dollar jockeys.” How often our eyes are pained
at the sight of what was once a horse to be proud
of, and whose owner really delighted in him, drag-
ging himself along, and looking as if it would be a
mercy to end his life. His old owner speaks of the
case sorrowfully, and says, “When I owned ‘Jim’
he never looked like that; he got all he could eat,
and-I never overworked him.” He doesn’t add the
further fact that under his treatment the horse begun
to decline, and at an age, too, when he should have
been in his prime, and that he put him away in con.
sequence! Although the horse has many advantages

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. I!

over his owner, so far as he has less exciting causes
of disease—still, as we all know, his disorders are of
about the same nature, so far as they go. He has
fewer diseases in number and frequency than we find
in the human family; and this comparative exemp-
tion from disease bears a pretty close relation to the
plainness.of his diet.

In my recent work entitled “Natural Cure of
Consumption,” * in which I discuss the advantages
of wheat meal, unbolted and unsifted, over fine
flour or any modification ‘of it, in the treatment
or prevention of dyspepsia—a disorder which is
at the root of almost all the internal diseases of
man and beast—I make use of the following lan-
guage: “That most noble of all animals next to
man,—and in some aspects far superior to him,—
the horse, in his finest and most delicate state, finds
a perfect food in the whole grain, chewing it himself.
I may, in the minds of some, be weakening my argu-
ment by comparing the digestive apparatus of man
with that of the horse, but I am desirous of impress-
ing upon the minds of my readers the well-known but
imperfectly considered fact, that our horse-fanciers,—
who dote on their ten-thousand-dollar animals, and
would feed them on the finest of flour, would place
before them the most costly and complicated cooked
dishes if it were desirable, or even not pernicious in a
health point of view,—really keep their dearest pets

* “The Natural Cure of Consumption, Dyspepsia, Bright's
Disease, Rheumatism, etc.” pp. 275, $1. New York: Fowler
& Wells.

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12 HORSES:

on bread and water; and that, because of this, and
the absence of all the hot, stimulating articles, solid
or fluid, indulged in by their owners, their regular
and moderate diet of uxcooked food, and their superior
hygiene in certain essential matters, our horses are
saved, in great measure, from becoming fat, sick,
mean, wheezy, or dyspeptic, like their masters and
mistresses—men, women, and children.”

And yet horses do, after all, fall prey to all these
degraded conditions. In spite of the naturalness and
wholesomeness of their diet, as to variety and quality,
and in face of the most solicitous and painstaking.
care, we too often see them the subject of tedious
and painful disorders, and of course there is a reason
for it.

NON-VENTILATION.

One of the principal causes of disease among horses
as among human beings is foul air. In large stables
this cause operates effectually, for seldom is there
any good arrangement for ventilating, least of all,
any efficient means for maintaining even an approx-
imately pure atmosphere. On the contrary, every
precaution is taken, in cold weather, to prevent the
entrance of fresh air, without which the vitiated air
must remain unchanged, loaded, as it is, with the
foul emanations from the urine-soaked floors and
from the lungs and bodies of the animals imprisoned
therein. Here, as nowhere else, is illustrated that
most stupid of all economies, viz.: the “saving of
foul air for the sake of its warmth.” This is largely
due to the overestimate of the necessity of keeping

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THETR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 13

the temperature of the stable at a high point. Un-
questionably horses would eat more, would zeed more
food, if the stable were kept supplied with fresh
air, if, in consequence, the temperature should aver-

~ age several degrees colder; but he is a mean man
“who would cheat his horses out of the “breath of
life” for the sake of a little saving in hay and grain.
Living themselves in air-tight apartments, and, often
enough, innocent of all knowledge of the necessity
for a constant changing of the air in their own homes,
stable-keepers are, of course, guiltless of all blame in
the matter referred to. They know that the warmer
the animals are kept, by means of close stables and
blankets, the less food they require, and, unaware of
-the pernicious influence exerted upon the general
health of the animals, this settles the question. With
good ventilation, however much the temperature of
the air might be lowered, the horses would more than
compensate for the extra feed, in improved digestion,
vigor, and general health.

MISTAKEN KINDNESS.

I find that a great deal of the care exercised in the
regimen of horses by all classes of people is—like the
unwise petting and coddling of children—a source of
mischief, and often constitutes positive cruelty.

Some of the kindest and most tender-hearted per-
sons in the world spend time and money, and exercise
their minds, in various ways, with the intention of
doing for their horses the best that can be done; yet,
in their misconceived efforts, doing, in some particu-

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14 HORSES :

lars, the worst things possible. That is to say, of two
evils which may present themselves they choose the
greatest, or as between a good and an evil they choose
the evil, by following blindly the prevalent “ customs
of the country ’”’—doing all this year just as they did
last, combating and even resenting the suggestions of
those who essay to introduce innovations. A single
illustration will serve to show my meaning and possi-
bly add to the comfort of some of my equine friends:
A horse comes to stable from a sharp drive, perspiring
freely, the steam rising like a heavy mist about him,
and the “ go-by-rule”’ hostler, in the kindness of his
heart, as soon as the harness is removed (a rubbing
down being just then impossible, perhaps), throws
the woolen blanket, perhaps two of them, if in severe
cold weather, over the steaming animal, and leads
him to the stall; and he will do this—even his em-
ployer would direct it—in the very face of the sug-
gestion from a bystander that the effect is to saturate
the blanket almost as though dipped in water, so that
within half an hour the condition is precisely as
though the boy had thrown a wet blanket over him
at the start. A few minutes on the stable floor, or in
his stall, unblanketed, would change the whole phase
of the subject, and then the dry, warm” blanket
would remain dry. Of course the question remains
open as to the desirability of blanketing horses at all;
there is much to be said on the side of leaving him
in his natural coat, much depending, however, upon
other considerations affecting the question. Again,
a horse is observed to have lost his appetite, his hay.

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 15

and grain remaining untouched or partly eaten. The
kind-hearted owner leaves the food in the manger, for
his horse to eat when he wants it, and explains to
the “women folks” that “Tom” is “off his feed,”
and they must use “ Billy,” or forego their drive—a
little jaunt about town, perhaps, and just what over-
fed and underworked Tom needed, while Billy was
well endugh to stay indoors, if necessary! But of
this more will be said further on.

INSTINCT ws. REASON.

The intelligence of men, so often and in so many
particulars, resembles the instinct of dumb animals,
that I find therein an unanswerable argument in favor
of the view that the difference between our reason
and ‘theirs is one of degree only. In point of fact,
we find instances wherein exceptionally intelligent
animals are positively the superiors, in all that gives
evidence of logical thinking, of exceptionally unintel-
ligent men. It is zustinct only (if we are to distin-
guish between instinct and reason) which prompts a
man to speedily blanket a heated and steaming horse ;
it is reason which impels another to refrain from the
act. It is zzstinct which prompts most men to feed
their horses just so often and at just suck times,
irrespective of their work or their physical condition ;
it is reason which impels one to withhold a feed,
or to give his horse a fast-day, or to reduce the
number of his meals, if it should be found from the
experience of others that less are better. There are
times when the regular “feed,” however hungry the

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16 HORSES:

horse may be, is extremely cruel,—times, indeed, when
it means a painful death. Horses do not die from
overdriving alone; at least, not often. I am inclined
to think that in 99 cases in the 100, when this is the
supposed cause of death, and when without such over-
exertion the horse might have continued to live, except
for some wrong condition connected with his diet, he
would still not only have lived, but would have with-
stood the great strain without harm ; in other words,
what proved too great a strain for him, fed as he
was, would not have been excessive, or, at least, not
fatal, had he been fitted for it by judicious treat-
ment, and had the strain been succeeded by reasona-
ble, or reasoning, care, instead of routine care, which
I place under the head of zustinctive. Often enough,
it is the care and treatment which are most kindly
intended that £27 or break down animals prematurely,
and put them, as before remarked, into the keeping
of those who can only obtain the ownership of cheap
horses; and such persons, by continuing the very
means which have made their horses dyspeptic and
emaciated, £eep them so and prevent the recovery
which might often be assured by a strictly hygienic
and curative regimen.

HOW TO MANAGE.

We occasionally observe an instance wherein an
especially intelligent stable-keeper buys a seedy, pot-
bellied horse, perhaps, of a farmer, who has been in
the habit of keeping hay in the creature’s crib all the
time, the horse munching- away, eating or nibbling

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 17

constantly whenever he can work up an appetite, or,
as in some cases, gormandizing as if he was an ani-
mated hay-cutter and nothing else. The man puts
him into his stable, feeds him little and regularly—
hay morning and night, and in amount only what he
will eat up clean with a sharp appetite; or, if of the
insatiable-appetite type, limiting him to a rational
quantity, giving him light feed three times a day
(grain only at noon), but giving him regular exercise
or work every day. The result of this treatment is a
complete transformation, which I need not describe
in detail; but, from a hide-bound, lazy, and almost
useless piece of horse-flesh, he produces a tough, hard,
clean roadster of great value.

Sometimes this same transformation is secured with-
out any-great degree of intelligence on the part of the
owner, but is rather a streak of good luck. Buying
an overfed and underworked dyspeptic horse, because
he is “ cheap,” feeding him well, but giving him an
‘abundance of work, because he has the work for him
to do, the necessary conditions are established, and
the horse begins to thrive and acquire condition, to
the entire surprise of his owner perhaps.

This could never have been accomplished upon any
system of feeding alone; muscles do not grow except
as they are used, nor is it possible to fatten some
horses so as to give them even the semblance of condt-
tion, which so often deceives the novice, who, buying
a sleek, handsome horse, finds, upon putting him to
use, that his fat melts off and out of the degenerated
carcass; and he, not knowing the cause, does not

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18 HORSES:

know how to prevent the decline, or to build the
creature up anew.

CONDITION IN HORSES.

“Condition has much to do with the question of abil-
ity to undergo severe labor in inclement weather with-
out undue hazard,” says a writer in the National Live
Stock Journal. “Condition is a state of the body not
acquired in a day, as all experienced horsemen know.
Without this, the trotting or the running horse is
well understood to possess no hardiness; in other
words, no power of endurance under hard pushing,
and at the same time a vital stamina that will enable
the possessor to ward off disease, though hard pressed
and overheated. An attempt often made by the
novice to put a horse in condition for hard labor by
suddenly increasing his feed, is inevitably followed
by failure. Only a system of prudent, steady feed-
ing, daily, vigorous exercise of the muscles being
practiced at the same time, will insure success. If
this be omitted, the animal will perspire freely, with
even moderate exertion. His heart. will be found
to increase the frequency of its motions, thumping
against the ribs more or less violently. This can
easily be detected by placing the ear over the region
of the heart, or, in fact, over any part of the chest in
proximity to the heart. Suddenly feeding the horse
to put him in flesh fixes a tendency to this. Steady
muscular exertion builds against this tendency, and
effectually removes it, if the practice be thoroughly
carried out. Do not mistake by supposing that these

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 19

evil results of quick fattening, called “ softness,” will
only follow fast work. A severe pull—even a single
effort, if severe—will cause as vigorous spasmodic
efforts of the heart as though the animal had been
hard driven under the lash.”

This palpitation and sweating, easily and quickly,
are indications of weakness, though the horse may be
a very spirited and “strong-going”’ one. This is espe-
cially true of a class of horses termed “ pullers”? when
they are not given much work, as in the case cited
further on. There are few trotting horses but suffer
more or less during portions of the year from this |
disease, viz.: degeneration of the muscular system—
of the entire organism, in fact. This fully accounts
for so many fine horses “going lame” suddenly. The
cause may be truly enough said to be a sprain; but
why the sprain? Simply because the muscles and
tendons, instead of being tough, clean, and sound, are
degenerated from lack of sufficient use. Instead of
keeping his muscular system firm and sound, his a-
pearance of condition is maintained by feed alone ;
and when taken out for a little speeding, he strains
himself a little, szap go a few strands of a muscle,
and he has to be hauled off and “doctored” at a
great loss to his owner.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WORK

in putting a horse in condition is not fully appreci-
ated; but it can never be done, never has been done,
without. Many a valuable animal maintains a fine

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20 HORSES:

appearance with little daily exercise; but put such a
horse suddenly on to severe work and his lack of
muscle soon becomes apparent. He has no staying
power; his fat melts away and shows him for what
he was all the time—thin in flesh. Mr. P., a young
man in my own town, went into the grocery business.
He owned a poor little horse, and having no surplus
capital, he thought he would “get along” with this
one at first until trade should increase to the point of
compelling him to makeachange. He had been vainly
trying to “fat him up” with food alone, with the in-
tent of selling him, as he had nothing for him to do;
but he now began to “ pick up,” and finally, flying
about town from 6 A.M., to 11, and sometimes later,
pulling a pretty heavy wagon all the time, and, upon
occasion, taking the family out for a ride in the after-
noon and evening, he became plump and handsome
and virtually proof against work and weather. He
looked fat, but, speaking roundly, there “wasn’t a
spoonful of fat about him”; he wsed his muscles and
so they grew, and being sufficiently fed, his food was
all digested and assimilated, and went to nourish the
muscular system so -that it could grow. Not work
alone, nor food alone; but both together, in generous
measure—work, rest, and food—enough of each, and
pure air twenty-four hours in the day—this is the law
and gospel of horse hygiene. In fact, the same prin-
ciple holds with regard to human beings. “ Work
don’t kill,” says Burdette; “it is too much recrea-
tion, my boy, that does the business for the most of
them.” Overwork is injurious, and may be fatal; but

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 21

_ the chief danger from hard work comes from its being
suddenly applied to horse, man, woman, or child, in
the absence of condition. The only offset to absti-
nence from exercise is restriction in diet ; but vigor-
ous health can only come from enough of both.

A SOFT HORSE.

Just so far as fullness of body is maintained by
liberal feed, in default of equally liberal work, just so
far do the size and gualzty of the muscles deteriorate.
Muscle (flesh) is one thing; fat, another. The latter
is disease, pure and simple. Although this principle
is recognized very generally in practice—for nobody
“backs” a fat horse—it is fully comprehended by
very few. Indeed, I am amazed to find how few
know the real difference between two animals, one
in “condition,” that is, muscular, plump, and round
because of the muscles having been built up by
use, and one that is simply fat. The fact is, the
fat horse (or the fat man, or any other fat creature)
has not a sound tissue or organ in his body; what
muscle he has is excessively mixed with fatty
matters; that is, the muscular tissue itself has
shrunken and given place to globules of fat, or in
other words, the creature may be said to be suf-
fering from fatty degeneration. It is not necessary
for the individual, whether man or beast, to be gross
in form before he can be said to suffer from this dis-
ease. The very day upon which the balance is de-
stroyed between diet and exercise (the former exceed-

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22 HORSES:

ing the latter) degeneration begins; the muscles begin
to diminish in size and to grow “soft.” If any one
wishes to comprehend this point, let him examine
carefully and compare a slice of sirloin from a fat,
stall-fed ox, and one from the loin of a working ox,
slaughtered before fattening. Every farmer knows
that in life the latter can “ pull” the stall-fed ox and
his load. Mark the clean, red appearance of the mus-
cle in the one case, with no perceptible covering or
admixture of fat, and mark the szge of the muscle itself,
as compared with that of the creature that is not sup-
posed to be fit to eat until he has been made unfit
for work! The very terms used to describe a de-
licious steak or roast tell the story —“ tender and
well mixed.” It is not a tender and well-mixed
muscle that makes a record of 2.11, or draws a heavy
load with ease, but just the reverse-—tough and un-
mixed with fat.

It is quite customary to keep up the feed of.
trotting horses, between seasons, permitting them to
become somewhat fat, and then when they are to be
fitted for sharp work, this fat is worked off and out,
while muscle is being worked on, and improved
in quality, by getting rid of the fat, which has
been taking the place of the muscular fibre. In
other words, the horse is forced to take on disease,
by feeding him in excess of his work, and then is
cured by restoring the just balance between work
and feed. This is, in my judgment, very bad policy—
proving in the end exhaustive of vital force—ruins a
great many valuable horses, and injures all that are

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 23

thus treated.* Ample rest is no doubt beneficial to
horses who are at times put to great strain; but the
aim should be to maintain the balance. They should
be fed physiologically. “Little work, little feed,”
should be-the rule; unless, indeed, the horse-owner
feels the necessity—since he is dependent, usually
(if a dealer), upon the fat, sleek appearance of his
horses—of keeping up the appearance of his animals,
whether they get much exercise or not. But this
does not demand three meals, by any means, since
the horse will eat at two more than he can digest and
assimilate, and may be kept fat on this system, and
with less danger of an outbreak of disease, than if he
were more frequently fed. But this question—the
number of meals—is fully discussed, and examples
cited, further on.

The following, contribution to Turf, Field, and
farm, concerning the number of meals best for all
classes of horses, has brought me several letters cor-
roborating the position therein taken, and also others
asking specific advice as to the best regimen under
special conditions of work, etc., as in case of stage

* TI long ago predicted that the time would come when the
winning horse, or man, would be he who trained oz flesh, instead
of off; that is, who had no fat to get rid of, but would gain in
weight from the start, during every day’s work, until the max-
imum of muscle and muscular power was reached. This year I
am pleased to see this prediction verified by the account that
comes across the water, viz.: that in the last three races of cer-
tain English boat clubs, the winning crew has been the one that
gained in weight during training !

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24 HORSES:

teams, where the work is performed out of season or
at unusual hours:

THE TWO-MEAL SYSTEM FOR HORSES.
“BIDDEFORD, ME., Dec. 9, 1882.

“ Editors of Turf, Field, and Farm :—A writer in
the Mirror and Farmer speaks of having fed his cattle
on the two-meal system for the past seven years, and
finds no occasion for feeding oftener; in fact, he says
they thrive better than on the ‘ cramming system,’ or
more frequent feeding.

“Although I have never doubted that this system
would work as favorable with horned cattle, my own
experience has been confined mostly to human beings
and horses. According to my judgment, if applied
to work or road horses it will increase their work-
ing capacity very largely. That is, a given horse
will do more work, day after day, either in the cart,
before the plow, or on the road, and keep in prime
condition; besides it would surely, because of his im-
proved health, tend to prolong his life, and extend his
years of usefulness. But aside from mere theorizing
or dogmatically asserting my opinion, which, however,
I find is corroborated by every one who has given
this system a fair trial, I will give here an illustra-
tion as to its operation on road-horses. I bought a
little, ‘chunky’ mare, six years old, fat and lazy, fit
for nothing but a timid woman’s use—just right, one
would say, for the women and children to jog round
town with. She would travel about four and a half
to five miles an hour with considerable urging, and if

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 25

pressed beyond that would sweat profusely. Hav-
ing been recently imported from Canada, it was pre-
dicted by all the horsemen about that she would have
‘the distemper’ as a matter of course. In order to
more effectually guard against this, I fed her but

_ once a day for a couple of weeks, giving her from ten

to twenty miles’ jogging every day, Sundays included, -
thus reducing the fa, and increasing the fesh/ Her
one meal consisted of a very generous feed of hay,
and four quarts of oats at night, after being thor-
oughly rested from work. After this, and with a
considerable increase of work (averaging, all told, 150
miles per week), I gave her a light feed of hay and
two quarts of oats in the morning. In the course of
six months her weight, which had at first fallen off
quite rapidly, was but slightly less than when I took
her; but it was made up of a different substance al-

- together. I had exchanged 100 pounds of fat for 75

pounds of jlesh,; or, in other words, I had relieved
her of that much disease (effectually preventing the
predicted outbreak), and had built up in its placea
large amount of muscle, at the same time improving-
the quality of her entire muscular system.

- “Speaking in a general way, a horse is an engine
made up of muscles which increase in size and qual-
ity by increased use (always supposing a sufficient
diet), and diminish in size, as well as in power, if the
work is less or lighter. Consequently, if the horse
is fed for health (z. e., in proportion to his labor),
his weight will diminish with lessened, and increase
with added, work. In feeding in the morning I

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26 HORSES:

aimed to allow some two hours or more—the more
the better—for that digestion which takes place in
the stomach, before she was harnessed, and the
evening meal was never given until long enough
after she came to the stable to insure her being well
rested from her labor, and this though her dinner
*was postponed till a late hour at night. Whenever
I had occasion, and I sometimes took occasion, to
give her some early work, her breakfast would be
postponed until long after the drive was finished, or
to a convenient hour when rested and not obliged
to resume work soon thereafter. Within four months
this little fat, soft, ‘logy’ mare was transformed into
a clean-bodied, tough, hard little roadster that would
take two in a buggy eight miles an hour for three or
four hours, and after an hour’s rest take them back
again in the same time, and do it, too, without whip-
ping or showing any symptom of lagging. When I
sold her I told the buyer how I fed her. Did he
learn anything? No, indeed. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘I
shall give her all she wants three times a day, as long
as J own her.’ I see her now every day; she is just
about where she was when I took her—fat and soft,
and will sweat profusely if driven fifteen miles in
three hours.”
EXTRA RATIONS,

Occasionally horses are, through cruelty, and some-
times unwittingly on the part of their drivers, driven
to exhaustion; and it frequently happens that a
horse gives out without having been pushed hard,
and to the complete surprise of his owner, who can

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 27

not account for it. “I knew he had a hard jaunt
before him,” says the owner, “and I gave him a@
couple of quarts extra at breakfast, but he gave out
before he got half-way; in fact, he wasn’t himself
from the start.” The old saying that “a good pay-
Master pays after the work is done,” applies here: a
good horseman feeds ¢o-day in proportion to the work
his horse did yesterday. He pays him well, and every
day, but never in advance. The fact is this: The
digestive fluids are formed in the blood and remain
subject to order, in proportion to the needs of the
organism for food, and zot in proportion to the
amount of food swallowed,—the “ needs” having ref-
erence to work already performed, cold endured, etc.
Other things being equal, the horse that is hard pushed
on an empty stomach, will bear more before breaking
down, and, if driven to exhaustion, has a far better
chance to recover well, than the one driven in like
manner, but fed immediately before starting, and
halted just long enough to swallow his dinner ez
route. The rest, without the meal, would have been
far better.

I am aware that in making this statement I am
running counter to the opinions of most men, based,
as they are, largely upon their own sensations when

~ ~ deprived of their regular meals. “ Needn’t tell me,”
says the owner; “I won’t work without my regular
food, nor let my horse”; which sentiment is every
way praiseworthy, and does honor to the man’s heart.
Nevertheless, I can not withdraw the statement, for
my opinion is based upon absolute knowledge from

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28 HORSES :

trial, both in the case of the horse and myself. When
I ate three meals a day, I was, aS nearly all men tell
me is the case with them, “hungry” at, often indeed
before, every regular meal. If the meal was not
forthcoming from any cause, I felt faint and my
stomach would “gnaw.” I learned, after a time, that
under such circumstances a meal lost was a better
one gained; that, in short, this was a dzsease and not
a natural condition at all, albeit it is-the common ex-
perience of most persons. No person feels faint upon
passing a meal, or has a gnawing stomach, except it
be occasioned by an irritated or unduly congested
state of that organ. It is a sure proof of dyspepsia
(using this term in its popular sense, as implying the
condition of the organ). Strictly speaking, the term
is a synonym of indigestion.

DYSPEPSIA OR INDIGESTION

results from giving the digestive organs more than
they can do. There are times when they can do
nothing, or next to nothing; and when to give them
nothing to do is curative, viz.: in fever, when we
observe the effort of the organism to eliminate the
impurities which constitute the real disease. The dis-
charge from the nasal mucous membrane, for example,
in epizootic influenza, frees the system of poisonous
elements, sometimes amounting to several pounds a
day. In this view we recognize the running at the
nose as the cure, and not the disease. A cribbing
horse, or one that will eat everything before him, no ~
less than the one with a precarious appetite, is a dys-

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 29

peptic; all such are suffering from disease of the
digestive organs. Since horses do not eat fish, flesh,
and fowl, and the pernicious condiments associated
with these stimulating articles of diet, and are free
from all nuisances in the form of pastry, puddings,
spices, and bon-bons, they have only two sources for
digestive disorder, viz.:'(1) Excess in diet, and (2)
wrong condition at the time of eating.

It is true—most emphatically true—that unless
the stable is well ventilated, the horse must suffer for
want of pure air. Poor food and pure air make bet-
ter blood than the best of food and foul air; and if
there is abuse in this regard, the animal may fatten—
in fact, this tends to insure fattening, since, for want
of pure air in the lungs, the excretories (the lungs
themselves, the liver, kidneys, skin, and bowels) can
not perform their functions in eliminating the foul
products of the natural waste of the system, and of in-
digestion, in case of excess in diet. Hence the animal
becomes diseased, and along with constitutional dis-
order, the digestive organs themselves become im-
paired ; and thus fattening may be called a third source
of digestive disorder. I repeat that no creature, man
or beast, should eat when tired, or directly before
commencing hard work.

REST AFTER EATING.

The experiment of Jules Virez settled the question
as to the non-digestion of food in default of rest.
He selected two curs of the same size, age, and
general physique, made them fast a day, and treated

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30 HORSES:

them the next morning to a square meal of potato.
chips and cubes of fat mutton; but as soon as one of
them had eaten his fill, he made the other stop, too.
Making sure that they had both consumed the same
quantity, Dog No. 1 was confined in_a comfortable
kennel, while No. 2 had to run after the doctor’s
coach, not at a breathless rate of speed, but at a fair,
zrisk trot, for two hours and a half. As soon as they
got home the coach-dog and his comrade were slain
and dissected; the kennel-dog had completely di-
gested his meal, while the chips and cubes in the
coach-dog’s stomach had not changed their form at
all; the process of digestion had not even begun!
“And,” continues Dr. Oswald, from whose “ Physical
Education” this incident is taken, “ railroad laborers,
who bolt their dinner during a short interval of hard
work, had better pass their recess in a hammock.
Instead of strengthening them, their dinner will only
oppress them, till it is digested, together with their
supper, in the cool of the evening,” or at night when
they are in bed,—the digestion being poorly done
’midst distressing and exhausting dreams. It is not
the evening meal which disturbs the troubled sleeper;
it is rather the three loads in the same barrel that
“kick.”

It does not follow from this that a horse may not
be harnessed soon, or immediately after eating, when
occasion calls, with the probability that no harm will
result, provided the pace be moderate, and due care
be taken not to overdrive. The digestion of a meal
may often be delayed, however undesirable as a rule,

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 31

without causing serious disturbance,—the stomach
resuming its work at the first period of leisure, or as
soon as the voluntary muscular system has been rested
sufficiently to permit the blood to flow freely through
the mucous membrane of the stomach. No doubt
Dr. Virez’s coach-dog would have digested his break-
fast had he lived a few hours longer. But while the
aim should be to regard the principle here laid down,
as closely as practicable, it is evident that, if no atten-
tion whatever be paid to it, the danger is lessened
one-third by dispensing with the midday meal.

Providing always the horse be liberally, that is suf-
ficiently fed, the ¢¢me of feeding is of small account
compared with the vital necessity of obeying this
natural law in order to prevent indigestion, With a
strict observance of this law—and the two-meal sys-
tem renders this an easy matter—if the horse is
never over-fed nor kept in a stived-up stable, he will
not get foundered, have “pink-eye” (pneumonia),
nor “catch cold,” though every stable in town may
be decimated with an “epidemic.” The same horse
will do more work, stand more exposure, and keep
in prime working order, fed upon this principle, than
under the ordinary method, which is that he must
have his feed at or near the regular hour, with three
meals every day.

I once took a “pulling” mare, just up from past-
ure, where she had been all summer. She was, of
course, very round—filled out full with fat and wa-
ter. I obtained possession of this mare expressly to
test the effect of the “rational system” on a
*puller”—a horse of whom it was said, “She hasn’t

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32 HORSES:

any judgment,” “She wants to get there too soon,”
etc. She was no comfort to anybody, no woman
could drive her, and few men cared to ride after her. I
put her at once on the two-meal plan, and gave her
ten to twenty miles’ sharp drive daily. In a week
my wife, who is by no means anything of a horse-
woman, was driving Mollie everywhere in perfect
safety. In a few months this mare, like her prede-
cessor, was transformed completely from a fat to a
muscular animal. In her case the indigestion, caused
by over-frequent feeding, which made the other—and
which makes so many others, indeed—“ lazy,” had
the effect to keep her so irritated and nervous that
she was headstrong and not readily manageable.
We see these

TWO PHASES OF DISEASE

all about us in the case of human animals. A lazy man
isasick man; at least, his lack of energy is due to pos-
itive disorder. Whether he be fat, lean, or medium;
a gourmand or a “‘ poor feeder,” his physical condition
is abnormal. If an obese gourmand, his whole vital
force may be necessary to digest his food and expel
the excess beyond what the cellular tissue can store
up in the form of fat. The lean glutton’s organism
is taxed in like manner; while the poor tired dys-
peptic—who eats but little, and that without satis-
faction—suffers from faulty nutrition, because zone
of his food is well digested. The thin, wiry, “ nerv-
ous”? man or woman, who never can bear to rest—
the human “ puller’’—suffers from a complication of
disorders, resulting from a body and brain poisoned

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 33

by the products of indigestion—poisoned as truly as
though a drug were being administered three times a
day.

When I sold the “reclaimed lunatic” Mollie, she
was, in spite of my urgent advice, returned to her
old way of feeding. The first month, on three
meals, she /ost thirty pounds; although, or rather
because she had less than half the work she had been
doing. After this she began to increase in weight
until her original weight was reached. But she had
exchanged muscle for fat ; and, although she did not
afterward “ pull,” she never has since, nor had she
ever before, the condition—the muscular power, the
ability to do a long hard day’s work with little ef-
fort—as during the year I owned her.

{Since the above was written, the mare, from full
feeding and light work, began to show unmistakable
symptoms of chest-founder, and, upon my renewing
the suggestion, her owner decided to leave out the
noon feed—reducing her diet from nine quarts of corn
and oats to six of oats; feeding only twice, morning
and night. Two months of this regimen, combined
with an increase of her daily exercise, is fast banish-
ing all signs of lameness].

In one other instance, a transient season of this
plan—a few weeks only under my administration—be-
gun a favorable change in an old and valuable horse
that was looking a little “seedy.” In this case, sim-
ply leaving out the noon feed, giving the regular
breakfast and supper (of the same amount each as

had been given all along), set the horse to gaining in
2* :

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34 HORSES:

~

weight and appearance. She had become dyspeptic
from overfeeding. I have never known an instance
where the system, pursued year after year, resulted
in failure. I could name a score or more cases as
marked as those here given; while, in many more,
the only apparent effect upon good horses, that were
already in good health and condition, has been to
keep them thus with something less of feed. But
the gain in feed and saving of time is trifling com-
pared with the saving of horseflesh; for animals that
are habitually fed at noon (even if the “two meals”
are divided into three), will sooner or later get se-
verely hurt, by reason of the heat and fatigue of the
forenoon and the resumption of work again in the
afternoon, since this prevents the digestion of the
mid-day meal.

C. H., of Brunswick, Me., “in the grave-stone busi-
ness,” which he represented as being very hard on
horses, “used up,” as he expresses it, several horses
while feeding them generously three times a day.
The last one he owned showed signs of being “ over-
worked,” until after he adopted the. two-meal plan.
He says he “ blundered into the practice” from hav-
ing to take the noon meal at irregular hours. It was
sometimes early, sometimes very late, when he and
his horse dined ; and finally he got into the way of
eating only night and morning himself. Finding his
own condition improved, he thought he would try
the experiment with his horse. After a few weeks
the animal began to improve and “ gained right up,
so that,” said he, “a friend remarked one day, ‘ Well,

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2

THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 35

you’ve got a horse now, H., that can stand your
work.’” “Yes,” said I, “but he couldn’t until I
changed his feed.” “How is that?” “Well, he
was running down on three meals, and has ‘run up’
on two, that is all.”

H. B. W., of Lowell, Mass., states that he drove
an advertising and delivery team for a patent med-
icine concern for five years, using the same pair
of horses constantly. The first year he fed on the
prevailing system, but soon after, acting upon the
suggestion of some one who declared it would benefit
his horses, he fed only morning and night. He said
that for four years he had a team that attracted at-
tention wherever he went—“ a team to be proud of,”
he said. For the last three years he followed the
“example” of his horses and ate but twice himself,
and “ by keeping clear of the fancy stuff that hotel
tables are generally covered with, and eating the
plainest food I could find,” said he, “I cured myself
of dyspepsia, and without any help from the d—d
stuff I was carting about the country!” He further
remarked that his horses always “drove freer” in the
afternoon than in the forenoon.

PREJUDICE.

To show the prejudice of old horsemen against in-
novations of this sort, I will relate an instance of a
_gentleman who was impressed with the idea and
wished to try the two-meal plan on his horse. He
ordered the stable-keeper to leave out the mare’s
noon meal, and feed night and morning only, hay and

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36 HORSES:

four quarts of oats at a feed. For a time there was

no change in her appearance; but he accidentally

ascertained that she was having her grain at noon
the same as before. Somewhat angry at the decep-
tion practiced by the man who “ wouldn’t have a horse

starved” in 47s stable, he changed her boarding place, ©

ordering her feed as before. Some discussion ensued
between him and the stable-keeper about the advan-
tages of two over three meals, in which the latter
predicted that he would find that it “ wouldn’t work
with some ‘hosses.’’? Sure enough, it became evi-
dent in a few weeks that his horse was declining.
He ordered an increase of grain at the two feeds;
still she grew poor. Another increase was ordered,
but she kept going down hill. Not suspecting any
cheat, her owner put her away for another horse,
directing this one to be fed in like manner. She, too,
begun to decline, and in spite of twelve quarts of
grain daily (ordered) and “all the hay she would eat
up clean at each meal,” she grew more and more
seedy, until, at last suspecting that something was
the trouble he hired a stable, and, himself, attended
to the feeding. He found that the amount of grain
she had been having (!) purged her, in the new stable,
and he lessened the ration, more and more, until
finally she began to improve on what might be called
a meal and a half, viz.: a very light feed of hay and
two quarts of oats in the morning, and a full feed of
hay with four quarts of whole corn and oats at night.
On this feed, with liberal exercise, she acquired a
splendid condition in a few months, The first mare,

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 37

a little later, came into the hands of one who in his
own stable tried the two-meal system; and she, too,
became plump and round on less feed than she was
supposed to have at the boarding stable. It was not
_that this man was a natural born oat-stealer, but it is
to be presumed that, being lectured on feeding, by
an amateur horseman, he thought, “All right; if he
wants to pay me for starving his hosses I’ll give him
his money’s worth!”

“COLDS” FROM INDIGESTION.

Without doubt most hard-working animals digest
a considerable proportion of al three of their meals
at night after getting thoroughly rested from the
day’s work; the balance (quite a percentage, too,
with highly-fed animals) does not simply pass along
and out as an undigested residue always, but fer-
ments (as indicated often by flatulency or some de-
gree of purging, etc.; or, again, constipation may be
produced), poisons the blood, overtaxes the kidneys
and the lungs, until finally—whatever the weather,
and with or without unusual exposure—the disease
breaks out in what is popularly, but mistakenly,
called “a cold” (slight influenza); and, if the condi-
tions have been especially aggravated—as, for exam-
ple, if the stomach has been very much overloaded
frequently, or if during a period of reasonably warm
weather there has been no diminution of feed, and
if feeding is kept up in spite of the “attack ”—the
result may be a full-fledged influenza or the dreaded
pneumonia.

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38 HORSES:

In fact, the various phases of this disorder—I may
say, indeed, a very large range of “diseases ””—are
the product of (1) errors in diet as to (a) time, (0) fre-
quency, (c) and amount—causing indigestion, and,
consequently and unavoidably, a greater or less de-
gree of actual blood-poisoning. (2) Lack of fresh air
and light in the stable. These errors corrected, ab-
solutely, and in a thousand cases there will be no
“colds” or other internal disorders year in and year
out.

It would naturally follow that thorough ventilation
(guarding against direct draughts), a temporary and
absolute fast until convalescence is thoroughly estab- ~
lished, followed by an abstemious diet, would be the
natural cure for influenza; and so in practice I have
found it in every instance in the case of animals of
whatever kind, including man. This treatment is
successful where all others are unsatisfactory and
often fatal, and in every instance will afford an im-
mense saving in time and vitality; saving life where
cure is possible.

The facts prove that ‘influenza or any form of so-
called “cold” is a fever, pure and simple. However
chilly the patient may feel, the thermometer placed
under the tongue or in the rectum shows at once
that the temperature is above the normal point;
and in all cases of feverishness there is disturbance
of the alimentary organs—whether evident or not to
the casual observer, and rest from all digestive labor
is the proper “tonic.” It is a great piece of folly. to
encourage eating in the absence of appetite; it is

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET, 39

only less foolish to eat even with an appetite when
evidences of this disorder have appeared. Taken at
the outset, a single day of fasting, with regular work
or exercise, will usually nip the disease in the bud;
though sometimes, and whenever there has been a
delay in treatment, a somewhat larger “dose” of
this remedy will be required. When the disease has
been permitted to run until the blood-poison has af-
fected the entire organism to the point of weakness,
the voluntary muscular system should not be taxed
unduly, but some degree of exercise (hand-rubbing,
if the creature is too weak to move about), and in
the open air, is desirable. Fresh air, light, and
plenty of pure water are always in order.

PREVENTION OF THE “ DISTEMPER.”

Whenever there is a distemper “scare,” when the
disease has made its appearance in town, the first
thing (and, if this is attended to, the oz/y thing nec-
essary) to be done is to stop the feed entirely; not a
lock of hay, no hot mashes, nor a spoonful of any-
thing, except pure water, should be offered to any
horse whose lack of condition is even suspected.
Whatever may be his notion as regards the condition
of his animals, or his theory as to the origin of the
disorder, the owner of any number of horses may rest
assured that only the ones that are predisposed by
reason of a clogged—that is, an already diseased—
condition will be “attacked.”

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40 HORSES:

LIKE CAUSES PRODUCE LIKE EFFECTS,

and since, as I affirm, the “ distemper’’—influenza,
epizootic, pink-eye,-or whatever name may be pre-
ferred, for it is only a question of the different stages
of the same filth-disease—will only attack ill-condi-
tioned horses; if they are kept in condition there is
no occasion for alarm as to “contagion.” Every
horse that is in really “A-1” condition is positively
as free from danger as though he lived in a world
where disease and death were unknown! Such
horses, being sound and clean, require no change of
regimen. But if their regimen be changed by a reduc-
tion of outdoor work, there must be a corresponding
reduction of food, or they can not remain disease proof.
Some horses and some men, though not in health,
are still proof against acute disorders of this type;
the reason being that certain chronic “diseases,” as
well as chronic health, are unattended by the “clog-
ging-up”’ process, which, if reaching a certain stage,
necessitates the restorative process popularly known
under the above names. All disease-producing
causes should cease at once, especially while the
“scare” is on, and measures at once taken to change
the condition of all doubtful animals; viz., the fat
ones, and all such as have been “ well fed”’ and not
well worked. In fact, no horse is well fed if given a
generous diet without generous exercise. The first
thing, as before remarked, is a fast, the extent of
which must be determined by the attendant or the
director; but it should depend upon the degree of the

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 4!

supposed indisposition. The remedy isa safe one, to
whatever extent it may be used. The effects of a
few days’ fast would be some degree of languor and
indisposition for work or exercise, and the greater
the need of abstinence, the more marked would be
these symptoms. The fasting horse would act “lazy,”
or as if already in the first stage of the disorder,
which, in fact, may be the case. He will not, how-
ever, be likely to go beyond this stage under this
regimen. Should unmistakable symptoms of the
overflow become apparent, however, the fast should
continue until these abate very noticeably. Then
the diet should be “dry,” (that is, no gruels, mashes,
or slops), and very abstemious as to quantity. Free
(cool, not cold) water-drinking should be allowed at
all times, except directly before meals or for two
hours after. If the animal is thirsty at these pro-
scribed times a “ttle cool water may be allowed—
little and often—until finally thirst is appeased. But
there will be no unusual degree of thirst if the food
given is not too abundant for the present capacity of
the digestive organs, which is very much reduced.
Appease the present thirst, but prevent it to-morrow
by a still further reduction of the feed.

In some cases an attack otherwise sure to come
would be averted if the animal was put on half-ra-
tions, if this was done defore any lack of appetite was
discerned, and if he were given plenty of open-air ex-
ercise, and the stable (as it should be always) so ven-
tilated as to be ever free from a close or stuffy condi-
tion. Fresh air is Nature's febrifuge, and the hotter

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42 HORSES:

and closer the stable, and the more profuse the
blanketing, the worse it must be for our fever pa-
tient. Cold air is not necessarily fresh ,; it certainly is
not unless it has free communication with the main
body of air without; nor do a few cracks and crevices
afford sufficient ventilation for any number of horses.

HAND-RUBBING vs. DRUGS.

Trainers understand the importance of hand-rub-
bing in fitting horses for the track; but its value as
a curative measure in fever, or in cases such as I
have just cited, is not generally recognized. As in
training for the track, the rubbing presses out the
fatty globules and leaves the flesh clean and free—
making a firm, pliant, springy muscle; so in the con-
dition of disease referred to, the filthy humors which
constitute the disease and have rendered the fever
necessary are pressed into the circulation, from
which they are secreted by the appropriate glands,
and find an outlet through the various excretories.
In cases where nitre, digitalis, etc., have been given
“for the kidneys,’ many noble animals have been
sacrificed who would have been saved by causing
them to swallow hot water freely, withholding all
food, manipulating their limbs and muscles as before
remarked, and keeping the poison-drugs out of them
entirely. The diuretic may “start the water,” and
this manner of starting it may not prove fatal; but
it is too often followed by a complete relapse—the
animal dying from blood-poison shortly after. The
same may be said with regard to purgative medi-

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 43

cines. Injections of hot water and free kneading of

the bowels, or percussion, are always safer and more
effectual.

CONCERNING THE USE OF THE BLANKET.

Blanketing in stables is often favored solely on ac-
count of the better appearance of the coat; the hair
does not grow so long, and it keeps smooth and
glossy with less grooming. In the absence of the
blanket the hair grows long and affords complete
protection from cold, and is as much better as it is
more natural. Other things equal, the horse that re-
ceives the most coddling in the way of blankets,
warm stables (especially if warmth be secured by
non-ventilation), guarding from wet, cold, etc., will
be the least fitted for real service and the most sub-
ject to disease. If blanketed and kept in a close
stable the horse will shiver in the cold in spite of
blankets and extra robes; while unblanketed and ac-
customed to an airy, ze. a well-ventilated stable—
for s?ze alone does not insure pure air—he will stand,
even in the most exposed situations on a severe win-
ter’s day, without any trembling. There are times,
of course, when standing for any great length of time
in a bleak location, especially after sweating freely,
that some extra protection for the toughest horse
even is useful; but the practice of zmmediately en-
veloping a sweaty horse with blanket or robe, and
especially when the halt is to be a brief one, is any-
thing but sound. A few minutes’ exposure after hot
work is an intense relief, even on the coldest day, and

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44 HORSES:

the added covering occasions positive discomfort to
the heated animal, and is of no advantage whatever.
After a few minutes have been allowed for the relief
mentioned, and if used to blanketing if he has to
stand long in the cold, the blanket may be adjusted.
But there is much unconscious cruelty practiced in
the inappropriate use of the blanket at all seasons of
the year.* My own practice has been to dispense with
blanketing entirely, in stable and out; rarely throwing
any cover over my horses, whether they are sweaty
or not, and regardless of the season or the weather;
never, in short, except in cases where one may be not
only very hot, but also extremely tired—in such a case
some extraordinary care is necessary. By pursuing
this course I have never had a horse “catch cold,”
nor made sick from any cause, when under my care
or cared for under my direction. Nor is this experi-
ence peculiar to my own horses, but tallies with that
of many persons who are simply careless as to the
treatment their horses receive, as well as others who
have adopted the rule after mature consideration as
a preventive of sickness. The fact is that few per-
sons appreciate how perfectly the hairy coat of the
horse is adapted to his varying needs, and how effect-
ually it protects him from wet, cold, heat, or sudden
changes. There is no analogy between his wet coat
of hair and a wet blanket (or wet garments about
ourselves), and the fear of it, as a general rule, is a
blind sort of instinct on our part.

 

* One of the worst and most constantly practiced abuses in this cornection
is that of throwing the folded blanket over the rump and loins at every stop
or stand-still, the parts which require the least artificial protection and which
(loins) are most easily injured by heating. Exposed to a cold rain or snow-
storm the horse instinctively turns these parts to the ‘‘ weather” !

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 45

“ CLIPPING ”

_is, therefore, an abuse which should not be perpe-
trated. It is unnatural, and no amount of care can
fully atone for the loss of his natural coat. The fact
is that both horse and owner are by nature designed
for service and to become inured to exposure, and not
for “ molly-coddlers”’; and, under wse, both become
proof against harm from what is often considered
rough treatment, but which in fact increases their
vigor and effectually guards them from disease. But
to rob a horse of his hair is to put upon him an un-
natural kind of exposure, with no compensating ad-.
vantage.

The digestive system, along with the entire organ-
ism, is exalted in proportion to the degree of active
~ exercise in the open air; in fact, work, cold weather,
and pure air increase the digestive powers and al/
the forces of the organism. There is a limit, of
course, as with all rules, to the application of this
principle; but the principle holds good under all cir-
cumstances. Blanketing a horse lessens his digestive
capacity, and anything which tends in that direction
reduces a// the vital powers; the fact being that the
more he can digest, the more he can endure, whether
of work or exposure. This is simply because the
more his vital powers are taxed, providing always
they be not overtaxed, the more he can digest;
_ since, as remarked elsewhere, the digestive fluids are
secreted from the blood in proportion to the body’s
needs for nutriment, and not in proportion to the

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46 HORSES:

amount of food swallowed. Extra work and expos-
ure to cold, by a corresponding consumption of the
tissues, cause demand for an increased amount of
food to make good the waste, and the digestive flu-
ids are increased in like measure. Blanketing a
horse does not diminish the szge of his stomach, and
hence he will, at least for a time if permitted, eat as
much as if unblanketed, and would continue to eat
more than he needed, and would stuff himself when-
ever opportunity offered. So, too, he will for a time
(and always until affected injurtously by the means)
eat as much when at leisure as when working. But
eating and digesting are far from synonymous terms,
He can not digest more than he needs, and any ex-
cess above such needs is not only so much for indiges-
tion, but tends strongly to the imperfect digestion
of aif the food swallowed and to a condition of gen-
eral disorder.

KIND TREATMENT.

In addition to the causes already mentioned which
impair digestion, and therefore predispose to disease,
unkind treatment is often a serious one. All horses
are more or less sensitive, while some are as “ sensi-
tive as a woman” to the treatment they receive.
An outburst of anger, accompanied by twitching or
yelling, directly before, during, or soon after a meal,
would absolutely prohibit or delay digestion in case
of a fine-grained animal, and perhaps occasion serious
mischief. Severe indigestion often results from this
cause in the case of human beings—victims to their

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 47

own or their companions’ temper. The horse appre-
ciates kind treatment, and it pays to give him the
kindest.

r

OVERDRIVING—OVERWORK.

Overdriving is a relative term. The horse that
never travels more than one mile at the top of his
speed, is overdriven if pushed three miles at a high
rate; while another, or the same, gradually worked
‘up to it, may make five. The ordinary driving-horse
that makes only his five to ten miles a day, and that
at a leisurely pace, is overdriven if sent twenty-five
miles at a stretch and at, say, the rate of eight miles
an hour; while another, or the same, perhaps, after
proper preparation, may make that distance in two
and a half hours, and, with an hour’s rest, return at the
same rate, without being overdriven. Again, a horse
that is driven every day, from twenty to forty miles,
and kept in condition, will go seventy-five miles in
any one day, at a rate depending upon the quality of
the animal, and without straining, and may even
make the return journey on the following day with-
out harm if he is a powerful fellow by nature; but,
following any extraordinary effort there should always
be a day of absolute or comparative rest—sufficient
rest, at all events—though a little “ walk-round”’ may
usually be an advantage, unless the animal chances
to be disabled. In this case a little extra hand-rub-
bing will be beneficial, and care must be taken not
to overfeed; for if there has been a real depletion of
the vital forces by reason of too hard usage, it must

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48 HORSES:

be borne in mind that the digestive system is a sharer
in the hurt, and that rest alone, with the treatment—
the “passive exercise” (hand-rubbing)—suggested,
or perhaps a very limited diet for one day, will be
the best means for restoration. In nine cases in ten,
when a horse is taken sick soon after extraordinary
work, it is the result of feeding him too soon or too
much—before he had become sufficiently rested.
Whenever a horse has been pushed to extremes,
driven to or nearly to exhaustion, the time allowed
for recuperation before feeding, should be correspond-
ingly lengthened. For instance, while he may eat
his dinner immediately following a leisurely drive, he
being free from heat or weariness; under the pressure
of a day’s journey which has well-nigh exhausted him,
it would be an act of mercy to withhold all food for
twelve hours. In fact, to feed sooner than this con-
stitutes, in some instances, “ cruelty to animals,” and
is attended with great risk. In all cases of exhaus-
tion from overwork, the best stimulant, the best
“tonic,” the best zu¢riment, is—rest. Even an over-
dose of this remedy is safer than an underdose, which
can be said of no other “ medicine.”

CHEST FOUNDER

often results from a neglect of the above-named pre-
caution; and constant overfeeding is a very prolific
source of this disease. The stomach is invariably the
seat of the disorder. That is, it originates there, and
can never be eradicated while this organ continues
diseased. The lungs are often affected both “ sym-

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 49

pathetically” and by continuity of tissue. The
muscles of the chest and shoulders, as well as the
entire bony structure—from the diaphragm to the
shoulder-blades and ribs—are made sore and lame by
means of the congested stomach, whether this organ
be acutely affected from some special cause, or chron-
ically diseased from habitual excess in diet. The
more frequently the horse is fed the more danger
there is of this chronic disease of the stomach. Long
intervals between meals afford time for the subsidence
of the congested condition which is the normal result
of the digestive process. If this process is too often’
repeated there is always a liability to cause it to be-
come chronic; or, in other words, the normal digest-
ive congestion is transformed into a disease. No
doubt many of my readers have themselves experi-
enced the very same kind of lameness, following a ball
or party, and have attributed it to having “caught
cold.” A draught from some window was supposed
to be the cause of the mischief, instead of the fourth
meal, eaten, perhaps, when the person was hot and
tired from dancing, and when he or she had already
eaten one meal too much. Upon all such occasions,
except for the mere sensual gratification derived from
tickling the palate, there is no more need of another
supper than of a fourth suit of clothes to dance in at
a Fourth-of-July ball, when a single suit of mosquito-
netting would, so far as comfort is concerned, be su-
perfluous. The stomach lies close under and in con-
tact with the diaphragm,—the great concavo-convex
muscle which alone separates the stomach from the

3
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50 HORSES:

lungs,—and which, so far from constituting an impas
sable barrier, may itself take on a congested state and
pass it on to the lungs. From this might arise acute
congestion* with imminent danger to life, more espe-
cially if from causes already mentioned the blood has
been constantly or often affected by the impurities
arising from indigestion, so that the tissues of the
muscles are not perfectly constituted ; or the disorder
might become chronic in the form of bronchitis, or
“heaves,” which corresponds to the asthma of the
human dyspeptic. The liver, which is in immediate
contact with the stomach, often becomes congested,
sometimes deeply, even fatally, diseased in the same
manner. And so, by continuzty of tessue, as already
stated, the entire frame forward—the chest—may
readily become “foundered.” I am satisfied we have
here the cause of the disorder under consideration.
Generally speaking, a chronic disease is the result
of some chronic provocation. The real seat of the
disorder being unrecognized, the horse is likely to be
fed as often, and as “ generously,”’ as before the dis-
order became so severe as to give rise to the “ well-
known symptoms.” Long before this, however, the
creature would, had he the gift of speech, have com-
plained of dull pains and disagreeable sensations.
To be sure, he might not, even then, exhibit greater
wisdom than is shown by many of his human proto-
types, who feel these same sensations without ever

*In this case total abstinence from food for a day or more, if
necessary, is indicated.

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 51

realizing: the cause. Thousands upon thousands of
human beings are thus affected and still take their
three meals a day, work or play, grow worse, swallow
medicines (prescribed by physicians as ignorant as
themselves—perhaps suffering from the same com-
plaint) and go on to their deaths without ever know-
ing what killed them. The natural cure for this dis-
ease, if my position is correct, lies along the line of
abstemiousness in diet. When the stomach is dis-
eased, it demands a treatment similar to that which
we prescribe for a sick man or horse, viz.: light work
and long intervals of rest. In chest founder, a much
restricted diet, not more than two meals a day, with
exercise restricted, but gradually, very gradually, in-
creased (with diet also increased, but always leaning
to the minimum)—this constitutes the general line
of treatment. Although this is regarded as an
incurable disease, still, I am satisfied that, intelli-
gently wrought out, this system would restore a
very large proportion of horses afflicted with chest
founder. Time, often a very long time—a full year,
perhaps, of the wisest management—would be neces-
sary; but it is not to be expected that a disease pro-
duced (as this often is) by years of abuse can be erad-
icated in a few weeks, though sometimes it may be,
as in the case of an especially strongly constituted
animal and under especially judicious treatment.

SOME HINTS RELATING TO FOOD AND DRINK.

The full capacity of a horse’s stomach is about fif-
teen or sixteen quarts, but if fully distended it would

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52 HORSES:

be too full for the performance of its functions
Hence, when digestion is in progress, the stomach
is usually no more than two-thirds full; the contents
gradually passing onward into the intestines as more
food enters the stomach. In eating a full feed of
hay the stomach receives what would constitute two
or three times its fill, so that the part first eaten does
not remain very long—perhaps twenty to thirty min-
utes subjected to stomach digestion—after which it
passes along little by little, as it becomes fitted for
intestinal digestion, and finally, when fitted therefor,
it is gradually absorbed into the circulation, becom-
ing blood. The albuminous portions of the food are
mainly digested in the stomach, and grain contains
four to six times as much of the albuminoids asa
like bulk of hay in the stomach, ze., hay that has
been thoroughly masticated and swallowed contains
one-sixth to one-fourth as much of the albuminoids
as the grain, bulk for bulk. Consequently grain re-
quires a longer time in the stomach for sufficient gas-
tric juice to be secreted and to exert its full dissolv-
ing effects. If, then, the grain be first eaten and
soon thereafter the hay, we may be certain that the
grain will be forced from the stomach before it is
perfectly digested; but if we feed the hay first, it is
not difficult to understand that the grain will remain
in the stomach a sufficient time.

A correspondent in the Dublin Farmer says with
relation to mixing food for horses, “We should not
put a great amount of coarse food with the grain, or
we will give them more than the stomach will hold,

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 53

and the last portions eaten will force the first ones
into the intestines before they are thoroughly im-
pregnated with gastric juice. Thus, two pounds of
hay and four pounds of oats are about as much as
should be fed at once when mixed, and if more oats
are given the hay should be decreased ; for instance,
five pounds of oats and one and_a half pounds of
hay.” From the foregoing remarks we may obtain a
better understanding of the effect of water on diges-
tion, If after a full meal of hay followed by oats we
allow the horse to drink profusely, a portion of the
oats will be carried away into the intestines prema-
turely, with a corresponding loss of benefit from the
grain, besides the important consideration that such
portions of the grain do harm by exciting more
or less irritation by reason of their indigestion. In
default of digestion there will be more or less fer-
mentation, as indicated by flatulency of the bowels,
and the absorption of fermented food into the circu-
lation is promotive of disease. The effect of sucha
drink after hay alone is less serious, because hay re-
quires less time in the stomach. Still, it is believed
that the free drinking should be between meals,
rather than immediately before or soon after. A
quart or two of water following the meal will pass
the food in the stomach or be absorbed by that or-
gan without interfering materially with the food. If
after a meal the stomach receives its fill and more of
cold water, it is chilled somewhat, and the secretion
of gastric juice is suspended until the water has
passed off or is warmed to the normal temperature

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54 HORSES:

of the body, besides the undue dilution of this fluid
with water renders it inert and insures indigestion.
“When the stomach has got rid of a considerable
part of its contents, it seems a difficult matter for it
to force out the remainder,” says this same Irish au-
thority, “and fermentation and colic sometimes re-
sult. [I can not believe that this would be the case
except from excess, unless it might be that the ani-
mal had not drunk enough prior to the meal to fur-
nish the blood with sufficient liquids. In this case
there might remain a residue of food in the stomach,
but such residue would have been better in the bin
after all.] A drink of water at such a time,” he con-
tinues, “by carrying out the substance, which has re-
mained long enough, relieves the condition. This
probably explains why some tram-car [horse-car]
companies have found it advisable to water their
horses at midnight.”

SORE BACK.

A vast amount of needless suffering is caused to
our patient and willing servants from this disease.
Many a horse, with high feed and little work, con-
stantly suffers, in spite of physics, with raw sores, ne-
cessitating constant changes of the position of the
saddle—to make a new sore while the old one heals.
This is not only painful to the horse, but also to the
tender-hearted owner, who so pities the noble creat-
ure that he “favors” him all he can—by refusing to
have him harnessed for any one except when abso-
lutely necessary—himself going on foot to “save”

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 55

his horse; thus doing precisely the wrong thing.
The sores may thus be cured, but not the disease.
How almost surely a cure results when the animal is
by some fortunate circumstance put to steady serv-
ice. Such animals are unsound throughout; their
. tissues are formed from impure blood, the product
of indigestion. They eat, but not “in the sweat of
their brows”—and it takes a good deal of sweat (or
rather work, for the more one works, the less easily
he sweats) to prevent disease if “a good deal of
food” is eaten. It is quite possible for a horse to
become sore-backed from overwork—either relative
or positive overwork; that is, where the work is ex-
tremely hard or the diet absolutely deficient. In
the first instance the creature, working beyond his
strength, so exhausts his reserve force, that he has
not sufficient vitality to digest his food; hence he
suffers from indigestion and impure blood, the same
as the horse of leisure who eats to excess. A starva-
tion diet accomplishes the same thing, finally, only
in‘a different way; the system being under-nour-
ished from lack of food instead of any fault with the
digestive organs. It might be said that in such cases
the digestive organs become weak and disordered as
well as the general muscular system; but the

TANNER EXPERIMENT PROVED

that after an extended fast there was practically no
limit to the capacity of the digestive organs until
reparation had been made for the forty days’ cannt-
balism. He ate every two or three hours; gaining

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56 HORSES:

in less than three weeks all the weight he had lost in
his forty days’ fast. His added weight, however, put
on so rapidly, was not the sort of stuff to give him
staying power for hard muscular exertion. His de-
cline in weight being attended by complete rest of
the digestive apparatus, these organs could make up
for lost time; but, had he declined by reason of dys-
pepsia, as is the fact with a great proportion-of horses
and men who decline, z#ez, in that case, his meals
should have been light, few, and far between, or his
work brought up to balance the account, to insure a
return to health and normal weight.

When sores come readily and heal with difficulty,
or do not “stay healed,” the creature, whether man or
beast, is “scrofulous.” Indigestion and foul air are

THE CAUSES OF SCROFULA;

the blood (and consequently the tissues) being formed
second by second, or indeed constantly, from impure
material. :

Pure air is as essential as food—more so, in fact,
if we are to distinguish between the two, since either
horses or men can live for weeks without food or
days without drink, but if deprived of air for as
many minutes death is certain. If the air breathed
habitually is very impure, a scrofulous condition is
the inevitable result. An excess of food or a defi-
ciency of air will produce this disease; and, since one
or both of these causes are operative in some degree
in most, if not all—fearfully so in many—stables, we
have not to search for “ malaria,” “disease waves,”

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 57

contagion, nor any “ monkery ” of that sort, to account

' for the epidemics which sweep over the land. When
quite a percentage of all the horses in the country are

-predisposed in this way, as they surely are, it need
cause no surprise when, under stress of some favoring
condition in the atmosphere, Nature undertakes the
restoration of the diseased ones, or all of the worst
cases, and sets the mucous membranes of their noses
to eliminating the accumulated scrofulous humors—
or, in plain terms, filth.

“Rightly understood, the external symptoms of a
disease constitute a restorative process that can not
be brought to a satisfactory issue till the cause of the
evil is removed.” Skin diseases, ulcers, catarrhal dis-
orders, including

“ GLANDERS,”

in short, all blood disorders, are amply accounted for ,
in the manner described. To know the cause of an
evil is to enable us to prevent it, and is an immense
aid in our efforts to restore health when the cause
has been for any reason permitted to produce sick-
ness. But we shall always fail in our search if we
look for anything in the wrong direction; and, in
attempting to aid Nature (for that is the physician’s
sole business) in her efforts to cure, we are certain to
hinder her unless we know how the organism is af-
fected, and just what she is trying to accomplish.

In cases of disease, when from any cause the ali-
mentary apparatus is so impaired that food is trans-
formed into “humors” largely, instead of into pure

ae

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58 HORSES:

blood, about the most foolish thing I can conceive is
to keep on feeding and administer “ condition pow-
ders,” purgative medicines, or apply a seton to run off
the products; and this is continually being done all
over the country. A few days’ fast and a sufficiently
restricted diet will enable the system to cleanse it-
self—to “clean house,” so to say—by letting the
overtaxed excretories have everything their own
way, while the digestive organs obtain, meantime,
the rest they so much need.

IN KIDNEY COMPLAINTS

—which usually arise from the same cause—the kid-
neys are especially taxed in all cases of excessive ali-
mentation. Instead of giving these organs more to
do by feeding or drugging the patient, cease for a
little time; allow warm water plentifully if there is
thirst; even turn down a few quarts occasionally in
any event.* If the kidneys have struck work, they
will resume as soon as they have had a little rest.
Digitalis and niter would not have to be resorted to
but for the continued feeding, and, in any case, they
are more likely to do harm than good.
I will illustrate in a manner the

RELATION OF CONDITION TO RESERVED FORCE.

I have already given the definition of the former
term, and will here define the latter. The term

* “Of all diuretics, pure water is the best,” says Dr. Dickinson
in his celebrated work on “Bright’s Disease” (W. Howship
Dickinson, M.D.,, F.R.C.P., etc.)

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 59

“reserved force” denotes the balance of physical
power on the part, we will say, of the horse, to con-
tinue working on any given day beyond his ordinary
daily habit and without extreme weariness; or, at
least, it is here used in that sense. As this capacity
is diminished by inaction, or augmented by use, we
have the ill or the well-conditioned horse. The
amount of labor the horse can accomplish up to, or
nearly to, the point above mentioned, may be said
to constitute his reserved force—his vital bank ac-
count—except the power to continue to live and to
recover, supposing that he were to be pressed to
complete exhaustion. Strictly speaking, ¢#z7s would
represent the limit of his reserved force; but we
have in view the former definition.

Let us, for example, take the case of a gentleman’s
driving horse, little used—one, say, that has for years
seldom done more than his five to ten miles roading
every day at a “mixed” rate of speed; seldom mak-
ing more than ten, as often making only five, and
frequently remaining in his stall all day.* Let us
suppose (for we can do no more than this, nor is more
needed to illustrate my meaning) that he could make
to-day, at an ordinary “across country” or road rate,
forty miles (or twenty at a sharp pace), and, though
coming to stable pretty tired, still not overtaxed.

* A large box-stall, with a hard floor and no litter, may be
reckoned so much “to the good”; since every step the horse
takes up to a certain limit is an advantage; and to remain abso-
lutely inactive for a single day hitched in a narrow stall, is, as a
rule, a positive injury.

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60 HORSES:

How to put him in shape to make seventy-five miles
in a day at a favoring pace, say in twelve hours, or
forty in five hours, and without taxing him more
heavily than in the case first supposed—that is the:
question. Of course, there are many horses that
could not be brought up to this point, but it would
be easily within the limits of any natural roadster. So
far as condition relates to vigorous health and ongev-
zty, the limit would be better fixed at a somewhat
lower figure perhaps, providing always that the dzet
"were correspondingly restricted; for it is certain that
the horse that is fueled up, so to say, for two hun-
dred miles a week, had better make that number
than anything under it. Without a waste of words,
I will say that the principle consists in gradually in-
creasing the work up to say twenty-five to fifty miles
a day, averaging thirty-five perhaps, and at a good
average road-gait. The point is that a road-horse
may accomplish on any given day, if he is kept in
condition, two to five times his daily average—de-
pending, of course, upon what his average is.* He
may approach this for two days in succession, even,
if naturally a powerful animal, and without overtax-
ing him; providing this is followed by ample rest—
say an entire day in a box-stall, or a little walk-
round on the “off day.” In this I am not consider-

* Tt is evident that while a horse that averages ten miles a day
might be driven five times that distance upon occasion, the one
making thirty-five or forty would be limited to say eighty miles,
or about twice his average; the degree of exhaustion in the two
cases being, we will suppose, about equal.

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 61

‘ing the constitutional difference in horses, as to their
varying capacity for performing great tasks; that is
altogether another question. We know that there is
a limit to each creature’s capacity for improvement ;
but, so much has wse to do with this question, that
under a wise cultivation the reserve force, or the
power, we will say, of a scrub-horse may be so im-
proved, that he could perform easily on any given
day or week an amount of work (no reference being
made to a mile spurt, by any means) which would be
impossible for the most superior animal not in “ con-
dition,” although appearing well and moving about
glibly enough when taken out for a little drive.
This principle, though comprehended in some meas-
ure by horsemen, and governing their operations to
a degree, is, after all, very imperfectly understood ;
that is, they do not “work it for all there is in it.”

FAT AND DISEASE.

In undertaking to put a “soft”? horse into condi-
tion there will be at first a decrease in weight. This
can not be prevented (even if it were desirable) by
increasing his feed, which has all along been excess-
ive, considering his work. It will take some time
and increase of work before he will require any extra

feed, if indeed a diminution may not be desirable.

(see case given in note to Turf, Preld and Farm, p. 24).
But when he shall have been brought up to a high
condition of power, he may even have become as
plump as at the start when he was faz, and still not
have any fat about him; if so, his wezgkt will have

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62 HORSES:

considerably increased. Flesh is heavier than fat; ze, .
its specific gravity is greater.

The view has for years been forcing itself upon my
mind (and recent study and reflection upon past and
present experiences have confirmed it so unmistak-
ably that it has become a settled conviction) that the
power of the organism to withstand disease-produc-
ing causes from without depends upon the absence
of disease-producing causes within. If the latter are
’ practically avoided, man becomes practically disease-

proof; and it is no less true of the horse; and,
moreover, that in proportion to the excess of fat and
_water in the tissues of the body, there exists a sus-
ceptibility to epidemic or other diseases; while, with
bodies made strong and clean with true flesh pro-
duced by a well-balanced regimen, we are compara-
tively proof against all forms of disease.

And now comes Professor Gustave Jaeger, of Stutt-
gart, “who has proved,” says Dr. Schlegel, in a re-
cent essay, “that the specific gravity of different in-
dividuals is very different, and that the state of
health of those individuals is closely connected with
their specific gravity. The greater the weight of the
human body in comparison to the space which it oc-
cupies, z.¢., the greater its specific gravity, the more
able it is to resist epidemic diseases. Persons of [
low specific gravity are taken ill from very insignifi-
cant causes, such as a cold, and are very susceptible
to contagious diseases. Such persons have usually a
fullness of the body, and are even corpulent, but just
that which gives them a great size is useless ballast,

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 63

viz.: fat and water. These substances endow the
heaviest bodies with a comparatively low specific
gravity, giving, at the same time, to the constitu-
tion, little power of resistance.”

The German scientists are very much interested

in Dr. Jaeger’s discoveries, and have great faith in
them. No one there doubts that he has discovered
and proved beyond cavil that the power of the human
body to resist disease depends upon its specific grav-
ity, and this unquestionably is a valuable discovery
to the medical profession.
- It is manifestly true that the soundness of the tis-
sues and their specific gravity must depend upon the
quality and quantity of the ingesta, including the
kind of air habitually breathed, and upon the dalance
maintained between the amount of work performed
and of food eaten. Upon the wisdom displayed in
carrying out these views or considerations depends
the power of the organism to maintain that just
balance which we term health.

It is not essential to fix the exact

AMOUNT OF FOOD NECESSARY

for any and every horse, so that the owner may
weigh and measure exactly in proportion to the work
or \éxercise his horse is doing. Horses differ some-
what as to their needs (less, however, than is usually
supposed)—some working harder than others to ac-
complish the same service—but it is entirely out of
reason for a horse averaging only fifty to seventy-
five miles buggy-riding a week to consume as much

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64. HORSES:

grain as a grocer’s horse pulling an express wagon
one hundred and fifty miles, besides taking the fam-—
ily out for a drive every Sunday perhaps. And yet
the latter performing all this keeps plump, round,
and “feeling good”’ throughout the year, on say nine
quarts, often less, of oats a day; while often enough
the horse of leisure consumes twelve quarts of grain
and possibly as much hay as the worker. For a time
he may maintain a fine appearance, but we seldom ob-
serve instances of such animals remaining rgund and
handsome as well as spirited to what is usually re;
garded a ripe old age—say eighteen to twenty years;
but why™ot thirty-hve to forty? But oftener than
otherwise, as already remarked, these animals begin to
decline, grow seedy (dyspeptic), and, at the age of eight
or ten years, become worthless as family horses, where
appearance counts for more than, or is regarded as
synonymous with, condition. Out of the ranks of this
class, too, come the victims to acute disease; a few
“attacks” of this sort (unless finally fatal) preceding
a general decline.

As a general thing our people use too much hay.
It is the prevalent idea everywhere that a horse may
have “all the hay he will eat up clean,” whether he
is a worker or not. Thus he is at the mercy of his
appetite, which will often lead one horse not averag-
ing one hour of hard work a day to eat double the
hay eaten by another that works six, eight, or ten
hours. “ Horses ain’t alike,” satisfies the average man
when this question comes up. Now, if a horse is doing
steady hard work, as, for example, hauling heavy loads

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 65

for eight to ten hours a day, and is sufficiently fed, he
will maintain a more nearly perfect condition than is
possible for the horse whose exercise is very light and
irregular. The latter is certain to become disordered
_ unless sufficiently restricted not only as to grain, but
hay also. For instance, take the hard-working
draught horse that does six days hard work every
week. Ten pounds of hay and six quarts of
whole corn for a horse of this kind weighing, say,
1,200 pounds, would be a generous and ample ration:
the breakfast consisting of three pounds of hay and
three quarts of corn, and at night, two hours after
quitting work, seven pounds of hay followed by three
quarts of corn. The hay might all be fed at night,
and only the three quarts of corn in the morning;
the horse in this case filling himself with hay at
night; then having his three quarts of corn (or its
equivalent in other grain), after which he will lie
pretty much all night contentedly, finishing his hay
at early morn, when he will be ready to do justice to
his small feed of grain. Of course, many will still
hold to the three-meals system, but we are improv-
ing upon the old practice by giving only a light feed
of grain at noon; no hay, except morning and night.
I can not too strongly urge, however, and especially
for hard-working horses, a fair trial of the two-mea's
plan, with the principal meal at night, first allowing
a liberal time for rest.

In my own city I find that one truckman working
five horses, feeds each, regardless of size or work,
eight quarts daily of corn and oats. One pair, weigh-

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66 HORSES:

ing 1,350 pounds each, and hauling heavy loads; the

other three animals about 1,000 pounds each, and

doing light work—all fed alike! In this stable, last
year, there were three cases of distemper—the three’
lightly-worked, but equally fed, animals were the vic-
tims! Does this not afford much more than a hint?
In the stable next door are seven horses, weighing
about 1,400 pounds each, and doing ten hours’ hard

work every day, and yet they eat but six quarts of
grain each—four quarts of corn (two quarts morning
and night), and two quarts of oats, the latter the only
feed at noon. These horses are in splendid condition ~
all the time: they ook fat, but they are not so, being

filled out with solid muscle. Another pair, one of
the city teams, young horses, four and five years old,

weighing 1,500 pounds each, have but six quarts of

oats a day, and present an elegant appearance. A

young, growing animal, other things equal, requires

more than an old one. Indeed, the digestzve powers

of any creature correspond very closely to his muscu-

lar powers. Hence, as old age and decrepitude come

on, the food ration, as well as the work ration, re-

quires to be curtailed. So long, however, as any ani-

mal or any man can and does perform his full measure

of work, he can and will digest his full measure of
food—providing, always, that he has a full measure

of fresh air twenty-four hours every day!

If the foregoing be the ration for a draught horse
working from morning till, night, how much should
be allowed for the healthy maintenance of a horse
weighing 900 or g§0 pounds, standing in the stable.

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET, 67

nearly all day, and only taken out for an hour’s
drive, or possibly making on an average five miles a
day? Without doubt five pounds of hay and four
quarts of oats (or two and a half of corn) would be
more than he would be able to digest. Probably
nice bright barley or rye straw would be much bet-
ter than the hay in all such cases, as well as for
young and growing animals; the grain ration being
sufficiently increased, say fifty per cent. Thousands
of horses in private stables—horses whose work is far
from light—are kept thoroughly nourished and in
prime condition on four to six quarts of oats, with
liberal rations of hay, while other horses look pinched
on double the quantity of grain, though taking no
more, perhaps less exercise. In fact, such horses are
victims to excess in diet, and their owners can not
comprehend the fact, but would sooner increase than-
diminish their feed. Three times the work or one-
third the food would in the course of a few months
(chronic diseases'can never be suddenly cured) im-
prove the appearance of many of these underworked
horses who are swallowing ten to twelve quarts of
grain every day.

This affords a hint and a very useful one to such
as desire to study the question. The old saying,

“ONE’S MEAT ANOTHER’S POISON,”

as usually applied, is most mischievous and misleading.
The fact is that horses, like men, are when at leisure
(if not always) natural gourmands, and the harder all
creatures work, the less applicable this term is in de-

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68 HORSES :

scribing their dietetic characteristics; for the more we
work, the more we must and are every way entitled to
eat. When working up to one’s full capacity and ex-
posed to the vicissitudes of a cold climate, then, and
then only, is the appetite anything of a guide as to
the amount of food best calculated to promote health.
With rare exceptions horses will never restrict their
appetites, but will continue to eat until they have
largely exceeded a physiological ration, whether of
hay or grain. Whenever an exception to this rule
has to be noted, it may be depended upon that the ani-
mal is already somewhat clogged, and, in consequence,
is slightly “ off his feed.” Some horses are, it is true,
less gluttonous than most of the race; but to the last
one, especially when doing light work, they will eat
too much if permitted; or, in other words, they will
get ahead of their digestion ; and are, therefore, predis-
posed to the influenza cure or to the pink-eye cure, or
some other of Nature’s methods of eliminating disease.
We know that there is no safety in permitting any
horse to have free access to the grain bin; but if he
has such liberty with the hay-mow, or has hay in his
crib most of the time, which is the same thing, he
will certainly become dyspeptic in time, or at any
rate will keep himself so stuffed out (unless he is so
overfed with grain as to have little appetite for hay),
as to be unfit for a free and easy gait on the road
when first taken out.

It is no easy matter to insure the health of the
“sedentary” horse. The fact is, he, like his master,
is designed by Nature for action, not for a sedentary

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET, 69

life, and, as elsewhere remarked, the only possible
offset for abstinence from exercise is a corresponding
restriction in food, upon the same principle with
which we treat the steam engine; viz., the more
power required, the more fuel burned. Two impor-
tant points of difference may be here noted between
the dead and the living machines: (1) the former
when not employed requires zo fuel; the latter is :
never totally unemployed, strictly speaking; since the
entire organism is in a measure at work, and, therefore,
requires some fuel (food). (2) The dead engine may be
fed to its full capacity, though exerting no power be-
yond the more rapid revolution of its driving-wheels,
and if in consequence a part gives out, it may be re-
placed as good as new, and this replacement may go
on indefinitely; as with the old revolutionary gun,
with its “new lock, stock, and barrel,” but not so
with the living machine. Full rations for light work
is in direct contravention of Nature’s law, and the
penalty is inevitable—a shortening of life to a great
degree in every instance, and its speedy stamping out
in a vast many cases.

In any event a horse that eats the equivalent of
five pounds of hay and six quarts of oats daily, should
take an amount of exercise equivalent to fifteen to
twenty miles’ roading at the rate of six to eight miles
an hour at least, or say 125 miles every week, even
if it has to be done with no more than the usual
regard for the rule I have laid down as to work-
ing ‘on a full stomach. That is to say, of the two
rules, viz., (1) ample exercise to balance diet, and (2)

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70 HORSES:

no work directly after eating, the first is the most
important; but the aim should be to regard both
rules as closely as possible. So far as the above ra-
tion is exceeded, there should be a corresponding in-
crease in the amount of work performed.

THE BEST FEED.

For ordinary purposes hay and oats form a com-
plete diet, and, as all know, these are the staples. Iam
satisfied that the less change or variety there is in
the feed the better. The stomach of any creature
becomes adapted to the regular food, and can digest
and assimilate far better than where it has one kind
to-day and another to-morrow and another the next,
or greatly differing quantities of the same. This
principle is very generally admitted; but many still
harbor the idea that some change is essential, as an
occasional change from oats to corn, and vice versa.
The tendency of this is to produce indigestion, and
there is undoubtedly--though it ‘may not be ob-
served—less perfect digestion in every case for the
first few days on the new diet.* The reason usually
given for such a change is that they “eat sharper”
or havea sharper appetite in consequence. This alone
would go far to condemn the practice, for there will
never be a lack of perfect appetite forthe regular diet,
except as the result of getting a little too much of it. It

* Cows at pasture will generally shrink their milk to some de-
gree at first if a ration of grain is added to their diet as well as
when their feed is lessened. The reason is that the stomach has
to adapt itself to the digestion of a new food.

o

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET, 71

is truly enough said of some horses that “ oats don’t
do them any good,” or much good, to say the least.
These animals are so greedy that they swallow their
oats with but very little mastication, and hence there
is a failure in digestion. For such horses whole corn
is the only proper grain, and in many instances even
this should be given

ON THE COB.

This is by far the best way to feed corn in any case,
more especially with old horses. Fed thus it is sure
to get the most complete mastication, so essential to
digestion and the extraction of the entire nutriment.
F. D. Curtis, of Kirby homestead, and many others
speak highly in favor of this feed from actual experi-
ence. It is almost the exclusive grain fed —and
sometimes almost the exclusive feed—in the West
and Southwest. I believe that in many cases the use
of the cob itself, ground with the corn, is a great ad-
vantage—furnishing bulk, and some nutriment—es-
pecially for horses of light work.

FLATULENCE—CRIBBING.

The idea prevails very generally that a horse be-
comes flatulent by swallowing air; and, if he is a
“cribber,” it is thought to be a sure case. Now it is
about as difficult a matter for one to take air into the
stomach as food into the lungs—perhaps I may say

-that it is even more so. Certainly the latter is one
of the rarest circumstances; the former is well-nigh
impossible, and, I believe, never occurs. It is not

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72 HORSES:

Nature’s way of doing things. On the other hand,
it is most fortunate that she does try to help us out
of a bad fix, first, by causing the generation of gas
through fermentation, when too much food has been
swallowed or taken under wrong conditions; and
second, by arranging for its escape by one outlet or
another.

The crib-biter is a dyspeptic without doubt. It is
not positively known that this practice is pursued
for the purpose of facilitating the eructation of gas
from the stomach, though many believe this to be
so, and there are certainly good grounds for this be-
lief. The practice may arise from the uneasiness oc-
casioned by the irritation and discomfort of a disor-
dered stomach.

“We conclude,” says the Prairie Farmer, “that it
generally arises in horses in poor condition, and that,
in the first instance, the habit is acquired from an
effort of nature to get rid of the gases collected in
the stomach. We have not known a fat horse to
take to crib-biting by standing next to another af-
fected with it, but a lean horse that is difficult to
get fat may doso. This habit when once acquired,
will seldom be left off, but the same diseased action
and tendency to flatulency will still continue. <A
greatly improved regimen is the only hope. We do
not think that horses inhale the air in crib-biting.
We consider it an effort to expel air. We never saw
a horse make a gulp or attempt to swallow air.
Whether any air is expelled from the stomach in
crib-biting we can not determine, but think there is

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Pat:
THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 73

some portion, and that the principal noise is from
the fauces. The construction of the fauces and
stomach of a horse renders the eructation of air a dif-
ficult process, and we have seen horses nearly choked
by a sudden rush of gas up the cesophagus, but this
effect was probably caused by the noxious quality
of the gas. The distention of the stomach of the
animal in crib-biting depends, we consider, on the
gases given out from the food, as a proof of which
the hindering a crib-biter from his habit will not al-
ways prevent this distention. We all know that
many persons of sedentary habits are peculiarly lia-
ble to dyspepsia and flatulency, and we must all
have experienced the unpleasant sensation attend-
ing it. How are they relieved? By exercise or by
giving an agent to dispel those gases.”
_ Since an “agent” is very inexpensive, at least in
immediate cash-outlay, and less bothersome than to
spend one’s time in simply exercising an animal that
has no steady employment, it is often resorted to; but
the more dosing he gets, the worse he is off finally.
In my opinion, cribbing is neither a habit nor a
vice, but rather a symptom of disease. I have never
known a case of a horse that fully satisfied my views
as to condition to take up or continue the practice
of crib-biting, though, as the writer quoted says,
horses given to it seldom leave it off. But this is, in
my opinion, because the disease which gives rise to
it is allowed to continue by a continuance of the
same general regimen which caused it. A chronic
disease is usually the result of chronic disobedience

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74 HORSES:

to natural laws—a continued protest, wherein nat-
ure’s patience under abuse is aptly illustrated. Sed-
entary men and sedentary horses, z.e., those who do
not work steadily a good portion of the day, are gen-
erally subject to flatulence; and this is because they
have an appetite for liberal rations, relatively speak- '
ing (and often positively), notwithstanding the fact
that the said rations are not “earnéd by the sweat.
of the brow’! Such individuals are relieved by a
change of regimen, as working more or eating less,
perhaps both. It is easier to prevail upon a man to
take more exercise than to induce him to take less ~
food ; and, of the two, the former is far the best. It
is the same with the horse in all respects. If the
change is carried far enough, if the work is long and
steady enough to balance the diet, and if the food is
of the right sort and taken at proper times, there
will be entire exemption from indigestion and con-
sequently from flatulence (perhaps not immediately,
but finally), and, in the case of the cribbing horse,
the “habit” will be eventually dropped. Since,
however, it is not practicable to give all horses suffi-
cient work or exercise to keep them in prime condi-
tion, and since they are rarely restricted in diet to
correspond—for we are inevitably tempted to over-
feed—few cribbers are ever cured. The horse is will-
ing to work early and late. He is ambitious to eat
largely, even though deprived of the work which is
equally essential to health and (prolonged) life.

Says a recent writer (and this experience is not
unique by any means): “We have observed that

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 75

when crib-biters are on long, slow, regular work, they
crib less. We have seen many cases in which crib-
biters being debarred from their habit, have fallen
away in flesh, and others in which the animal has
been much more liable to colic; and we think that
in many crib-biters the habit is necessary to the
health ef the animal. We usually see crib-biters
thin, but we think that proceeds more from a dis-
eased action of the digestive organs than from the
effect of the habit, and their being poor is no proof
that crib-biting makes them so. When a crib-biter
continues in good health and condition, if he can be
kept apart from other horses, we see no reason why
he should be debarred from cribbing; and, indeed,
we think that, generally speaking, it would prove in-
jurious to him.”

I would advise a trial of corn on the cob for crib-
bing horses. This gives them honest gnawing and
less excuse, need, or desire for that which works mis-
chief. Besides, this form of diet is in other ways
good for whatever ails them. It is eaten slowly,
masticated thoroughly, and will, therefore, be more
perfectly digested—that is, the quantity that can
possibly be digested; or, in other words, the amount
suited to their needs. The amount necessary
will be much less in this form than if shelled for
them. Little hay (if nice, clean straw is available)
with this feed for the horse of light work is a good
rule. In nothing I have said have I designed to en-
courage insufficient feeding. Every creature that is
“permitted to live should be furnished with

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76 HORSES:

PLENTY TO EAT AND DRINK;

but “enough is de¢ter than a feast,” and it is no kind-
ness to dumb animals to overfeed and underwork
them, even if we do thus serve ourselves. If we our-
selves choose disease-producing habits, we have no
right to make that choice’ for the creatures who are
at our mercy.

THE HORSE-OF-ALL-WORK.

“What kind of a horse should the all-purpose
horse be?” was asked of Colonel Coleman, of II-
linois, and he replied, “It should be a horse sixteen
hands high, with good serviceable body and limbs,
and then the more style he has the better. If he
carries a fine head on a well-arched neck; if he has a.
long bushy tail and an active way of going at the
walk or the trot or the run even, all the better.
Such a horse is large enough, and not too large.
He is just the size for the plow or the wagon, for the
saddle or the buggy or the carriage. He is ready and
suitable for any job of work on the farm or off of it.
If he is for sale his owner will find plenty of buyers.
If he has the size and qualities spoken of, and is in
addition trotting-bred, so much the better, for he
will command so much the greater price.

“The horse ‘Capt. Lewis’ was taken from the
plow last spring, had never had any training, and
trotted in 2:20 before the first season was over,
and $20,000 has been refused for him. St. Julien,
with a record of 2:114, used to be worked on the

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 27.

farm and driven in a milk wagon, and $40,000 would
not buy him. Occident, with a record of 2:16},
used to be driven in a sand-cart and was most un-
mercifully abused, and numbers of such instances
could be given to show the value of trotting-bred an-
cestry [and of

PLENTY OF SOLID WORK

to form a splendid muscular system, the Colonel
might have added]. But if the thorough-bred
or running-bred stallion be preferred, and has
the size and qualities desired, use him. Have
you never seen a model stallion or model mare,
with size, style, and beauty that just filled the
bill? Secure such or breed to such and you get
such, for ‘like begets like.’ Select your brood
mares, after securing the proper stallion, ever keep-
ing size, style, color, action, disposition, and sound-
ness in view, and you can not make a mistake either
in breeding farm horses, carriage horses, trotting
horses, running horses, or pack horses. This breed-
ing to the common scrub horses is costing the far-
mers millions.”

TURNING HORSES TO GRASS.

It is a popular idea that a horse kept up on a plank
floor and fed on dry feed for a considerable time
needs “a run to grass,” and will be improved in con-
dition by such a change, says the Watzonal Live Stock
Fournal, It is not generally sufficiently considered
that such a change is violent; rendered so by the

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78 HORSES:

sudden change from dry, nutritious food to which
the system had become accustomed, and has done
well on, to a surfeit of grass, which distends the di-
gestive organs, ferments, unduly loosening the bowels,
and taking off firm flesh which can hardly be restored
under a month or two of careful feeding and exer-
cising.

Changes in the food given to farm animals, with
proper restrictions, are proper to be made, but such
‘as are made through recommendations by ignorant
persons, no sound reasons existing for them, are not
likely to prove beneficial. A horse is frequently
turned out for the purpose, in the language of the
groom, of “ taking the fever out of him,” while, if he
has been properly cared for, and driven with discre-
tion, he will have no fever in him. If he exhibits
feverish symptoms, a day’s fast, or a little less food
and more fresh air, with more exercise in many cases,
and less work in others, will very speedily restore the
balance. But to administer physic, change his feed,
or turn him out to grass, on the assumption that it is
good for the animal to be occasionally “ loosened
up,” is wrong. .

The horse-owner himself would not be likely, when
in the best possible state of health—the digestion
good and the muscles firm—to listen to a suggestion
that he leave off his bread, meat, potatoes, and con-
fine himself to greens and water for a month or two.
This might do very well in midsummer, as a measure
for counteracting the mischief of enforced and abso.
lute idleness or lack of exercise; but all such changes,

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 79

whether in man or beast, disturb the functions, dimin-
ish the proportion of red globules in the blood, render
the muscular fibers flabby, that they tire soon on ex-
ertion, overstimulate the kidneys and skin, because
these emunctories are called upon to release from the
system an excess of fluid, green grass being largely
made up of water. This excessive action impairs, lets
down below the healthy standard, and it takes time,
feed, and care to replace wasted tissues and restore
lost tone.

But it is not alone the sudden change referred to
which causes risk. The horsé accustomed to a dry
stable, protected from wet above and beneath, is
poorly prepared to stay out in the cold rains of
autumn, much less to lie in the wet. This exposure
makes a greater impression than it otherwise would
because of the change from grain to grass, the power
of resistance being lessened in proportion as the
blood has parted with its globules. Loss of condi-
tion and a staring coat come from this exposure, and
if the horse be at all susceptible to lung trouble he
may contract this. Hence, for these reasons, the
idea of turning a horse out to get him into condition
is a very erroneous one.

If, for any reason—and this should not be an imag-
inary one—the horse is thought to require green
food, or a change, for a time, from the habitual dry
grain, then give him bran mashes and roots. But
the moment this course is entered upon the system
is weakened, the effect being precisely upon the mus-
cles of the horse as upon the steel spring when the

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80 HORSES:

temper is taken out. The English farmer feeds roots,
not because of any supposed high nutritive value, as
they are well known to be made up of three-fourths
and over of water, but because, in the case of fatten-
ing animals, especially cattle and sheep, roots main-
tain, in stock confined in the stall or pen, a condition
akin to that enjoyed while upon grass. But these
reasons do not at all apply to the horse ; in fact, this
is precisely what a “ving creature, whether man or
beast, should avoid—only dmg animals, animals, that
is to say, designed for slaughter, and in whose cases
the question of sound health for next year and coming
years does not enter into the account, are subjects
for fattening,—for if, while kept either for work or
speed, he is made to accumulate fat from soft or
green food, in proportion to the fat so laid on, in that
proportion does he part with his ability to do bodily
labor. The less changes in his diet the better. He
will never lack for appetite unless he gets ahead of
his stomach; and then give it time enough and it
will catch up!

But very few know anything of the value of oil-
cake meal for horses. Its use in fattening fine-bred
cattle has long been common, and its value fully ap-
preciated. The same can be said of swine, for no
other feed will cause a pig to gain, put him in show
condition so speedily, and give him a glossiness of
coat not obtainable in any other way so well as linseed
oil-cake meal. What oil-cake will do for cattle and pigs
it will do equally well for horses. A horse appear-
ing to be bound up, as this term is understood in the

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 81

stable, can, by the use of this feed, be relieved of this
condition as promptly as by turning out to grass, in-
volving none of the contingencies which attend the
latter, the full strength and vigor being maintained
in the meantime. Nothing so quickly improves the
coat of the horse as the use of a little oil-cake iricor-
porated with his feed, while turning out to grass in
sun and rain fades and roughens the hair in a week’s
time. In addition to this, oil-cake loosens the bowels,
the degree to which this is done being entirely under
control, while the effect of a run on grass is largely a
matter of chance.

THE FEEDING OF ROAD HORSES.

Eight years ago I began to practice medicine in
the country (says “an Orange County doctor,” in the
Tribune), and was advised by my father-in-law, a phy-
sician of thirty years’ experience, to feed my horse

_ but twice a day. The proposition was indignantly

spurned; I ate three times daily; why should not my
horse? At last prevailed upon, I made a trial of the
system, and after some years’ experience am more
than satisfied. I can most heartily endorse all that
Dr. Page wrote—in the recent article on “ Horse Hy-
giene”’—and would respectfully submit the following
rules for feeding road horses: (1) Feed as near 6 A.M.
and 6 P.M. as possible; or in winter at 5 P.M. if pre-
ferred. (2) Vary your feed in kind from time to time;
oats, however, always being the staple. (3) Vary the
quantity of feed according to the work. (4) Always
shake the dust and settlings out of your hay, and use

4"

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82 HORSES:

only a very moderate quantity. (5) Never drive your
horse, if you can help it, until he has stood at least
two hours after feeding and watering, and never feed
or water until he has rested at least one hour.

[It would always be safe—better, indeed—to mod-
ify this rule in so far as to permit of a small draught of
water, if the animal is thirsty. However hot or tired
he may be, a little water will do good, not harm, and
it would often be cruel to refuse it. If, however, he
be permitted to drink his fill at such a time, he might
take more than the organism needed; enough to
cause discomfort, even serious disorder. ]

Now a few comments. RULE 1. Feed your horse
in the morning all the grain he will eat clean; that is,
the ration that he will finish with a keen relish, day
after day,—not what he might be inclined to swallow,
say, to-day, but which would make him logy for the
next six hours, or cloy him and prevent a sharp ap-
petite for the next meal. When he has eaten it, offer
him a little hay; my rule is, as much as you can pack
twice in a water-bucket. Too much hay bloats a horse
and makes his wind short, and may produce heaves.
Let your hay be clean; shake out the dust and pick
out the large weeds. After he has finished his hay
he may be groomed and watered, and two hours after
he has had his grain he is ready for the road. His
food has been at least partially digested, and passed
to credit of the blood, and thence to the muscular
and nervous system; and instead of a load of crude
substances to carry, he feels an invigoration of fresh
vitality supplied to his system. Now, the horse so

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 83

treated and driven upon the road needs no feeding
until night; further, he is better not fed. If your
driving-at noon or near it offers an intermission, put
him in the stable, take off the harness and let him
stand an-hour. Then offer him water, and in an hour
again rub him off, harness, and drive on.

RULE 2. We prefer oats as a basis. In winter a
little corn with it, perhaps, and sometimes a little
wheat bran. In winter corn and oats ground to-
gether—no rye—or a little flaxseed meal with oats is
excellent. Ground feed (corn, oats, and rye) makes
fat on the ribs especially, and produces less muscle
than oats.

RULE 3. If you jog your horse six miles a day, he
does not need half the feed he will if you push him
hard forty or fifty miles, as I frequently do. I feed
eight quarts every day, ten if the trips are very
many, and twelve or sixteen if the trips are many and ©
long. Finally, let him rest at night before you feed
him, at least one hour. And if he is very weary a
two-hours rest is better; then water and feed. I
prefer my night feed to exceed by a trifle that of the
morning. This regimen prevents all possibility of
foundering, and the horse has a better appetite.

I. W. Horton, truckman for the agricultural imple-
ment house of R. H. Allen & Co., Water Street,
New York City, found a good deal of trouble,
delay, and loss, as do all truckmen, occasioned by
the noon feed. The teams would not only lose
an hour during the best part of the day, but, by
losing their places in the line during a rush at the

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84 - HORSES:

wharves, etc., there was a further and often great loss..
Besides, over and above the unpreventable delay, it
gave plenty of opportunity for dishonest loafing: the
excuse, “ Had to wait my turn,” was always in order,
and there was no way of questioning it. A noted
horseman suggested the two-meal system, saying:
“Tt is always safe; your horses will stand their work
better by leaving out the noon meal, and you will
avoid all unnecessary loss of time. It is just the rem-
edy you require; and, moreover, will prevent disease.”
The plan was tried and found to work admirably. The
best-conditioned animals maintained their condition,
the others gained up under the treatment, and there
were none to complain, except such of the men as
wanted an opportunity to shirk. Of course, when
truck teams have abundant rest, at odd times, dur-
ing the day, they have no occasion for rest at any
special hour when work is “rushing.” In any event
the ves¢, at noon, when horses are actually tired, is
far better than a feed, for reasons heretofore given,
and which must be self-evident to all expert physiol-
ogists, certainly evident to all observing men who
have given the subject any special thought in connec-
tion with even a brief trial.

In summer, especially, this rule should be applied,
to prevent all danger of exhaustion, or so-called sun-
stroke. :

DIET OF TRAM-WAY HORSES.

“Tt takes a tough horse to stand horse-car service,”
said the head man at the Third Avenue Horse R.R.

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 85.

Company’s stables. The feed here is eight pounds of
hay and seventeen and a half pounds of corn and oat-
meal, or between seven and eight quarts, the meal
mixed with the cut and wet hay. These animals are,
to be sure, fed three times a day; but the head man
acknowledged that it is impossible, under the three-
meal-a-day system, to avoid feeding when the animals
are neither heated nor soon to be put to their hard
work, though such avoidance would be a great ad-
vantage. The proposed system would solve this
problem. But a suggestion to that effect elicited
from the kind-hearted overseer the rejoinder: “A
horse wants feeding as often as a man!” True
enough; but here comes in the fact that hundreds of
thousands of men—workers, too, not drones—have,
for preventive or curative purposes, adopted the two-
meal plan, and the sufficiency of this regimen has
never been disproved. Many, indeed, have been
forced to feed themselves thus, in order to enable
them to continue their arduous labors. It is not
what any creature swallows, but what he digests and
assimilates, that sustains him.

It must be remembered that the horse and the
man, although constituted very much alike, so far as
their zeeds are concerned, speaking with regard to
food, differ widely in their mental and emotional or-
ganizations. One has appetite only; the other appe-
tite and reason—perhaps. A horse, jogging along the
road, or working at the plow, will not have a mind
occupied with visions of a dinner “on time.” He be-
comes thirsty, as does his driver, and at sight of water

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86 HORSES:

evinces a strong inclination for a draught. So, too,
at the sight of food, he, like the man, will exhibit his
desire for a lunch, in season or out—that is, for a little
palate-tickling, whether food be needed or not. If
his habit is to eat three meals, he will take four, and, if
it is presented, take the second three hours after the
first, instead of saying, like a man, “No, thank you,
it isn’t my time!” Thousands of us have learned
from experience that we enjoy more, and are better-
nourished by waiting full time. But as the “time”
draws near, we begin to think about it, and thus
work up an appetite, times without number, for a
dinner which we do not need, but which is certain-
to make us feel uncomfortable. We find that thou-
sands. of men have adopted the two-meal, hundreds,
indeed, the one-meal-a-day system, and find a great
advantage in so doing. The principle that a man
may adopt, from knowledge and conviction in the
matter of his own diet, he may also extend to his
horse; the latter does not require the convincement
of his reason or intellect in the premises, but readily
accepts his needed food in four, three, or two install-
ments. In either case he will (on the four, as well as
on the two-meal plan) accept a lunch at any hour, un-
less he has, from excess or some other cause, become
“off his feed.” But, given enough (and this he
should always have, to be sure), he will thrive and
enjoy all that his nature makes possible. Give him
too much (whether at two or more meals) and he
must suffer for it. He can digest as much on the
two-meal plan as on the three. Just as he can accom-

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| THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 87

plish as much labor in a year, working ten hours a day,
as he can by working fifteen, probably more. He can
digest as much food as he needs and no more. What-
ever the number of his meals, he can not asszmilate
any more than his system requires for the work he
performs. Hence, it becomes a matter of the owner’s’
judgment as to when and how often. Whoever tries
this plan on himself, or on his horse, will not fail to
be convinced of its sufficiency not only, but, as before
remarked, of its advantages over any other system.
For horses that work hard throughout the entire day,
I repeat that the rfoon feed is altogether unphysio-
logical. It is especially dangerous in summer. The
time, however short, spent in eating, if devoted en-
tirely to rest would do good. The food counteracts
the advantages of the rest, and generates heat. A
man who gives such a mid-day meal and then places
a double-deck sun-shade on the top of his horse’s
head to prevent “sunstroke,” may think he is doing
the proper thing; but “it would make a horse laugh”
if he knew what the thing was put there for!

MR. PLANT’S TESTIMONY.

Mr. T. J. Plant, at present assistant Superintendent
at the American Express Co.’s Stables, 48th Street
and Lexington Avenue, affirms that for fourteen years
he drove express teams, feeding his horses but twice
aday. “There was no time to feed at noon,” he ex-
plained. The work was pretty sharp driving, none
of our wagons were light, and the hours were long,

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88 HORSES:

“but our horses kept in splendid condition all the
time.” ~
ANOTHER CASE.

Another young man, driver of an express team
(rather an “unwilling witness,” since he “didn’t be.
lieve in the two-meal plan,”’) told me that he was once
connected with a firm using over thirty horses that,
as they learned subsequently, were cheated out of
the dinners that were bargained and paid for. “We
never could get one o’ them hosses fat,’ said he.
“They always looked lank during, the day.” “How
were they ‘on the muscle’?” I asked. “ Well, you
bet they never went back on us that way. They al-
ways acted spirited, and could pull anything they
were hitched to!” “Were they ever sick?” I in-
quired. “No, it is a fact, that we didn’t have a sick
hoss all summer long, not even off his feed foraday!"”*
As every one knows, it is quite unusual for that num-
ber of horses to pass an entire season without a case
of sickness. For example: At the stable referred to
on page 92, I asked, “Have you other sick horses?”
“Qh, yes, quite anumber. There are always some,—
colds, coughs, catarrhal fevers, off their feed, etc.” To
this the doctor made answer: “The best remedy for
a horse that don’t want to eat is to hitch him in a
clean stall,—have no bedding, even—and let him wait
till he will eat hay sharp. Then go slow with your
feed!”

We find, from visiting a large number of

* They were well fed morning and night at home. 4

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 89

FIRST-CLASS STABLES,

‘both private and boarding—including Mr. Vander-
bilt’s, Mr. Bonner’s, and Mr. Work’s, that it is the
invariable rule to feed hay* only at night,—generally
at 5 or 6 o'clock, and from 6 to 8 lbs., according to
the size of the animal, and the work: the harder the
work the less hay, usually.

For grain, oats is the standard; in fact almost the
exclusive feed. The daily ration is about the same,
nominally, in all the stables visited, viz.: “ Nine to
twelve quarts, according to the work.” But in al-
most every instance, we found that a “dose” of
some kind, once or twice, generally twice, a week was
deemed necessary, “to keep ’em cleared out,” “to
cool their bowels,” “to prevent ’em from getting
clogged up,” “or else they’d get constipated,” etc.,
etc., proving, as it seems to me, conclusively, that the
diet exceeds the needs of the organism, or, in other
words, that the sound old physiological mandate, viz.,
“In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread,” is
constantly and well-nigh universally violated!

THE ETERNAL MASH.

True, the “dose” referred to above is oftener than
otherwise a mash; but what is a ““mash”? Why,
practically, what our best physiologists and hygienists
are now sounding the alarm against, viz.: unmasti-
cated and unmasticable food! At this time, when

* Stage and railway horses are fed cut hay with meal three times
aday. We believe that this custom might be improved upon.

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our soundest dietitians, among whom Dr. Oswald
takes first rank, are warning the people against the
soft-food-and-slops nuisance (more especially for the
sick or ailing), and pointing to the better fed animals,
as the horse, for example, that chews the dry grain,
and thus accomplishes the only real mastication such
as the starchy foods demand on pain of indigestion,—
surely at such a time it would seem unwise in the
extreme to carry this most unnatural practice into
the stable, or to continue it if already there! When
a horse is not in condition to take a natural diet—z.z.,
to chew his own food and to warm and moisten it
naturally—prepared food of any sort will do him harm
and not good. The stomach can not-do the work of
the mouth, nor, indeed, its own, when the first neglect
has been suffered.

AT MR. BONNER’S STABLES

we ascertained that this noted horse fancier’s animals,
when doing fair work, received nine quarts of oats
daily, three quarts at a feed. On any day, or succes.
sion of days, that an animal is not well-exercised, the
night feed of oats is omitted. The total feed of hay is
about 6 lbs., and is given about 5:30P.M. The grain
follows at 7 P.M.

Mr. Bonner’s horses are watered before, not after
eating. , =

The only criticism we have to offer in this connec-
tion is, that the fine condition of these animals would
be maintained with less inconvenience, less occasion
for special care during “ working hours ”’—that is, dur-

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. gI

ing the entire day, when a horse is liable to be called
upon at any moment for a sharp drive—by feeding
only morning and night. Then he may be speeded
at any hour without danger.

While at

MR. BELLINGER’S STABLE

a boarder drove in, just from the Fleetwood races,
having driven his mare the nine miles at a pretty
sharp pace. The hour was 12:15 P.M. “Give her
two quarts of oats,” said he—“ xo more,—and let her
breathe first. No water!” Now this was a small
feed, of course, but we think the gentleman made a
mistake, since he directed the mare to be ready “on
the floor at 1:15” (just one hour), for the return
drive to Fleetwood. <A few swallows of water imme-
diately, and more half an hour later, with no grain at
all, would surely have put the mare in the best pos-
sible condition for any amount of work during the
afternoon.

AT MR. FRANK WORK’S STABLE

it was found that the usual w2zter diet was about six
quarts of oats daily, which is less by three quarts
than the summer feed. Mr. Curley, the polite and
efficient head man, holds very sensible views upen
feeding: “In summer, the horses are out of the stable
more, do a good deal more work, sweat more, etc.,
and require more food.” In the winter, on the other
hand, with light work, and in warm stables, there is
less waste, and, of course, less food can be digested.

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AT SIXTH AVENUE HORSE-RAILROAD STABLES.

“ Twenty-one pounds mixed feed a day is our feed,
in summer; in winter, more,”* said the brusque but
polite manager. “Fourteen Ibs. oatmeal and 7 lbs.
hay. In winter, we use corn and oats.”

THE VETERINARY PRACTICE OF TO-DAY

corresponds very closely to the medical practice of
one hundred years ago. Then bleeding was constantly
resorted to in fevers, and, indeed, for most anything.
There are still some doctors who practice it, but only
the most ignorant, and in remote districts. But to-day
this infamous practice is current, even in our largest
cities, in the treatment of horses! I could hardly
have credited this had I not myself seen a case in one.
of the largest stables in New York City. The veteri-
nary surgeon in question is in regular practice, a really
bright man, and under proper instruction would make
his mark in the world. Yet I witnessed him perform
two of the most barbarous operations upon a foun-
dered horse, and when the depleting effects were
plainly exhibited, he pointed to them with pride, as
being “just what he aimed to accomplish!” It was
just what he no doubt did accomplish every time.
The history of the case, fully bearing out all that I
have said about “soft” and “ ill-conditioned”’ horses
was this: The horse was a noble young fellow, a
green one from the West, purchased from one of the

* These horses, unlike those in private stables, work as many
hours, and have even harder work in winter than in summer. ;

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 93

best-known sale stables in this city. Fat as butter, he
was taken to his new home, one of the largest and
best stables in New York City. There they were
afraid to put him directly at steady work, but they were
not afraid to feed him! Although designing to feed
rather light as compared with their old, hard-working
horses, they still managed to founder him with food.
The veterinary was called in (from the sale stable),
and I witnessed the treatment. With every feeling
of respect for the gentleman’s good intentions and
his more than average natural ability, combined with.
a-pleasing manner, yet had the law and the customs
of the country permitted, I would have arrested him
for cruelty to animals. Aye, I would have fought
then and there to prevent the abuse I witnessed.
First, he lanced both arms, from which a smart fount-
ain of the best blood the poor fellow had poured
out in rapid streams for a sufficient time to fill, ac-
cording to my best judgment, a three-quart pail from
each wound. The professor next made an incision
in the skin near the top of the shoulder-blade, and
then proceeded to raise the skin by pinching each
side of the slit, and lifting the skin so as to cause the
space to fill with air, which mechanically-raised blister
he pressed along downward and forward, following
with another and another, until some scores of such
had inflated the whole left breast, and up the shoulder
toward the slit. Then he treated the other side in
the same manner. There was then a complete blister
-over the entire chest and far up the shoulders; and
all this as a “counter-irritant!” Soon, from the

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effects of the bleeding, the poor dumb creature began
to sweat. First a few drops oozed out, and dropped
down from between the hind legs, then all along the
belly, then a shower, whilst the trembling and work-
ing within and about the flank and abdomen were
enough to indicate the condition of suffering. He
was placed in a box stall, where he immediately laid
down. ‘The eyes, which were bright when he was led
out, were now dim. I stroked his head, and he turned
‘it toward me as if he knew, and wished to attest his
appreciation of my feelings toward him. I ‘left him
when the poisoning began. As if mashing, purging,
bleeding, and blistering were not enough! No, not
enough! He must have some aconite tlirust down
his throat. The tub of cold water to stand in was
the only really rational feature of the treatment in
this case.

I have elsewhere given the general line of treat-
ment for founder. I will conclude this by stating
what should have been omitted in this treatment:
He should not have been fed to make blood to be let
out by the pailful. If not fed the purging would not
have even seemed necessary. If he had not had
mashes he would have had less fever (his tempera-
ture was 101$° F.), and under hygienic treatment the
fever would soon have left him altogether. Every-
thing, except the tub of cold water for the feet, that
was done was so much tothe bad. Fifty years hence
a veterinarian who should attempt to abuse a horse
in the manner I have described would—not be shot at
sight, because the world is steadily becoming more

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 95

charitable as it grows more enlightened, and so more
dispassionate in its treatment of the ignorant or vic-
‘ious ; but such a man would be prosecuted for mal-
practice and turned out of the profession. Yet, to-
day, I am forced to believe that this gentleman fairly
represents the profession. Had this horse, fat as he
was, been put, as soon as purchased, to steady work,
and on a plain, natural diet, restricted to two meals
and to an amount, altogether, that would have sus-
tained him while the soft fat was being absorbed and
cast off, and the muscles being made clean and full;
had he been worked every day from the beginning,
not beyond, but up to his strength, the latter would
have increased every day and he would have been

@ made over new, just as in the case described on page
24, without the least danger of founder.

Of course it is not to be imagined that a purge, a
blister, the loss of a few quarts of blood, and the ad-
ministration of a 15-drop dose of aconite—however
depleting, however cruel—would end the life of a
young horse that was “fit to survive!” Far from it.
And so, three days afterward, this horse had appar-
ently made good his loss. But it was a loss, all the
same; a loss without the shadow of a gain, unless we
put a value on the amusement afforded to the igno-

rant stable boys, and their wonder at the marvelous
skill displayed by the veterinary surgeon, especially
in making the patient full-breasted with an air-
blister !

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EATING THE BEDDING

is a very common complaint in all stables where any
food substance is used for bedding. Few horses are
sufficiently aristocratic to permit even musty hay or
straw to lie within reach uneaten, unless the appetite
has become less than perfect from excess. The “ muz-
zle”’ has its uses in some of the finest horse palaces.
It should be used upon occasion; but it is better to
use bedding that is even less tempting than hay or
straw that smells as bad as some brands of cheese
that are in favor with certain gormands.

RULES THAT MAY BE SAFELY TRIED.

1. The diet for a road horse of goo to 1,000 lbs.
weight, averaging thirty miles, to wagon, every day
in the week, and often pushed hard fifty to sixty miles
or more in a day, would be 6 lbs. of hay and 9g qts.
of oats, or, say, 6 to 12 qts., according to his work.
If he be called on for fifty to sixty miles every day
for any length of time, he might require 14 to 16
qts. of oats every day, with only a very small bunch
of hay, say 4 to 6 lbs. For a 1,500 lb. horse, at
moderate, but steady work, ten hours a day, six days
in the week, to lbs. of hay and 8 qts. of oats (or 4 qts.
corn and 2 qts. of oats) would probably be sufficient
(see pages 65, 66, 67, 81, 82, 83).

2. Always increase the diet on the day following
the extra hard drive—never on the day preceding,
nor the very day: it is Zo-day’s extra waste of tissue

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 97

that furnishes the digestive fluids for extra grain Zo-
morrow.

3. The hay ration should not be increased with in-
creased labor—only the grain. Indeed, in case of ex-
traordinary exertion, covering several days in succes-
sion, especially when the usual hay ration is a heavy
one, the hay may be, and often with advantage,
lessened.

4. Night Feed —Feed all the hay at night, say at 6
o'clock for horses not regularly worked until that
hour or later, or feed hay an hour after coming to
stable. Meantime offer water before the hay. In an-
other hour feed the grain. If thirsty after eating
hay, the horse should have a little water, then grain.
After this the horse will satisfy his appetite with the
balance of the hay, lie down and sleep the sleep of the
just.

5. It is always safe to try two meals a day, and in
proportion as a horse’s work is constant and severe
throughout the day this system is rendered more and
more essential, for this reason, viz.: the horse of light
work will have ample time to digest a mid-day lunch
and it is a matter of comparative indifference whether
his proper allowance is divided into two or three por-
tions. But in the case first supposed, a middle meal
is impossible without a violation of the rule which
most persons agree in considering desirable, and
which we hold to be imperative, viz.: the rule relat-
ing to rest before and after eating.

6. Referring to rule 1, it may be remarked that, in |
proportion as the work is lessened, the hay ration

5

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may be increased and the grain lessened ; or, straw
used, in part, in place of hay; or, again, meal with
the cob ground in.

7. If 200 miles of sharp roading, weekly, demand 9
qts. of oats a day, 4 qts. would be ample for a horse
jogging ten miles a day. If the latter have an extra
day’s work of, say, twenty-five to forty miles, he
might be benefited by, say, 4 qts. of oats extra on the
succeeding day. If fat, no increase would be de-
manded; he would be better without.

8. Thirst.—Of the two appetites, thirst is the least
apt to be abnormal, and hence the safest to satisfy.
Except when heated, and speaking generally, a horse
should drink as often and as much as he wants. If
not overfed he will not be overthirsty. However
hot, a little water should always be allowed; then,
after a fair interval, more, and, at last, all he wants.
No demand is so imperative, none causes so much
pain and danger from being denied, as the demand
for liquid food—water. A horse would continue to
five, and without suffering pain, for many days with-
out solid food, but not without drink.

9. Constipation—t. e., the accumulation of feecal
matters, that harden and are passed with difficulty—
indicates indigestion. It may arise from (1) deficient
exercise, as relates to quantity of food, or (2) a viola-
tion of the rule we have so urgently put forth; that
is, the horse may have been often driven on a “ full
belly,” or fed too soon after his drive.

10. A horse that was being underfed, might have
very little pass his bowels—nothing, if he was being

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 99

starved—but this is not what is meant by “ constipa-
tion.” If persistently underfed, he will steadily fall
off in weight—emaciate—never remain at a stand-
still. Mr. John Griscomb, of Chicago (outdoing Dr.
Tanner the year after the latter’s fast), during his
forty-five days’ fast, had no passage at the bowels at
all. He declined in weight at the rate of one and
one-fourth pounds a day; that is, he consumed that
amount of his own flesh. He suffered no pain, felt
no weakness, was quite active every day. He drank
about one and one-half quarts of water daily.

11. Never “dose” a horse, with medicine, or
mashes, hot or cold, to get the fever out of him, nor
for any special purpose, whatever.

12. If constipated, give him more work or less feed;
‘or correct the manner of feeding, if wrong.

13. If he “scours,” (always a symptom of indiges-
tion), skip a meal, or two if necessary, allowing all the
drink he wants. This is always safe on an empty
stomach and when not heated with work.

14. If feverish, allow plenty of water, plenty of air,
but no food—none at all.

15. “If off his feed, let starvation be the cure,” to
use the language of a veteran. “ Any creature will
come to his appetite sooner, and with less loss of
flesh, by this means,” he continues, “than by any sort
of medication or nursing.”

HOW TO ARRANGE THE CHECK-REIN.

If horses could only ¢a/z, and then if all men could
feel, few check-reins would be used. See that hand-

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100 HORSES :

some fellow—how he tries to ease an aching neck!
Hitch, hitch, hitch, first to one side, then the other;
then up he tosses his head for a change, then sharp
down upon the bit. He zs talking, and every
thoughtful observer knows that the noble  creat-
ure is saying, ‘Will you please unhook the
check-rein?”” There, now, watch him. How he
stretches out his neck to get the cramps out of it!
How good it feels. He rubs his face against you.
It is his way of saying, ‘“‘ Thank you—no one knows,
unless he has himself been strung up that way, how
very painful it becomes!” Try it, my friend, and
see how it is yourself, to use a current phrase.
“Don’t check your horses very high?” But why at
all? Keep them in fine condition, so that they will
feel good all the time and they will carry their heads
right—at least naturally. Some horses are naturally
high-headed. But you can’t make one so by string-
ing him up. Every one can tell whether a horse is
strung up by the bit; and every kind-hearted person
pities him, if he is. Oh, take it off—don’t wait a day.

A WORD ABOUT THE BLINDERS.

Take off the blinders, too; give a horse his eyes
and he gets accustomed to all manner of sights and
nothing troubles him. Withhold them and, half
blind, he is constantly nervous—fearful of something
that would not disturb him in the least if he could
see it. That is, if he is a nervous fellow ; if not, then
there is no excuse for the blinders.

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INTRODUCTION TO PART II.

THE author regrets his inability to add his own testi-
mony to that of Sir Geo. W. Cox, first printed in this
country in the Popular Sctence Monthly, feeling, indeed,
a sense of shame, not because anything he might say
could add one whit of weight to what is so well put
forth (and so ably commented upon by Col. Weld),
but, to think that he has up to the present time made
one of the million who so cruelly, constantly, thought-
lessly, and needlessly abused this noblest of animals,
the horse! The abuse is rendered a thousand-fold
worse in that, generally speaking, the poor creatures
are at the mercy of a class—I had almost said a race
—of people as willful as they are ignorant—the class
of whom it was said by an exceptional one of the
fraternity: “Generally, when there is a boy in the
family who is too big a fool for anything else, his

father makes'a blacksmith of him!”
C. E. P.

(t01)

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HORSES AND THEIR. FEET,
BY SIR GEO. W. COX.

IF we say that of all brute animals none is more
valuable to man than the horse, and that the neglect
of any means which may promote and ensure his
welfare and efficiency is a blunder not easily distin-
guishable from crime, we may fairly be charged with
uttering truisms. If we urge that this value is not
recognized as it should be, and that this neglect is
miserably common, we may still be accused of wasting
breath on statements which no one would think of
calling into question. Every one, we may be told,
is well aware that the management of horses is very
faulty, that their lives are shortened by the ignorance
of those who have charge of them rather than by
any wanton cruelty, and that they are rendered prac-
tically useless long before their existence is brought
to an end. To the plea that the same, or much the
same, things may be said of men as of horses, we
may answer that the blame must be apportioned to
the degree of carelessness with which evils affecting
either men or horses are allowed to go on unchecked
or are foolishly dealt with; nor can failures to im-
prove the condition of mankind furnish a reason for

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104 HORSES:

refusing to do what may improve the condition of
horses. Our duty ought to be discharged at all costs
and under all circumstances; but a man must have
risen far above the average of his fellows if he feels
no relief when his duty coincides with his interest.
Something is gained by the mere pointing out of this
agreement, wherever it exists; and we must remem-
ber that, if a vast amount of human wretchedness is
the direct result of willful and wanton perversity, we
can meet with no such resistance on the part of brute
beasts. With regard to these we have only to seé
what the evils are; and the blame is ours, and ours
alone, if we fail to apply the remedy, ‘when the
remedy, if applied, must be successful: In the case
of the horse, unhappily, we do not realize the extent
of the mischief, and seldom, perhaps never, fix our
minds on its cause or causes. Yet the facts, even
when reduced within limits which none will venture
to dispute, are sufficiently startling.

The number of horses in the United Kingdom has
been estimated at rather more than two millions
and a quarter, and their average value can scarce-
ly be set down at less than £30. Their collect-
ive value, therefore, falls little short of sixty-eight
million sterling. That the nation incurs a loss if this
sum is spent quicker than it needs to be is a self-evi-
dent proposition; that it is so spent is certain, if
horses on an average become useless at a time when
they ought still to be in full vigor. On this point
few will be disposed to challenge the verdict of Mr.
W. Douglas, late veterinary surgeon in the roth

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 105

Hussars, who tells us that a horse should live from
thirty-five to forty years, and live actively and usefully
during three-fourths of this period. ‘All author-
ities,” he says, “now admit that animals should live
five times as long as it takes them to reach maturity.
A dog, which is at its full growth when between two
and three years old, is very aged at twelve’ years.
Horses do not, unless their growth is forced, reach
their full. prime until they are seven or eight years
old, which by the same law leaves them to live some
thirty years longer. When these facts are kept in:
mind, together with these other facts that three-
fourths of our horses die or are destroyed under
twelve years old, that horses are termed aged at six”
[he should have said eight], ‘old at ten, very old
when double that number of years, and that few of
them but are laid up from work a dozen times a year,
. ... the viciousness of a system which entails such
misery and destruction of life can not be too strongly
commented upon.” If we take the age of three
years as that at which horses begin to work, and
twelve as that at which they are worn out, it follows
that the period of their efficiency is shorter by at
least fourteen years than it should be. In other
words, the nation has to buy three horses when it
ought to buy only one, and thus upwards of £200,000,-
oOo are spent every twenty-one years in the purchase
of horses when 468,000,000 ought to suffice. The
loss, therefore, to the nation is at least 4135,000,000
in twenty-one years.

If this were all, the question would surely be most

5%

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106 HORSES:

serious; but it is not all. Unless the facts thus far
stated can be set aside, our horses work on the aver-
age seven or eight years; but how do they work?
The collective experience of the country will answer
that the work is done at the cost-of frequent inter-
ruption, and with an amount of discomfort and pain
which often becomes agony. It is easy to say that
much of the evil must be laid to the charge of
grooms and stable-men; and perhaps the -censures:
dealt out to these men are not undeserved. They
are, at least, outspoken. In the last century Lord
Pembroke spoke of grooms as being “generally the
worst informed of all persons living.” ‘“ No other serv-
ant,” says Mr. Mayhew, “possesses such power, and
no domestic more abuses his position. It is impossi-
ble to amend the regulation of any modern stable
without removing some of this calling, or overthrow-
ing some of the abuses with a perpetuation of which
the stable servant is directly involved.” In this state
of things the most humane of masters becomes, he
adds, an unconscious tyrant to the brute which serves
him so well. It is a miserable fact that grooms on
their own responsibility are in the habit of adminis-
tering secretly to horses medicines the cost of which
they pay themselves. It may fairly be said that in
every case the remedy is ill-judged, and creates worse
mischief than that which it is designed to remove.
Among these medicines arsenic, antimony, and niter
seem to be the favorites, but the list of remedies is
not ended with these. The experience of ages, if it
has failed to do more, has impressed on them the fact

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 107

that the chief source of the sufferings of horses is to be
found in the foot. The suspicion that the foot is not
treated rightly by the traditionary method never
enters their minds; and they deal with the limb not
from a knowledge of its anatomy, structure, and pur-
_ pose, but in accordance with the popular notions,
which are, in plain speech, outrageously absurd. In
profound ignorance that the hoof is porous, they
apply hoof-oigtments, which answer to cement plas-
tered on a wall. If these were in constant use, Mr.
Douglas asserts emphatically that not a morsel of
sound horn would remain at the end of six months,
on the horses, and shoeing would become an impossi-
bility. If the groom be told that he is thus prevent-
ing the internal moisture from reaching the outer
surface and the air from circulating inwards, his only
answer is an incredulous laugh. His conviction is
that the hoof should not come into contact with hard
material, and that the horse can be best fitted for his
work by having his feet smeared with tar, beeswax, or.
tallow, and by resting always on a heap of litter in
the stable. It would be of little use to cite Lord
Pembroke as declaring that “the constant use of
litter makes the feet tender and causes swelled legs;
moreover, it renders the animal delicate. Swelled
legs may be frequently reduced to their proper natural
size by taking away the litter only, which, in some
stables, where ignorant grooms and farriers govern,
would be a great saving of bleeding and physic,
besides straw.” “I have seen,” he adds, “ by repeated
experiments, legs swell and unswell by leaving litter

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108 HORSES:

or taking it away, like mercury in a weather-glass ”;
and his experience is confirmed by the general con-
dition of troopers’ horses in contrast with those
of their officers, which are bedded down all day.

But if there are evils for which grooms are, in large
measure, directly responsible, and the abolition of
which they would beyond doubt stoutly resist, there
are others in which masters are not less blameworthy
than their men, and from which the public generally,
as well as the animals, are constant sufferers. The
work of the horse is that of dragging and carrying,
and the aim of the owner should be the accomplish-
ment of this work with the utmost possible sureness
and with the fewest accidents. Serious and fatal in-
juries may be the result of stumblings and slippings,
not less than of actual falls; and the premature wear-
ing out of horses by excessive straining of their
sinews and muscles is a direct pecuniary loss to the
owners, although few of them seem to realize the
true significance of the fact. These evils are to be
seen everywhere, and they affect horses kept for the
purpose of pleasure and ostentation almost as much
as those which spend their days in a round of monot-
onous drudgery. A horse should not be obliged to
work in going down a hill, but, in fact, they are sub-
ject to the severest strain just when they ought to
have none, if they are harnessed to springless carts
or wagons without brakes. Farm horses suffer with
terrible severity from this cause, but the horses used
in carrying-trades and by railway companies undergo
a more cruel ordeal. Improvements in the brake-

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 109

power of wagons used on roads, which might greatly
lessen the mischief, are not made, and hence the
horses are seldom free from diseases more or less serious
which may bextraced directly to constant slipping and
shaking over slippery pavements. Among ignorant
owners, blind to their own interests, there is an
impression that “the work which kills one horse will
bring in money enough to buy another”; but expe-
rience has sufficiently shown the fallacy of this theory,
whether the overtaxed slave be a horse or a human
being. In towns and cities, the roads are and must
be paved, and the pavings at present are variously of
stone, wood, or asphalt, where the road is not macad-
amized. These pavements have, it would seem, each
its own peculiar dangers for the horses which use them,
and each has thus become a fruitful source of contro-
versy. If any one method be likely to supersede the
‘rest, the victory will probably be forthe asphalt ; but
horses are found to slip seriously upon it, and the
falls so caused are, we are told, of a graver kind than
those on pavements of other sorts. All the propri-
etors of cabs, omnibuses, and railway vans have, it is
said, protested in a body against its use, but scarcely,
it would seem, to good purpose. Fresh contracts
have been signed for pavements of asphalt, and others
will probably follow. Inthe meanwhile horses have
to pass, perhaps in a single morning, from macadam-
ized roads to roads paved with asphalt, wood, or
stone—in other words, over roads made of widely
different materials, which call in each case for a differ-
ent action of the foot. On the other hand the hoof

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is supposed to be protected by shoes, the varieties of
which are legion; and thus the controversy has been
brought to a singular issue. On oné side it is urged
that there should be a uniform system of paving
enforced on all towns, so that horses should no longer
pass from a less slippery road to one that is more slip-
pery; on the other the contention is that the true
remedy lies not in uniformity of paving, but in the
discovery of a shoe which shall effectually prevent
the horse from slipping anywhere. The former alter-
native is visionary ; the latter has been, and perhaps
it may be said, still is, the object aimed at by some
who have a thorough acquaintance with the structure
of the horse, and the most disinterested wish to pro-
mote his welfare. We may, therefore, safely pay no
heed to the lamentations of those who believe that
“the difficulty in riding or driving through the Lon-
don streets arises from the variety of the pavements
in use,” and that “if we had a uniform kind of pave-
ment, a shoe for universal use would be quickly
invented.” We may please ourselves with fancying
that “the ingenuity of man would devise horseshoes
to travel over glass, were glass the only pavement in
use.” The main question is, whether mankind after
all has not been forestalled in this invention; and it
is absolutely certain that those who have labored
most conscientiously to improve the shoeing of horses,
have striven especially to secure for them the power
of moving safely over materials of many kinds.
These men have been convinced. that the traditional
methods overload the foot of the horse with iron,

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. IIt

and that the modes of fastening on this iron interfere
with, if not altogether obstruct, the processes of
nature. ‘The efforts of all have been directed toward
diminishing the weight of iron, and this has led them
to the conclusion that the less the natural foot is in-
terfered-with the better. M. la Fosse thus inferred
that one-half of the ordinary shoe was unnecessary, and
that nothing more was needed than a tip on the front
half of the foot. Unfortunately he directed that the
heel should be pared, thus making it weaker, and he
fastened on his tip, which had about six inches of
iron in its entire length, with eight nails. He was
thus “inserting wedges, amounting in the aggregate
to from one to one and a half inches in thickness, in
six inches of horn, thus squeezing it into the space of
five or even four inches, and killing it from the
clenches downwards and outwards.” It is strange that
veterinary surgeons, who have clearly comprehended
the mischief thus caused, have failed to draw the
logical inference from their premises. Mr. Douglas
was aware that the crust of the horse’s foot re-
sembles in its natural state a number of small tubes,
bound together by a hardened, glue-like substance,
and he compares it to a mitrailleuse gun with its many
barrels soldered together. By his way of nailing, M.
la Fosse was reducing the size of each tube by one-
sixth, or rather was entirely closing those nearest the
nails, and compressing those that lie half-way between
each pair of nails. He was, in this respect, aggravat-
_ing the mischief of the ordinary shoe, which com-
monly has seven nails, and this ensured dryness and

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112 HORSES:

brittleness of hoof. But the circulation of fluid
through the pores of the hoof is not the only natural
process which modern shoeing interferes with. In
his work on the horse’s foot, Mr. Miles illustrates the
expansion and contraction, which always take place
in its natural state when it is set down on and lifted
from the ground. The subject wasa horse nine years
old, which had the shoe removed for the purpose of
the experiment. ‘The unshod foot was lifted up,
and its contour traced with the greatest precision on
a piece of board covered with paper. A similar
board was then laid on the ground, the same foot was
then placed upon it, and the opposite foot held up
whilst it was again traced. The result was that it had:
expanded one-eighth part of an inch at the heel and
quarters.” Over two inches on each side of the center
of the toe no expansion had taken place, the tracings
showing that the expansion was only lateral. It
would follow that a shoe intended to give full play to
this process must be confined to the part where no
expansion takes place; but Mr. Miles adhered to the
form of the ordinary shoe, although he reduced to
three the number of nails by which it was fastened.
The object of this process of expansion and contrac-
tion is to give the animal a firmer hold on the soil,
and to enable him, where this is thick, slimy, or sticky,
to withdraw the foot easily on contraction. This
purpose is necessarily defeated when the whole foot
is armed with iron.

No one has condemned the mischievous working of
the existing system more strongly than Mr. Mayhew,

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET, 113

who refuses to allow that the body of the horse was
made stronger than his legs and feet, and holds that
these, if left to themselves, must be adequate to the
tasks imposed on them. In his belief “it is amongst
the foremost physiological truths that Nature is a strict
economist,” and that “man has for ages labored to
disarrange parts thus admirably adjusted. .... No
injury, no wrong, no cruelty can be conceived which
barbarity has not inflicted on the most generous of
man’s many willing slaves.” But although he has
thus seen “the folly of contending against those or-
ganizations which govern the universe,” he still
thought that the employment of some sort of shoe
might not lie open to this charge. Shoes of some
sort may give to the horse the freedom which is es-
sential for the health of the foot, although he insists
that all the shoes thus far used are lamentable failures.
“There are,” he says, “many more pieces of iron
curved, hollowed, raised, and indented than I have
cared to enumerate, All, however, have failed to re-
store health tothe hoof. Some by enforcing a change
of position may for a time appear to mitigate the
evil; but none can in the long run cure the disorder
under which the hoof evidently suffers.” Such lan-
guage, it might be thought, could come only from
one who had discarded the use of shoes altogether.
All, however, that Mr. Mayhew has done is to point
the way to the road which he was not prepared to
take. But the experience of Miles and Mayhew, La
Fosse, Charlier, and Douglas seems to lead by neces-
sary logical inference to one conclusion only. If the

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114. HORSES:

working of the traditionary system leaves the horse a
wreck almost before he has reached his prime, if the
lessening of the weight of iron and of the number of
nails used in fixing the iron has been followed by
direct and important benefits in every instance, if
even those who hold that a horse must be shod have
discovered that that which they look on as a protec-
tion to the fore feet is merely harmful to the hind
feet, is it possible to stifle the suspicion that this in-
significant remnant of a system so fruitful in mischief
may have no magic power, and, in short, that the
horse may do just as well without them?

This conclusion has been courageously avowed and
most ably enforced by a writer calling himself “Free
Lance” in his recently published work on “ Horses
and Roads”; and to say the least, it is time that the
whole question should be fully and impartially con-
sidered. It affects the wealth of the nation, and on it
depend both the usefulness and the comfort of a race
of noble animals which are indispensable to our pros-
perity. The force of prejudice may be great, anda
widespread traditional system may not be soon or easily
overthrown; but it can not fora moment be supposed
that Englishmen generally will assume with reference
to it an attitude of unreasoning and obstinate antago-
nism. Fear probably will be found to supply a restrain-
ing motive more powerful than open ill-will. Many
who think that the new theory may look well enough
on paper will doubt its value in practice, and will re-
gard their own horses as exceptions to which it can
not apply. With a strange ignorance of fact, they

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. ITS

will insist that unshod horses may move safely over
smooth and. soft ground, but must fail when it is
rugged, and hard, and stony, or will be oppressed by
a vague dread that a horse which has gone well enough
without shoes for six months may break down in the
seventh. But even those who refuse to give up the
practice of shoeing will yet acknowledge its faulti-
ness, and wish that they could give it up without
risk. To all such we need only say that if they have
any regard for impartiality they are bound to consider
the arguments and the facts on which the conclusions
of “Free Lance” rest; and most assuredly they will
find in his pages nothing which they may charge with
extravagance, rashness, and intolerance. They will
not be told that unless they abandon the system of
shoeing altogether they can effect no improvement
in the present state of things, or even that they must
hasten to change the old system for the new. On
the contrary, they will find that: they are again and
again warned against imprudent haste, and are told
that a vast amount of good may be achieved even if
they never venture on leaving their horses’ feet in a
- state of nature.

Of these arguments and facts it might be difficult
to determine which are the most important and sig-
nificant. Certain it is that our horses generally are
afflicted with a multitude of diseases which seize on
their legs and feet, and that lameness is everywhere
a cause of constant complaint and of loss of time
and money. The author is not speaking from theory
or from book, but takes his stand on an experience

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obtained during a sojourn of many years in foreign
countries, especially in America, where in the con-
struction of railways and other public works he had
to employ hundreds of horses and mules on tasks
which taxed their capabilities to the utmost. In
Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and elsewhere he found that
unshod horses were daily worked over roads of all
kinds, carrying heavy packs from.the interior down
to the coast, the journey thither and back being often
extended to several hundreds of miles, and that they
accomplished these journeys without ever wearing
out their hoofs; and the roads in these countries,
where they exist at all, are neither softer nor smoother
than those of England or of Ireland. If horses fell
lame it was from causes incidental to the climate, and
for these the system of shoeing would supply no
remedy. From other diseases, which from strong and
often incontestable reasons may be traced to the
use of shoes, they were wholly free. The necessary
conclusion was that the system of shoeing could
answer no good purpose, while it might be productive
of much harm; and in this conclusion he was con-
firmed by the admissions and protests of the most
able and competent veterinary surgeons in this coun-
try. These have uniformly raised their voices against
the heavy weighting of the horse’s foot maintained
by the traditional practice. It has been found here
that the hoofs of some horses are so weak that they
can not be fully shod; and a writer in the Fzedd,
styling himself “ Impecuniosus,” cited some ten years
ago a remark by Mayhew that “some horses will go

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 117

sound jin tips that can not endure any further pro-
tection,” adding the significant comment that the
moral of this is “ that it is the shoe, not the road, that
hurts the horse”; for if a weak and tender foot can
go sound when all but unshod, ‘“‘why should not the
strong sound one do thesame?” The conclusion, as
he insists, should rather be that a horse must have a
strong, sound foot to stand not our work, but our shoe.
The same writer, speaking of the cruelties unwittingly
perpetrated by grooms and blacksmiths on the horse’s
foot, says that “though lameness usually attends
their efforts, they ascribe it to every cause but the
right one, and indeed resign themselves complacently
to the presence of many diseases confessedly caused
by their treatment.” “Free Lance” has seen, and
others also have doubtless seen, light horses, of high
breed and value, shod or burdened with a full set of
shoes in which eight nails, nearly three-sixteenths of
an inch in thickness, were driven fourin each quarter,
and in a space of three inches for each four nails.
He may well call attention to the immense amount
of laceration and compression which the delicate
hollow fibers of the crust must have suffered when
thus wedged up within a fourth of their natural
dimensions. Besides this, he adds, the hoof was, in
one instance, carved out on the crust to receive three
clips, one on the toe and one on each quarter. “A
calk, three-quarters of an inch high, was put on one
heel of each hind shoe, and on the other- heel a screw
cog of equal height. On each front shoe a cog, also
three-quarters of an inch high, was put upon each

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heel. This wretched victim to fashion was then re-
garded with the utmost satisfaction by the farriers
and his groom; and all this heathenism was perpe-
trated in the forge of a veterinary surgeon. But, per-
haps, he was shoeing to order.”

Amongst the reformers of these great abuses M.
Charlier occupies a prominent place. His shoe in its
first shape was not successful. Starting rightly on
the assumption that nature intended the horse to
walk barefoot, and that the bottom of his foot was in
every way fitted to stand all wear and tear, he ex-
cepted from these self-sufficing parts the outer rim,
that is, the wall or crust. ‘“ He, therefore,” “ Free
Lance” tell us, “made a shoe of very narrow iron,
less than the width of the wall, which he let in, or
imbedded, to the crust, without touching the sole
even on the edge, so that, in fact, the horse stood no
higher after he was shod than he stood when bare-
footed. He urged that such a narrow piece of iron
would not interfere with the natural expansion and
contraction of the foot; and in this he at once went
wrong, for malleable iron has no spring in it. Then,
in spite of his theory, as he expressed it, he carried
his shoe right round the foot into the bars, beyond
where the crust ceases to be independent of them.
He then got a very narrow, weak “shoe, about a foot
in circumference (if circumference can be applied to
that which is not a complete circle); and, as he ought
to have foreseen, the shoe then twisted or broke on
violent exertion.” Still, as freeing the horse from a
large amount of the weight usually attached to his foot,

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the change was an important benefit; and the lesson
thus taught was not thrown away. The shoe was
reduced by a man at Melton from the full to the
three-quarter size, and in this form it weighs five
ounces. Seeley’s patent horseshoe, adopted by the
North Metropolitan Tramways Company, weighs
one pound and a quarter, this being a reduction of
one-half on the weight of the ordinary shoe; and we
have to remember that each additional ounce on the
horse’s foot makes a most sensible difference in the
amount of work performed by him during the day.
Shoeing their horses on the principle of the modified
Charlier shoe, Messrs. Smither & Son, of Upper East
Smithfield, have found the result marvelously to
their advantage in the measure of comfort and safety
with which their animals do their work, whether in
the London streets, on pavement, or on country
roads. So, far as their experience has gone, there are
no horses which it does not suit, and it is of special
service for young horses running on the London
stones, and for horses with tender feet or corns, and
to prevent slipping. In other words, the absence of
metal confers benefits which can not be bestowed by
its presence. Facts in America teach the same lesson.
At a meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Agricult-
ure in 1878, Mr. Bowditch, a practical farmer, de-
clared that “nine hundred and ninety-nine thou-
sandths of all the trouble in horses’ feet come from
shoeing,” that he was in the habit of driving very
-hard down hill, that he had galloped on ice on a
-horse whose feet had merely a small bit of iron four

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inches long curled round the toe, and that this piece
of iron is all that is needed even in the case of an
animal whose feet have been abused for a series of
years. When nothing is left but this fragment of
the traditional shoe, and when even this fragment
has, as in Massachusetts and elsewhere, been retained
for the fore feet only, it is incredible that men should
fail to ask what the use of this relic of the old sys-
tem may be. Donkeys in Ireland are unshod, and
they work on roads at least as rough, hard, slimy, and
slippery as those of England. “Can one really be-
lieve,” asks “Free Lance,” “that the animal which is
endowed with the greater speed and power should
have worse feet than his inferior in both respects?”
To such a question one answer only can be given;
and the lesson may be learned by any one who will
take the trouble to go to the wilds of Exmoor or
Dartmoor. There, as in the Orkneys and on the
Welsh hills and in many parts of the continent of
Europe, horses run unshod over rocks, through
ravines, and up or down precipitous ridges. “ Yet all
this,” Mr. Douglas remarks, “is done without diffi-
culty, and to the evident advantage of their hoofs,
for these animals never suffer from contracted feet, or
from corns, sand-cracks, etc., until they become civil-
ized and have been shod.” Mr. Douglas, it is true,
holds that civilization involves the need of a shoe of
some sort for horses as for men; Mr. Mayhew advo-
cates the use of the tip, and, as we have said, it is
not in human nature to stop short at such a point as
this. It is obvious that if the complete abandon-

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 121

ment of iron is followed by increased efficiency and
power of endurance on the part of the horse, as well]
as from a number of painful and highly injurious
_ diseases, the owner is directly and largely benefited in
more ways than one. His horses live in greater com-
fort, and for a longer time; his veterinary surgeon’s
bill and the outlay for medicine are greatly lessened,
and the costs of farriery disappear altogether.

Farriers will of course complain that their occu-
pation is gone, and that they are ruined men; but
little heed was paid to like pleas when they were
urged for the drivers and attendants of coaches and
coach horses when the first railways were constructed.
Matters will adjust themselves in this case as they
did in the other. But that the change can not be
effected in a day or a week, no one will venture to
deny. The feet of horses are ordinarily treated, not
wantonly, but through ignorance, with a cruelty which
is simply shocking. With vast numbers of animals
which are not kept for purposes of drudgery and in
whose appearance their owners feel a pride, the hoof is
a mere wreck, and the sight of the mangled and split
hoof may well excite not merely pity, but wonder
that any can passively allow such evils to goon. A
few, however, will always be found with resolution
' enough to shake off the fetters of traditionalism ;
and some of these have already expressed their
opinion with sufficient emphasis. One of these,
writing in November, 1878, says:

“The argument against horseshoes seemed to me
so strong, and the convenience of doing without

6

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122 HORSES:

them so great, that I resolved to try the experiment
Accordingly, when my pony’s shoes were worn out,
had them removed, and gave him a month’s rest a
grass, with an occasional drive of a mile or two o1
the high-road while his hoofs were hardening. Th
result at first seemed doubtful. The hoof was a thi
shell, and kept chipping away, until it had worn dow:
below the holes of the nails by which the shoes ha
been fastened. After this the hoof grew thick anc
hard, quite unlike what it had been before. I nov
put the pony to full work, and he stands it well
He is more sure-footed, his tread is almost noiseless
and his hoofs know no danger from the rough hand
of the farrier, and the change altogether has been ;
clear gain, without anything to set off against it
The pony was between four and five years old, ani
had been regularly shod up to the present year. He
now goes better without shoes than he ever did witl
them.”

A well-known Cumberland farmer, writing abou
the same time, speaks of a farm horse in his posses
sion, which, having been lamed by a nail driven int:
its foot, had been for many months in the hands o
the farrier. Tired out with this annoyance, the owne
had his shoes taken off and turned him out to pasture
While still rather lame, the horse was set to work o:
the land; and he is now, we are.told, “ doing all sort
of farm work, and dragging his load as well as am
shod horse even over hard pavement.” If judgmen
based on knowledge is to carry weight, the questio1
would soon be settled. We have already seen th

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 123

opinions expressed by the most able writers on the
horse, and especially on the structure and treatment
of his feet, as well as by the best veterinary surgeons.
The verdict of the Lancet is almost more emphatic.
“As a matter of physiological fitness,” it says,
“nothing more indefensible than the use of shoes can
be imagined. Not only is the mode of attaching
them by nails injurious to the hoof, it is the probable,
if not evident, cause of many affections of the foot
and leg, which impair the usefulness and must affect
the comfort of the animal.” If we add that the
hunter is benefited almost more than other horses by
being allowed to use his feet as nature made them,
the admission is made in the interests of the horse
and not as an expression of opinion on the contro-
versy respecting the right or the wrong of fox-hunt-
ing. It is enough to say that for horses which have
to move rapidly, and to come down with a sudden
shock on sticky and slippery ground, the natural
course of the process of expansion and contraction is
of the first importance. For those who may care
nothing for the gratification of hunting men, it may
be amusing or provoking to learn that in times of
hard frost hunters have been enabled to chase the
prey by the aid of gutta-percha soles fastened to the
feet ; but all who are anxious only for the welfare of
the horse will see in this fact strong evidence of the
uselessness of the iron shoe. The plain truth is that
differences in the quality of soil, be it hard or soft,
stony or sandy, smooth and slippery, are of com-
paratively little importance to the horse whose feet

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are as nature made them. In the words of “ Free
Lance,” “the unshod horse can successfully deal with
all roads”; and assuredly no one will dream of
asserting that shod horses can do this, for on the
setting in of frost, for instance, they can not be
worked until certain ceremonies have been gone
through at the blacksmith’s forge. The unshod horse
can tread firmly on the slime of wood pavement
when shod horses are slipping and struggling inagony
around them; he can gallop on ice, and trot for miles
together on the hardest and roughest flint roads, with
far more ease and comfort than horses whose feet are
shod with iron, or even with gutta-percha. ‘“ Free
Lance”’ rightly remarks that “ if they could not, there
would be an end of the thing, for evidently the horse
should be able to go anywhere and everywhere, and
at a moment’s notice.” It seems hard to produce
the conviction that the natural sole of the horse’s
foot is almost impenetrable, that it is so hard and
strong as to protect the sensible sole from all harm,
and that all feet exposed to hard objects are made
harder by the contact, provided only that the sole is~
never pared. This adequacy of the horse’s foot to
all demands that may be made upon it is forcibly
illustrated by Mr. Bracy Clark, who, like Mr. Douglas
and Mr. Mayhew, contented himself. with striving to
produce a perfect shoe, although he acknowledged
that if we wish to appreciate the full beauty of its
structure, “we must dismiss from our views the
miserable, coerced, shod foot entirely and consider
the animal in a pure state of nature using his foot

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 125

without any defense.” Probably Mr. Clark thought
that, though we may consider it in its natural state,
few can ever so behold it, as all horses in civilized
countries are in greater or less degree brought under
artificial conditions. The plea is fallacious. The
horse is clearly intended by nature to serve as a
domesticated animal; and so long as we do not in-
terfere with the proper functions of any part of its
body (and the abomination of bearing reins and
other such practices interfere with them grievously
and even fatally), we bring it under no conditions
which it was not designedly calculated to encounter.
Private owners and companies whose horses must be
numbered by troops are naturally irritated by the
accidents constantly occurring on smooth and slimy
pavements or on rough and hard stone or flint roads,
and in their disgust they now offered rewards for the
invention of a shoe which shall render the horse in-
different to the materials over which he has to pass,
and have clamored for a uniform system of pavements
in alltowns. It seems strange indeed that no mis-
-giving seems to cross their minds that they are taking
thought of the wrong surface, and that they are
scared by false terrors when they dread the contact
of the unshod hoof with sand, granite, flint, wood, or
asphalt.

It can not, indeed, be too often repeated or too
strongly insisted on, that the foot of the horse in no
way needs to rest on soft and yielding surfaces.
The very opposite of this is the truth, and this
truth was perceived as clearly by Xenophon as by the

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ablest physiologists of our own day. Speaking, as he
says, not from theory, but from wide and varied ex-
perience, Xenophon insists that in order to ensure
the healthiness of horses, stable floors must not be
smooth or damp; that they should be lined with
stones of irregular shapes, of much the same size as
the animal’s hoof, and that the ground outside the
stable, on which it is groomed, should be covered in
parts with loose stones laid down in large quantities,
but surrounded by an iron rim to prevent their being
scattered. Standing on these the horse, Xenophon
adds, will be in much the same condition as if he
were traveling on a stony road, and-as he must move
his hoof when he is being rubbed down as much as
when he is walking, the stones thus spread about will
strengthen the frogs of his feet. It is not easy to
repress a certain feeling of shame at the disingenu-
ousness of modern writers who have tried to shirk
the difficulty by saying that Xenophon had no knowl-
edge of our hard roads. It is enough to reply that
he speaks distinctly of roads covered with stones,
and’ of the benefit which the horse derives from
traversing them. There is not a word to justify a
suspicion that he would have shrunk from the hardest
roadway of moderntimes. Xenophon is thus in com-
plete agreement with Lord Pembroke’s remark that
the constant use of litter in a stable makes the feet
tender and causes swelled legs. In his judgment the
bare stone pavement will cool, harden, and improve a
horse’s feet merely by his standing on it. Acting on
the same principle, Vegetius, as “Free Lance” re-

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 127

marks, holds that the floor of a stable should be made,
not of soft wood, but of solid hard oak, which will
make the foot of the horse as hard as a rock. It
should surely be unnecessary to say that these writers
make not the remotest reference or allusion to the
shoeing of horses. It was impossible that they could
notice a practice which was unknown to the ancient
world, and which is in truth simply a modern, as it
is also a most uncalled for, barbarism. No iron helped
to produce the heavy sound of solid horn which Virgil
ascribes to the fiery steed of Pollux. Of late years
we have heard much of the unjustifiable waste of
time spent on classical literature which has no practi-
cal bearing on the interests of modern life. It is un-
fortunate that Xenophon’s treatise on the manage-
ment of horses has not formed one of the subjects for
the upper forms of our public schools; and it would
be well if they were made to read with care a book
written by one who wrote unfettered by the restraints
of any traditional system, and who successfully
brought the cavalry as well as the infantry of the Syrian
army of Greeks from the plains of Babylon to the shores
of the Euxine. There they would see how thoroughly
the rules laid down by the leader of the Ten Thou-
sand for the selection and the management of horses
are in accordance with the highest scientific knowl-
edge of the present day, and how happy an ignorance
he displays of the long and dismal catalogue of
diseases and miseries which a wrong-headed and
ridiculous system has called into existence. No
horses could be subjected to a more severe strain in

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every limb of their body than were those which
Xenophon led from Cunaxa over the Armenian high-
lands to the walls of Trebizond; yet we hear nothing
of any special difficulties arising from diseases of the
foot or leg. It may probably be said with truth that
the strain endured by those horses could be borne
only by unshod animals. Paul Louis Courier, the
French translator of Xenophon’s treatise, was so
struck by the apparent soundness of his method, that
he put it to the test by riding unshod horses in the
Calabrian campaign of 1807, and he did so with com-
plete success. But that which with him was a volun-
tary experiment has been for others an involuntary
necessity. This was the case with many of our
cavalry horses during the Indian Mutiny, and their
riders have declared that they wére never better
mounted in their lives. In the retreat of the French
from Moscow the horses, “ Free Lance” remarks,
lost all their shoes before they reached the Vistula;
yet they found their way to France over hard, rough,
and frozen ground. In his invasion of America,
Cortes could not carry about with him the anvils,
forges, and iron needed for shoeing even the small
number of horses which he had with him. But these
horses did their work and survived it, and from them
comes the fierce mustang of Mexico, which still goes
unshod. There is great force in the remark of ‘“ Free
Lance” that horses are not indigenous to America,
this being their first introduction, and that climate
and locality, therefore, have not that influence over
the hoof which they are commonly supposed to have.

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 129

The small horses of the irregular cavalry at the Cape,
which took part in the battle of Ulundi, had no
shoes on their hind feet, and few were shod even in
front, but they held out longer and went miles farther
than the shod animals: and no complaints were made of
any of them falling lame, although, as “ Free Lance”
adds, “sheets of wet slippery rock and rolling stones
in river beds would be calculated to try the hoofs to
the utmost.”

But it is scarcely necessary to cite more instances
of the vast benefits which those who have had the
courage to leave the feet of their horses as nature
made them have received under the most varied con-
ditions of work, of soil, and of climate. Humanity
and self-interest here point in the same direction, and
only folly of the most perverse kind will have the
hardihood to fight for the maintenance of the existing
system. The cruelties practiced (whether unwittingly
or wantonly) on the horse’s foot have been extended
‘over a series of generations, but the only penalty
which remains to be-paid for the ill-doing of years is the
surrender of a few days or a few weeks of the labor of
the animal which has been thus misused. On the other
side, there is a certainty that we shall be entering on
a course which will triple the length of time over
which the efficiency of the horse will be extended,
and which therefore will, within twenty years, have
saved the nation a hundred and thirty-five millions
sterling. It will further ensure the immediate saving
of all the money now spent on farriery, and this
saving, which must be at the least forty shilings a year

6*

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on every horse, will amount to two millions and a quar
ter; and there will be the further saving in straw as
well as on medicines, nostrums, and remedies no
longer needed for animals rescued from a system
which was a fruitful source of discomfort, disease, and
death. The angry controversies which the subject
is now constantly calling forth and exasperating will
at the same time disappear. There will no longer be
an outcry for uniformity in the system of paving
towns, for horses will go as well on one kind of pave-
ment as on another. There will no longer be queru-
lous demands on inventors for the devising of a
perfect shoe, because it will be clearly seen that this
perfect shoe has been furnished already by nature, and
that it is only human ignorance and conceit which has
marred the work of God. We may now look back
with some feeling of envious regret on the wiser, be-
cause more natural methods of thé ancient world;
and future generations will look back with feelings of
simple wonderment at the infatuation which could
submit without a struggle to a system which doomed
the horse to unnecessary disease and agony and to a
premature death, while it deprived his owner of
wealth often sorely needed for his own welfare and
that of all depending on him. Of the ultimate issue
there can be no doubt; but it is still the duty of
““Free Lance,” as of all whose eyes are opened to
the mischief of the existing system, to fight the battle
to the end.

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 131

AGAINST HORSESHOEING.

' THE New York Tribune says: “Colonel M. C.
Weld’s noteworthy views on the abuse of shoeing
horses, as lately expressed in the 7rzbune, have at-
tracted deserved attention abroad as well as at home,
and called out another striking statement of favorable
English experience, the points of which we quote
from The Mark Lane Express :

“«About three years ago, I was led to give the
non-shoeing system a fair trial, commencing with a
pony constantly driven, and extending the experi-
ment to the young farm horses, all of which had,
however, unfortunately been shod before the trial be-
gan, and am now able to endorse the observations of
Colonel M.C. Weld in almost every particular, except
as regards traveling on paved surfaces, as in South-
ampton, where there is a tramway, it is found that the
pony prefers the paved stoneway to the macadamized
part on either side. The time that elapsed before
the “dead horn” of the hoof grew out was six
months, and it was fully eighteen before the insensi-
ble frog lost its callousness and grew soft, like strong
india-rubber. The pony does not work on the farm,

“but goes out nearly every day, the greatest number
of miles run in any one week being eighty and in any
one day thirty-two.

“¢ Before the shoes were removed it was somewhat
of a “daisy cutter,” had been down once or twice,
and stumbled much going down hill; since discarding
shoes it has never stumbled once, and I have driven

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132 -HORSES.

it full trot down a hill covered with snow and ice.
This pony had been shod up to seven years old. The
farm horses are young and strong, and have been
bred on the place, and though mostly employed in
the fields, are frequently engaged in hauling corn,
timber, bricks, or manure, for home or hire purposes.
No roads than those around Winchester can be more
trying, repaired (!) as they are with flints, which have
been broken just enough to make them cut like razors,
and are a cruelty to horses shod or unshod. I find
no difference in the capability of drawing full loads.
There is no stamping in the stable or when standing

, out; over asphalt or icy pavements there is no slip-
ping; the feet do not ball up over snow.

““« The great drawback is that against which all who
try any new groove have to contend, namely, the un-
yielding prejudice of all classes, more especially those
who have to look after the horses, who, rather than
aid in any change, will throw every obstacle in the
way; but to my brother farmers I say emphatically,
the man who cuts the frog of or shoes his young.
horse is committing a great error. With a little care
at first you may work them on roads or fields; the
animals will be certainly happier and probably health-

“jer, and yourselves be in pocket by the change, and,
with an occasional rasp the appearance of your
horses will be far better than the torn, jagged, heavily.
ironed and nailed feet of one-half the wretched
animals it is painful to see about the country.’ ”’ :

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SOUND VIEWS ABOUT HORSESHOEING. .
BY COL. M. C. WELD.

MEssRS. FOWLER & WELLS:

Gentlemen:—I thank you for showing me the
essay by Sir George Cox, which I have never seen
entire before, and also the article clipped from the
Mark Lane Express (London), which so pleasantly en-
dorses my views upon the subject of driving horses
barefoot. I do not know that I can add anything of
special value to what you already have and propose
to publish, but offer the following

NOTES FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCE.

It is now about fifteen years since I began to reason
about horseshoeing. Like other people, I suppose I
thought shoesa necessity, of course. Of course! That
is the natural rut we get into,—thinking: “ Every-
body can not be mistaken.” The blacksmith was my
oracle. He is the oracle of everybody who owns
horses and does not have notions of his own. He
cut as he pleased, and burned as he pleased, and shod
as he pleased. The horses had thrush, and corns,
and contracted heels—of course. Everybody’s horses
are liable to such troubles—they caulked themselves,
overreached, interfered but rarely, and then reshoeing

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134 HORSES:

remedied the matter. It was all right and to be ex-
pected—o/f course, and perhaps necessary (?).

I began to read and found little to the point, but
stopped the paring of the frog absolutely. Then I
became acquainted in a business way with Mr. Good-
enough, the inyentor of the form of shoe which bears
his name. We reasoned together, and / learned some--
thing. I began to use Goodenough’s shoes put on
cold, and found it difficult to get smiths to put them
on well. This led me to the conclusion that I could
drive a nail as well as a blacksmith’s apprentice; so I
soon became the possessor of a “ draw knife,” a rasp,
a pair of pincers, and a good horseshoeing hammer.
These, with the tools about the barn and house and a
few sets of Goodenough shoes, were my stock in
trade, and with my man’s help I shod my horses for
a full year. On one horse a single set of steel winter
shoes wore, with only two resettings, from January
to August, nearly eight months. They wore very
evenly and thin, and finally one broke in two, and I
pulled them all off. The hoofs were trimmed, and
though unshod for a while, did not break much.
After about two weeks we thought the fore feet
showed a little tenderness, and they were shod. The
hind feet wore well, and were in splendid shape. The
other horse had his hind shoes removed, and this
cured the thrush which was in them, and before
winter he had a new pair of frogs—sound and large.

After this experience, every spring for some years
I pulled off the shoes all round, kept the feet trimmed,
and let them wear into good shape, and as soon as

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 135

they were well worn down, say in three or four weeks,
had the front feet shod, and I learned to have the
old shoes reset if they would hold the nails, and to
have this done as seldom as possible. This does not
mean that*the shoe was left on till it came off of its
own accord, but so long as the horse seemed to stand
and travel well, the shoes were not set back.

I had four colts, and about this time began to train
and drive them. Those that were old enough were
used daily on the road, never being driven more than
eight to ten miles in one day, and rarely that. A
friend dropped the remark, “If your colts have good
feet you will not need to shoe them until they are
five years old.” I was already beginning to regret
the necessity of having them shod, for after I had
found out that I could do my own horseshoeing, I
was glad to have the smith do it—if he would do it
my way; and he was glad to put on even Goodenough
shoes.

I did not have the colts shod, and found out that it
‘takes a deal of use, even in soft wet weather when the
hoofs are easily worn, to wear them down so that the
feet are tender.

I began also to let the old horses go barefoot.
They were used chiefly on the farm (as we had the
colts for driving), and before long, say within three
months, their feet were in beautiful condition—round,
solid, with big frogs and broad heels, and besides, the
fresh growth of horn around the coronet was so
healthy, smooth, and uniform that it was a pleasure
to see it.

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136 HORSES:

The following winter was quite open for this lati-
tude, and we used four horses, on the farm, in the
wood lot, and on the road, all unshod throughout the
season. Horses fairly on their feet (that is, with tough
hoofs, not weakened by nails, and the influence of
shoes) will travel without flinching in the least over
the hardest and roughest frozen ground or-broken
stones, provided they are a little used to it. A bare-
foot horse will not “ball” in soft snow and he will
stand up on smooth ice. So as the horses went
through the winter so well, and neither spring nor
summer made me change my mind about the princi-
ple involved, I approached the next winter with con-
fidence that I could drive the horses barefoot that
season too. I was too sanguine; the ground froze
early, the roads wore down as smooth asa barn floor;
there cameastorm in January of mixed snow and rain
followed by extreme cold, and the whole land was a
sheet of ice. I thought about how Mr. Bowditch
had galloped on the ice with only a “toe-clip,” and
started out boldly. My horse did not fall, but he
was in mortal fear of falling and I was proportionately
uncomfortable. I tried the matter well and gave it
up, had the horses shod and they went free again, ex-
cept when a soft snow fell upon the ice; then with snow
two or three inches thick packed in balls below their
feet they were worse off than if barefooted.

Iam entirely satisfied that it is best to use shoes
in icy weather, and in fact in winter weather generally.
The disadvantage is that the hoof walls are hurt by
the nails—but then I have the nails driven very close

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 137

to the edge of the horn, which is surprisingly tough.
The growth of new horn is not checked or essentially
affected, because we have so much snow and our
country roads are so rough that there is frog-pressure
enough to secure a good growth of horn. When we
pull the shoes off in March or April a single paring
-removes most of the split and damaged horn, provided
the nails are driven close enough to the edge.

An unshod horse in winter will not pull half a load
_ even on reasonably rough roads. He may go well
for miles, but may then come upon an icy spot that
he can hardly get over. On smooth icy roads an
unshod horse, though much better off than one with
smooth shoes, can not travel with the freedom and
confidence in his footing that is essential to the com-
fort and safety of the driver, and especially so to the
rider. i

Of late we have had more horses than we needed,
‘owing to our repugnance—in fact, determination not
to sell a faithful old family servant when too old for
‘much work; so we have seldom worn any of our
horses’ feet off on the road to that extent that they
went tender. It has occurred in two or three in-
stances, however, and it is always likely to occur to
whoever drives his horses barefoot. The remedy is
simple: put on “ toe-clips,” “half-moon shoes,” or
what Sir George quotes Mr. Bowditch as calling
“merely a small bit of iron, four inches long, curled
around the toe.” This is chiefly necessary for the
fore feet of driving horses; but horses that pull
heavy loads need this device on the hind feet also

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138 HORSES.

The toe-clips should be made to take well hold of
the ground and should be thinned down at the ends.
If a horse should come home from a journey sore,
and with his feet perhaps worn to the quick and
-bleeding, give him a week’s rest before shoeing—
turning him out when the grass is wet with dew, or
give him the run of a swampy piece of ground.
This will do his feet more good than any other treat-
ment, and then put on toe-clips.

Since driving barefoot I have never had a “ sand
crack,” a broken or split hoof, “quarter-crack’”’ or
anything of the kind and no trouble of the feet
whatever, except when worn down as explained.
Even the old horse, 24 years old, has feet as round
and sound as an unshod colt.

Thanking you for this opportunity to aid in pro.
mulgating sound views about horseshoeing,

Truly yours,
MASON C. WELD.

New York, August, 1883.

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THE TRAINING AND CHARACTER OF
HORSES.

The following from a recent number of that useful
and practical publication, Ze Phrenological Journal,
will be.found of interest, and suggestive in the selec-
tion and management of horses:

“Of our domestic animals none occupy more atten-
tion than the horse, and altogether there is no subject
with which general society is supposed to be more

 

Fig. 1.—Hicurest Tyre oF INTELLIGENCE.

familiar, yet when it is a question of positive knowl-
edge for a given purpose very few are able to meet
the case—even among farmers and stock raisers we
would scarcely find two who would agree entirely on
the training or education of a horse having a certain
trait or disposition. On the farm the treatment of
this most useful companion of man is for the most
part irregular, injudicious, and very often absolutely

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140 HORSES:

cruel; and the wonder is that the colt develops into
a condition of docility, patience, and usefulness, which .
is rather typical than otherwise of the horse generally.
With his highly organized brain, sensitive tempera-
ment, great strength, capabilities of resistance, the
horse by appropriate training could be rendered much
more efficient than he averages. This is shown by
occasionally meeting with a noble specimen of the
equine family which has fallen into considerate hands,
and the capabilities of intelligence in such a case are
astonishing, and the sarcastic remark which is often
heard, ‘That horse knows more than his master,’
seems warranted. The deficiencies in horse-training
generally arise from a lack of understanding of the
nature of the animal, and without such an understand-
ing it is impossible to set on foot a system which shall
be definite and efficient. Mr. Dennis Magner, whose
reputation as a horse-trainer is very extensive in this
country, states that ‘There are three natural difficul-
ties which present themselves in the outset of a horse’s
education. First, the horse is much stronger than
man, and this fact the animal is intelligent enough to
perceive very promptly; and if he can impose it to
improper treatment he is likely to do it and thus re-
sist the control of his master, and whatever gain there
is on his part in such resistance, encourages him to
further impatience of control, and finally he may be-
come unmanageable and vicious.

“«The second difficulty arises from his methods of
reasoning, which must be intelligently exercised so as
to prevent his becoming excited or frightened at boys

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 141

and sounds with which he is brought in contact.
Through his active senses of sight, hearing, and feel-
ing he must be instructed with regard to their inno-
cent character.

“«Third, it must be appreciated that a horse can
not understand the meaning of language or words of
command, except so far as he is taught to associate
them with actions; consequently, it is not to be ex-

 

Fig. 2.—Vicious aND TREACHEROUS,

pected that he will know what he is required to do
unless taught and shown in a way that he can clearly
comprehend.~- We see, for example,’ says Mr. Magner,
‘that if a horse learn to pull away, break his halter,
resist the blacksmith in shoeing, or run away, he will
be encouraged to do so afterward, and the habit may
become fixed. On the other hand, when a colt is first
haltered, no matter how hard he may resist, if com-

pelled at length to submit, he will be likely not only .

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o,
142 HORSES:

to follow without restraint, but will continue to do so
afterward ; also when the feet are taken up and handled
until an operation is quietly submitted to, or such re-
straint is brought upon the mouth as will overcome
the power of resistance, he will not only submit for the
time, but if the teaching be applied properly, inclina-
tion to resist afterward will be quite overcome.’
“The principle of this reasoning applies as well to
other habits of the horse. Like all other animals of
the herbivorous kind, he is naturally subject to the
domination of man, and so susceptible to training;
this subjection is illustrated in every type of horse, it
does not matter how wild or vicious he may be, if his
treatment be such as properly considers organization ;
in other words, is founded upon a thorough under-
standing of the horse nature. Having become once im-
pressed by the superior power of his master through the
element of fear, his fear overcome and supplemented
by kind treatment he will not only exhibit submission
without the use of force or restraint, but he will re-
main so if not abused or excited. The horse is ever
‘subject to disturbance by the occurrence of unusual
sounds, especially those which arise from something.
in contact with his body, and in this case a noise,
especially if suddenly made, is likely to excite intense
fear or resistance, and he will be likely to be afraid of
it ever afterward. A new object should be brought
slowly and gently to a horse’s notice; he should be
permitted to smell and feel of it, then it can soon be
placed on or around him without causing the least
fear. It does not matter whether while in harness the

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 143

cross-piece falls across the quarters, or an umbrella is
raised behind or the whistle of a steam engine is heard,
if the horse have been shown or introduced carefully
to these things, he will not be seriously disturbed by
them; whereas their sudden occurrence may be pro-
ductive of most dangerous and persistent effects.

“ Third, in relation to teaching the meaning of the
sounds or words of command, using the language of
Mr. Magner, ‘it is evident that if a man were to sit on

Lift Z

iA
Yi

        
 

if ,
ly

  
  

Fig. 3.—WILLFut AND SPIRITED.

a block and simply read the word whoa; to a horse,
he might do it indefinitely without teaching him its
meaning; but if a horse were moved, set in moderate
action, and immediately after the command the reins
were pulled sufficiently hard to make him stop, he
would after a few repetitions of the command learn to
stop, and that without the reins being pulled. Or in
teaching to dack, if after the command were given the
reins were pulled upon sufficiently to force him back-
ward, he would after a few repetitions learn to back

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144. HORSES:

freely of his own accord at the word, to avoid the un-
pleasant effect of the pulling.’

“Tn further illustration of this principle, Mr. Magner
goes on to say howa horse may be taught a few tricks.
If it is desired to teach a horse to make a bow, for
instance, first prick him lightly on the back with a pin,
and repeat this until in his efforts to avoid the annoy--

 

ance he drops his head, then instantly stop the prick.
ing and caress him ;- repeat the pricking until he has
again dropped his head, then caress him and give him
something of which he is fond; continue this method
until at the instant the motion is made toward the
back he will drop his head. To teach him to kick up,
simply prick him on the rump until there is an incli-
nation to kick up, when, as before, stop and caress him ;
so repeat until the least motion toward therump leads

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 148

to the effect desired. Teaching any kind of trick the
principle is the same, the difference being only that
instead of a pin other means suitable to the case must
be used. To teach tricks by the word would be nec-
essary to repeat the command and associate the act
with it. Care should always be taken against confus-
ing. or exciting the animal, and but one trick at a time
- should be impressed upon him, the process being care-

 

Fig. 5,—E XcITABLE AND OBSTINATE.

fully and slowly repeated until no mistake is made.
OF course, as horses differ much in intelligence, some
will acquire their lessons more promptly than others,
and more can be expected in the way of performance
from some, to have prompt obedience at the word of
command. Such an animal as the one in the illustra-
tions (Fig. 1 or Fig. 4) can be readily taught to do un-
_ usual things. For the execution of any trick or move-
ment the exact signal or word which it is customary

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146 HORSES:

to give in teaching it should always be repeated; the
tone or pitch of the voice should be carefully regarded,
otherwise the horse may mistake on the instant what
is wanted of him, and consequently be unable to obey.
Such an animal as that in Fig. 3 or Fig. 7 would test
the patience of any trainer; bad habits, cunning, and
vicious action are to be expected from such a physi-
ognomy. But the defects of organization in such ani
mals are usually increased by bad treatment.

“The principle of kindness in training is potent in
relation to a horse just as it is in relation to our influ-
ence upon our human brothers. Ifa man, for instance,
were strong enough to take a bully by the shoulders
and shake him so thoroughly as to show him that he
had power to control him as he pleased, and then
afterward treat him with kindness, the effect would
be far better in establishing a relation of friendship
and subservience on the part of the bully, than if the
latter were merely impressed that he was kept under,
or subjected by dint of the superior force of the other;
in truth, it is not likely that the rough fellow would
maintain a very pleasant feeling for his superior, if the
contest were carried on in the presence of others, so
that his self-respect were affected, his low jealousy
aroused. If a man could control a horse by putting
his arms around his body, and thus prevent his strug-
gling and becoming excited, and until the muscles
were entirely relaxed, and then further win his confi-
dence by kindness, caressing and so on, the subjuga-
tion obtained would be of the most efficient kind ; but
as there is not strength enough in human nature to

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 147

do this, recourse must-be had to such means as will
approach as near in principle to it as possible. If the
horse be given such freedom as to encourage his con-
fidence in resisting, or if his willful, vicious nature be
stimulated by ignorant, abusive treatment, and he
should in his excitement and fury resist earnestly, de-
spite of the most severe punishment, it.is no more

 

Fig. 6.—Stow, Dut, Ostusz.

than should be expected, and at the same time we
would have a manifestation of the real cause to be
overcome by our treatment. The manifestation pro-
ceeds from a condition of the brain just as mental
phenomena in man arise, and this condition has been
produced by erroneous treatment; and to secure the
desired result of submission a method must be put in
operation for the production of a different mental

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148 HORSES:

state; the fear of the animal must be checked and
modified, and his confidence and good-nature gained.
In the meantime strong physical means of control are
legitimate as a temporary expedient, so as to secure
that mental state which will lead to success. If he
has been unduly stimulated by fear, then the horse
should be shown that there is no cause for fear; if
through certain qualities of viciousness, then those
qualities should be modified through measures which
shall calm and soothe the brain excitement which pro-
duces them. Kindness will accomplish much even
with a stubborn, willful character like Fig. 3. We
should always give a horse some credit for reason and
allow him a little latitude as it were for reflection.
Treating him much as a child whose disposition we
understand, will have a similar effect.

“The reader who is familiar with horses will recog-
nize in the illustrations traits of horse physiognomy
frequently met with. Fig. 1 shows the type of intel-
ligence, high blood and docility; while Fig. 2 (from
life) indicates the vicious and treacherous type, the
animal against whom it is well to be wary. Fig. 3 is
an animal that will tax the strength of his owner to
keep in training. He is spirited, excitable, and ‘off
the handle’ often. Fig. 4 is a good fellow, docile,
yet possessing spirit and intelligence—the horse for
the family that will be kind to and appreciative of him.
Fig. 5 requires a gentle, but strong hand. A ‘high.
strung,’ nervous fellow is he—needing no whip or
spur, but will ‘go’ while he can stand. Fig. 5 is a
very sensitive animal; flies and mosquitos annov him

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THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET, 149

greatly ; his skin is thin and his blood hot. In Fig. 6
we have a specimen of the heavy, dull, stupid horse ;
the one that ‘any one can drive,’ but is rarely driven
off a walk, or a very sluggish infrequent ‘lope.’ He’s
the horse to try the patience of a saint, when a little
behind time for the train. Fig. 7 requires an excep-
tionally good driver to manage him; he must be
- watched or some dangerous trick of his may suddenly

 

Fig. 7.—Very EXcITABLE AND INCORRIGIBLE.

astonish his owner. He'll nab the unwary bystander
on the shoulder, or perhaps seem disposed to make a
brief luncheon of his hat. He has a wild-looking eye,
and the head-lock falls in an unsteady corkscrew way
down over his forehead, in itself suggestive of un-
trustworthiness. Compare Figs. 1 or 4 with Figs. 2,
s, 6, and 7, and see how wide the differences of char-
acter shown even by engravings.

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APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION.

THE PRINCIPLES ADVOCATED THROUGHOUT THIS
BOOK INDORSED BY PROF. KNAPP, OF THE IOWA
IMPROVED STOCK-BREEDING ASSOCIATION.

[From the 7ridune of Nov. 3, 1883.]
HOW TO RAISE HORSES. '

To bring colts to maturity best prepared for many
years of usefulness, was a question considered by the
Iowa Improved Stock-Breeders’ Association. Prof.
Knapp said that overfeeding these animals costs the
people of the State not less than $15,000,000 per
annum.*

“ Two quarts of oats and two ears of corn twice a
day is liberal feeding, but the colt would eat twice as
much and not be as strong. I have tried it over and
over again; I challenge the world to that contest.

* Prof. Knapp’s estimate of the cost of overfeeding included, it is to be
pre-umed, the injury to health, lost time, and premature death of horses
thus treated. Fully a quarter of a million infants (to say nothing of children
and adult voluntary gourmands) are stamped out of existence every year in
this country alone by this same process. That is, the combined influence of
overfeeding and under-exercising (infants being held and wheeled constantly
instead of being largely left to their own resources something like other
younglings), makes fat, soft (¢. ¢., ‘‘ill-conditioned”), and, consequently,
short-lived babies.

See the author’s work on Infant Dietetics, ‘‘ How to Feed the Baby,” by
C. E. Page, M.D., pages 180, price 50 cents. New York: Fowler & Wells.

(151)

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Téa HORSES.

Giving more grain makes rapid ‘growth, but is like
stuffing an animal for market. When you desire to
produce horses for endurance or breeding they must
be matured more slowly. Barrenness, when existing,
is produced nine times out of ten by this stuffing
process. It ruins the health of stock of all kinds.”

Interesting facts to the same effect were presented
by Mr. Wallace, who makes it a point to spend a
month once a year in Pittsburg, a noted market for
horses :

“T have gone among the liverymen and railroad
contractors and teamsters—men who use the heaviest
kind of horses and put them to the hardest kind of
work—and asked them where they get their horses
and which kinds they prefer. Said one gentleman:
‘We used to get our horses from Kentucky; but now
these’ Kentuckians have got in the habit of pushing
their horses too fast; after the manner of pushing
beef cattle. We want a horse that has grown on hilly
ground somewhat rocky, with a limestone soil. We
want him kept until he is three years old with a good
fair diet, plenty of exercise, and not kept closely in
the barn. Otherwise we are obliged to keep them a
year before they are able to stand any work.’ ”’

RUNNING DOWN ON TWO MEALS.

A friend who became very much impressed with
the alleged advantages of the two-meal-a-day system, |
gave it atrial with his own horse, and came near
abandoning the experiment asa failure. His horse

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APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 153

“began to run down,” as he said, “and became
quite seedy”; so much so that the experimenter grew
ashamed of the animal’s appearance. There was in
this case no question but what the amount given was
liberal enough (unless his own stable-man deceived
him—which he felt sure was not the case), but the
truth in the matter was simply this: the horse was
fat. His work had been light, and his diet heavy.
Accustomed to his over-liberal feed every five or six
hours, he had become really unsound throughout, as
explained on page 21 (“A Soft Horse”). He had to
be built from the ground up, as per examples on pages
17-20-24-25, or else remain as he was, unfit for hard
service and predisposed to sickness. He finally
worked the case out successfully. With horses that
are and have long been “out of form,” 2. ¢., pretty
thoroughly degenerated (and the older the creature
and the longer he has been thus diseased, the worse
for him), any radical change—whether increase of
work, decrease of food, or less frequent meals—would
speedily “show them up”’—expose their real condi-
tion; but if the regular daily exercise is maintained
no animal will shrink in muscle, however much he
may in weight. He has, we will assume, taken on
(and in and through) himself a large amount of fat,
because overfed and underworked. His muscles are
honeycombed with fat ; but being stimulated with a
meal every few hours he maintains an appearance of
strength, as, on account of fat, he does of condition—
can travel sharp and strong for a short distance. If
sent on a long journey he is used up for several days.

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154 HORSES.

Put him to hard, steady work and he will possibly
pass through the “seedy” stage, which is, neverthe-
less, a curative stage. At first he acts weak—he is
weak—but the effect will be, if the new regimen
be persevered in, to prevent the possibility of dis-
temper or other forms of disease which would very
likely “attack” him, sooner or later, if continued on
the old regimen; and in a reasonable time (depend-
ing upon the degree of his disease, natural constitu-
tion, and the discretion or tact of his trainer or at-
tendant) he will be in every way improved. Speak-
ing from a worldly-wise stand-point, it may be said
that if a man owns a fat horse and wants to sell him
to the best advantage, he should find a fool and sell.
If, on the other hand, he has a naturally fine animal
disordered in this manner, and desires, for his own
satisfaction or use, to make him trustworthy, there is
but one way to do it, viz.: to inaugurate a system
of regular and tolerably hard service, and, of course,
give him enough to eat, whether at two or three
meals a day. At the same time, if his fat horse is
satisfactory as he is; if he never expects to have
occasion to make any sudden heavy demands upon
him, in the shape of long hard drives; if he doesn’t
want the bother of remodeling him, preferring to
take the chances of his getting sick and getting out
of it without serious inconvenience, why, he had best
keep right along in the old way.

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APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 155

ST. JULIEN AND JAY-EYE-SEE.

A “POINT” LEARNED TOO LATE FOR THE GOOD OF
“THE OLD HORSE”: IMPORTANCE OF HARD WORK

(SEE PP. 19-77).

On the day before the great race at Fleetwood be-
tween these famous horses, the Suz printed the fol-
lowing :

(The day before.)
“ JAV-EVE-SEE ARRIVES, LOOKING TIRED.

“ Jay-Eye-See, Mr. Case’s wonderful little five-year-
old, left Boston on Wednesday night, and arrived at
_Fleetwood Park at 8:40 o’clock yesterday morning.
He looked tired. He had been shipped here after
trotting a hard contest, and had had no rest. Edwin
Bithers, his driver, remained in Boston to drive Phal-
las. Mr. Case will be here to-morrow morning.

“Of St. Julien’s chance in the great trot, Hickok
said :

“«T don’t believe the old horse can be beaten on
this track on Saturday. He is working well, and 7.
have not yet sent him to the top of his speed.* The
fastest miles I have given him here were in 2:143, and
2:154, and yesterday I jogged him a mile in 2:17.’*

“The betting on the trot is at the rate of $100 to
$60 on St. Julien to win. It is believed that 10,000
persons will be present to see the contest.”

It was my belief, and I said repeatedly on the day of

* The italics are my own.

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156 HORSES.

the race—predicting the result—that Jay-Eye-See’s
hard work of late would ensure him a victory. If
Mr. Hickok had “sent St. Julien to the top of his
speed ”’ frequently for weeks before this race, instead
of being content with fair work and “jogging,” he
would have given the little Westerner a harder task.
On the day after the 'race, viz., Sunday, September
30, 1883, Mr. Hickok seems to have thoroughly learned
the advantage of plenty of work “to stay up the mus-
cles,” according to the following from the same paper:

(The day after.)
“ST. JULIEN AND JAY-EYE-SEE.

“Mr. O. A. Hickok, part owner and driver of St.
Julien, said yesterday that his horse was short of
work to stay up his muscles. ‘What I mean by that
is,’ he said, ‘that he hasn’t had a hard, bruising race
this season, where he was put up to the top notch by
such a steady horse as Jay-Eye-See.’ ”

What makes such horses as this? This is what
made Jay-Eye-See; and the same combination will

*make others like him: To begin with, he was “ born
so”! Who was his father? Who was his mother?
Who were his grandparents, on both sides of the
house? This is what makes the possibilities, the
probabilities, indeed, if not the guaranty, of kind,
handsome, vigorous and able men, women, horses, or
any other creatures. Inheritance of a high order—noth-
ing else is certain. Like produces like. Second: He
fortunately came into the possession, at an early age,

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APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 157

of a man who, if we may be pardoned the egotism,
knew just what this book aims to teach, so far as
concerns the absolute necessity of plenty of hard and
sharp exercise in order (having the stuff to work on)
to develop the growing animal in the best possible
manner, and having thus developed him, to keep him
in condition. There is, in the rearing of colts, occa-
sion for the use of much discretion, but nothing is
more certain, to my mind, than that many a good
horse is spoiled from overfeeding and underworking
during the growing stage. He should not be a fat-
ling, a soft-shell, during this period, nor ever after.

THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT.

Hanlan, the oarsman, works very hard. “I have
traveled thirty miles to-day,” he is quoted as saying,
“and all with my own wind and muscle. I went
about twenty of it in my boat, and the rest on my
legs. Oh, no; that is not exceptional. I do as much
as that every day, from early in the spring until late
in the fall. You see my races are rather frequent, and
it is necessary that I should keep myself constantly
in perfect condition. I am, therefore, in training all
the time. My diet is always as carefully regulated as
though I was to pull a race next day.” Hanlan never
drinks a drop of alcohol in any form.

FLAT-FOOTED OPINION ABOUT NON-SHOEING.

H. Reynolds, M.D., of Livermore Falls, Me., writes
to the Suz as follows:

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158 HORSES.

“MY EXPERIENCE WITH AN UNSHOD HORSE

“There is no doubt that some horses may be driven
over our common roads daily for months, and perhaps
years, without being shod. In September, 1882, I
bought a mare whose hind feet were not shod. She
had raised a colt, and had been running in the pasture
all summer without being shod. Before I purchased
her she had been shod forward. Thinking it a favor-
able opportunity to test the question of allowing
horses to go unshod, I determined to try the experi-
ment. This mare I used in the practice of my pro-
fession as a physician, driving her daily from Septem-
ber till some time in March, when I traded her for
another horse. During this time I had no shoes put
upon the hind feet. I drove her over hard, stony,
dry roads, muddy roads, frozen and rough roads, and
on snow and ice, and her hind feet never failed her,
nor did they suffer for the want of shoes. The hoof
seemed to grow as fast as it wore away. Around the
rim of the hoof there was a hard ridge of horn, bev-
eled by use both on the inside and outside, completely
taking the place of a shoe. This horse did not ‘ ball
up’ when the snow was soft, nor slip on the ice more
than any other horse which was kept well shod. It
is true it was a favorable winter as to ice, there being
very little of it in the roads. My experience with
that horse convinced me that an unshod horse could
endure as much driving on ordinary country roads as
a shod horse. Whether all horses could do the same
is another question. Undoubtedly there is much dif-

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APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 159

ference in the hardness and toughness of different
horses’ feet. Some, perhaps, would require shoeing,
while others would not.. If I had a colt which had
not been shod, I should drive him without shoeing
until I saw that he needed shoeing.

“USING FARM HORSES UNSHOD.

“ Many if not all farm horses might advantageously
go without shoes, at least during the summer months.
As the experience of those who have tested the
method is of more value than any mere theorizing,
let us hear what a Michigan farmer says in a commu-
nication to the 7rzbune on this matter. He says:
‘For fifteen years I have made it a practice to take
the shoes off of all my horses when beginning spring
work, and let them go barefoot until fall, and I find
that they can do all the farm work as well as when
shod. I have no trouble about driving on the road,
except when drawing heavy loads up slippery hills ;
if hills are dry, I know a team can draw as heavy
loads barefoot as when shod, and I think a horse can
travel easier and better on good sleighing without
shoes; but in this part of the country there are apt
to be so many icy spots during the winter that I keep
my horses shod then. .... I have never had a horse
with bad feet since letting them go barefoot in sum-
mer, and when they are shod their shoes stay on much
better than when I kept them shod all the time.’

“A CONNECTICUT FARMER

who had tried working horses unshod says: ‘I find
they work better, more sure-footed, and are far less

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160 HORSES.

liable to lameness than when shod, and I am well sat-
isfied that horses’ feet, as nature made them, are all-
sufficient for ordinary work, and, I believe, for extra-
ordinary work. After my long experience, I should
now as soon think of going to a farrier myself to be
shod as to send my horses for that purpose. What
surprised me most was that one of my horses was
continually falling lame, and we never could discover
the cause; but since she has been worked without
shoes she has never shown the least symptoms of
lameness, and never stumbled, which she did very
much when shod, from which I infer that the paring
the soles when shoeing made her feet very tender,
and was the cause of all the trouble. Our roads are
rough, hilly, and stony, much more so than average
roads, so that my success can not be attributed to
superiority in this respect. Equestrians would find
it far safer to use horses without shoes, as the sole
becomes so hard as to be non-sensitive to small
stones, and the animals are thus far less liable to
stumble.’ -

“HOW TO MAKE THE CHANGE.

“ Horses which have been accustomed to wearing
shoes can not be driven on hard roads without shoes
until the hoofs have had time to grow out and be
prepared for the change. If the horse can be turned
out to pasture a few months, the hoofs will have am-
ple time to grow out and become adapted to the
change. In two months a horse can, with care, be
brought into readiness for use without shoes. In re-

Digitized by Microsoft®
APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 161

gard to this method, Col. M. C. Weld says: ‘The
shoes should be left on as long as they will hold, in
order that when taken off there shall be a wide rim
of horn all around the hoof to be cut away. This
would otherwise have to grow out before it could be
removed either by the knife, by the rasp, or by wear.
Then the horse should be turned out to pasture or
used only for farm work. Every few days his feet
should be €xamined, and rasped off if necessary. As
the wall of the hoof grows and wears, the extreme
outer edge all around will be level, or nearly level,
. with the inner edge of the wall..... The first
changed appearance of the hoof that will be noticed:
after the shoes are removed will be the growth of a
healthy rim of new horn, seen under the hairs of the
coronet; next, a widening or spreading of the heel and
an enlargement of the frog. It takes a full year for
the whole hoof to grow out and off; consequently it
takes nearly that time for a contracted, high-heeled,
frogless foot to assume its normal form. In the win-
ter a barefooted horse will not ball and will not slip
if.he knows he is on the ice, and, if he comes upon it
-unawares, he gets his footing almost immediately. I
~ have never had a horse slip badly even on ice covered
with snow. The danger is not to be compared with
that to a shod horse with snowballs attached to each
foot, coming upon an icy spot, as often happens. If
heavy loads are to be drawn, shoes with calks are
needed, especially in starting and going up icy hills.
For general driving in the country, for farm use, and
for ordinary road use, when the labor is not severe,

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162 HORSES.

unshod horses are safer, sounder, pleasanter to drive,
and more economical than if shod. Stumbling rarely
occurs. Cutting, interfering, overreaching, and forg-
ing never.’

“A LARGE PART OF THE SHOES MIGHT BE DISs-
PENSED WITH.

“In view of the testimony advanced in favor of
unshod horses, it is evident that many of our horses
might go without being shod. All such as are troub-
led with stumbling, interfering, overreaching, forging,
contracted feet, corns, and other affections incident
to shoeing, certainly could advantageously be allowed
to go without shoeing.* Colts which never have
been shod should not be shod until there seems to
be actually need of it. Work horses used for drawing
heavy loads will probably require shoeing in winter.
On the whole, it seems probable that the larger part
of the horseshoeing might be dispensed with, and
the horses would prove as serviceable at least as at
present.”

The London Live Stock Journal, commenting upon

-~the subject of
THE SHOELESS HORSE,
says:

“Mr. R. A. Luck’s horse, entered into the trades-
man’s class at Darlington, for the purpose of allowing
persons interested with the question of the shoeing

* Query: If such animals can be improved, perhaps cured, by taking off
their shoes, is it not probable that such disorders would be prevented by the
_Same means, or by never beginning the practice of shoeing ? .

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APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 163

of horses the opportunity of inspecting the feet of a
horse that had done hard work on macadamized roads
without shoes, attracted considerable attention. Ex-
perienced farriers, huntsmen, farmers, tradesmen, and
gentlemen were to be seen in groups round the horse
all the afternoon, critically examining its hoofs. The
curiosity evinced was not surprising, nor the skepti-
cism with which the various inspections were made,
and not less noticeable was the general astonishment
and wonder expressed at the remarkable results of
Mr. Luck’s experiment. It is so universally believed
(says The Darlington Times) that the shoeing of horses
is absolutely necessary, that it appeared almost in-
credible that an animal which had been unsound in
its feet could be made sound by abandoning shoeing ;
and more than this, that it could, after nearly a year’s
regular work over country and town roads, show such
perfect hoofs. The development of the feet was a
constant source of wonder, and Mr. Luck, who cour-
teously explained the circumstances of the experiment,
must have been somewhat wearied at having to ex-
plain in detail so often how he had succeeded. It is
no exaggeration to say—indeed, it was admitted by all
who saw the animal—that no horse on the field pos-
sessed four sounder or better feet, and this simply by
allowing nature to have her own way. No task is
more difficult than to root out long-accepted ideas,
and we can scarcely expect that a tithe of those who
yesterday admitted the success so clearly demon-
strated will forthwith abandon shoeing as an un-
‘necessary practice; but wherever men interested in

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164 HORSES.

horses congregate together, the subject will be a
theme of discussion for the next nine days. Nothing
more surprising was seen at the show, and not a few -
were convinced against their will that what they had
hitherto regarded as impossible had actually been
achieved. In many parts of the country we under-
stand gentlemen are regularly working unshod horses,
and with equally satisfactory results to those demon-
strated yesterday, and doubtless ere long Mr. Luck
will find many imitators in the north.” ;

D. M. A. has this to say to the editors of the /x-
diana Farmer on

UNSHOD, HORSES.

“ There was a clipping in the Harmer a few weeks _
ago, saying that they wished that some one would
perfect a breed of horses that could work without
shoes. We have such a breed now. If farmers would
try it they would find that the most of our horses
can go without shoes, and have better feet than those
that have shoes. I have had but few horses shod for
twenty years. In that time I have not had a lame
horse. The only time we need shoes is when the
road is icy, and then, if the shoes are not sharp, a_
horse will slip more than if they had none. I have
had Clydesdales and other horses, and any of them
can travel twenty-five miles on a gravel road and
never flinch. A horse’s feet are like a person’s; if
they are kept shod the foot becomes brittle and ten-
der. If not shod they become hard and tough.”

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APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 165

REASON FOR SHOEING.

The only good reason for shoeing a horse is that he
has been shod. This is about as valid as the analogous
excuse fora man’s drinking whiskey. The man who has
taken his regular “ nipper” every day would be hardly
fit for business for some days, weeks perhaps, after
breaking off from the practice. Nevertheless, he had
better break it off. No horse that has been long abused
with iron shoes, and the paring and coring submitted
to at the hands of even the most reasonable, or rather
the least unreasonable, blacksmith retains anything
like the natural foot in shape, or fitness for hard
work. To take off his shoes and continue his regular
work would (supposing this to be severe, as in the
livery, for instance, or hard pulling over ordinary
roads) result in great temporary inconvenience ; al-
though he would come out ahead finally. But when-
ever it is practicable to “favor” them (more or less,
and for a longer or shorter time, as the case may be)
there will never be found an instance of failure to
accomplish a great and permanent benefit by taking
off the.shoes “ for good.”

Thus far we have dealt very little in theory ; but
have shown that, in practice, the less shoeing the bet-
ter: z.¢., the lighter the shoes, the more closely we
hold to the “tips” when any irons are used; the
longer the barefoot season (if resort must be had to
shoeing at certain seasons or under certain circum-
stances), the better it will be for the horse, and, con

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166 . HORSES.

sequently, for his owner. It may not be amiss, how-
ever, in closing the discussion, to insert here

A LITTLE THEORY.

The following from the American Cyclopedia will
be of interest to all who wish to do for themselves a
little “ reasoning after the fact ”:

“The hoof of the horse presents an admirable adap-
tation to secure solidity and elasticity in an instrument
of progression; the whole exterior horny covering,,.
composed of modified epidermic structure, is a hollow
cone truncated above, into which the coffin bone is re-
ceived ; highest in front, it gradually diminishes back-
ward, where it is suddenly turned inward, becom-
ing mixed with the sole, supporting the under parts
of the foot, and protecting the sole and the frog from
too rough pressure against the ground; this internal
wall, called the ‘bars of the foot,’ by its sloping direc-
tion distributes the weight of the body toward the
-sides of the hoof, with whose numerous perpendicular
horny lamine interdigitate similar processes from the
vascular surface of the coffin bone. In the triangular
space in the center of the foot is an elastic horny
mass called the frog, its base connecting the posterior
curves of the hoof, the sides united with the bar, and
the point extending about to the center of the sole;
on the sides are deep channels, to allow of its expan-
sion and render the foot elastic; its actual thickness
in horn is not so great as farriers seem to think, from
the freedom with which they use the paring knife; in

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APPENDIX TO SECOND EDITION. 167

a well-formed foot, the base of the frog ought to oc-
cupy a sixth part of the circumference of the circle
of the hoof; in the center of the frog is a horny con-
ical cavity of considerable depth, which protects the
partially cleft foot from further rupture, adds to the
elasticity, secures a firmer hold on loose soils, and pass-
ing above into the substance of the sensitive frog
serves to unite firmly the two halves of the foot,
which are completely divided in ruminants; this
horny cone has been.called the frogstay or bolt. The
sensitive frog falls into the inverted arch of the horny
frog, which are thus held mutually in place and pre-
served from external shock. The sole is an irregular
plate of horn, closing up the lower opening of the
foot, of an arched form, abutting everywhere against
the sides of the wall, another contrivance for securing
elasticity. The foot of the horse, therefore, though
solid in front, is partially cleft behind, so that the
terms solidungula and solipoda can not strictly be ap-
* plied to it; zzdeed a solid, continuous, unyielding circle
of horn would be very painful if not entirely useless as
an instrument of active progression; this beautiful
structure, however, ts sadly interfered with tn almost
all methods of shoeing. Immediately under the hoof
are extensive cartilages, attached to the last two
bones, protecting the upper part of the structure and
adding greatly to the elasticity of the foot, and per-
mitting the movements of the coffin bone within the
hoof; zz old horses these cartilages may become par-
tially ossified, and are then called ring-bones. Under
the hoof is also a very sensitive and vascular layer,

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168 HORSES,

from which the hoof originates, analogous to the soft
core of hollow horns and the matrix of nails.”

AUTHOR’S GENERAL NOTE.

(@8" The reception accorded to this book by horse-
men and the trade, and the favor with which it has
been received by agricultural and sporting papers,
has been so phenomenal that no sooner was the first
full edition fairly off the press than a second is de
manded. I am especially glad of this, for it has given
me the opportunity to thus speedily make a certain
correction on page 40 relating to contagious diseases.

753 BROADWAY, NEw YORK, JVov, 20, 1883.

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The Phrenological Miscellany; of,
Illustrated Annuals of Phrenology and
Physiognomy, from 1865 to 1873 combin-
ed in r volume, the nine containing over
400 illustrations, many portraits and biog-
raphies of distinguished personages, toe
gether with articles on ‘‘How to Study
Phrenology,” ‘‘ Resemblance to Parents,”
‘‘Bashfulness,” ‘‘Diffidence,” ‘‘ Stammers
ing,” etc., an elaborate article on ‘‘ The
Marriage of Cousins,” ‘Jealousy, its
Cause and Cure.” 450 pages, $1.50.

Phrenology and the Scriptures.—
Showing the Harmony between Phrenol-
ogy and the Bible. By Rev. J. PIERPONT.
Paper, 15 cts.

The Annuals of Phrenology and
HEALTH ALMANAC for 1874, ’75, ’76, ’77,
178, '79, '80, ’81, °82, 783, in one vol. $1. .

—Symbolical Head and Phreno-
LocicaL Map. On fine tinted paper, roc.
Phrenology, its History and Impor-
TANT PRINCIPLES. By T. TURNER. Ioc.

WTORES OW MAGNETISM,

There is an increasing interest in the facts relating to Magnetism, etc., and we present
below a list of Works on this subject.

Practical Instructions in Animal
Macnetism. By J. P. F. DELEUZE, Trans-
lated by Thomas C. Hartshorn. New and
Revised edition, with an appendix of notes
by the Translator, and Letters from Emi-
nent Physicians, and others. $2.00.

History of Salem Witchcraft.—A
review of Charles W. Upham’s great
Work from the Fainburgh Review, with
Notes: by SAMUEL R. WELLS, contain-
ing, also, The Planchette Mystery, Spirit-
ualism, by Mrs. HARRIET BEECHER
STOWE, and Dr. Doddridge’s Dream. $1.

Fascination; or, the Philosophy. of
CHARMING. Illustrating the Principles
of Life in connection with Spirit and Mat-
ter. By J. B. NEwman, M.D. $1.00.

Six Lectures on the Philosophy of
MESMERISM, delivered in Marlboro’ Chap-
el, Boston. By Dr. JoHN BOVEE Dops.
Paper, 50 cents.

The Philosophy of Electrical Psy-
CHOLOGY, in a course of Twelve Lectures.
By the same author. x2mo, cloth, $1.25.

 

The Library of Mesmerism and
PsyCHOLOGY.—Comprising the Philoso-
phy of Mesmerism, Ciairvoyance, Mental
Electricity.—Fascination, or the Power of
Charming. Illustrating the Principles
of Life in connection with Spirit and
Matter.—The Macrocosm, or the Universe
Without : being an unfolding of the plan
of Creation, and the Correspondence of
Truths.—The Philosophy of Electrical
Psychology ; the Doctrine of Impressions ;
including the connection between Mind
and Matter; also, the Treatment of Dis-
eases.—Psychology ; or, the Science of the
Soul, considered Physiologically and Philo-
sophically ; with an Appendix containing
Notes of Mesmeric and Psychica] experi-
ence, and illustrations of the Brain and
Nervous System. t1vol. $3.50.

How to Magnetize; or, Magnetism
AND CLAIRVOYANCE.—A Practical T'reat-
jse on the Choice, Managemen. and
Yapabilities of Subjects, with Instructions

on the Method of Procedure. By JAMES
ViIcTOR WILSON. 18mo, paper, 25 cts,
The Key to Ghostism. By Rev,

Tuomas MITCHEL. $1.50.

Sent by Mail, post-paid, FOWLER & WELLS, Publishers, 783 Broadway, New Vork,

 

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HEALTH BOOKS.

This List comprises the Best Works on Hygiene, Health, Etc.

Combe (Andrew, M.D.)—Principles
applied to the Preservation of Health and
to the Improvement of Physical and
Mental Education. Ilustrated. Cloth.

$1.50.

Management of Infancy, Physi-
ological and Moral Treatment. With
Notes and a Supplementary Chapter,
$1.25.

Dodds (Susanna W., M.D.)—Health
IN THE HOUSEHOLD; or, Hygienic Cook-
ery. I2mo, extra cloth, $2.00.

Fairchild (M. Augusta, M.D.)—How
TO BE WELL; or, Common-Sense Med-
ical Hygiene. A book for the People,
giving Directions for the Treatment and
Cure of Acute Diseases without the use of
Drug Medicines; also, General Hints on
HeaJth, $1.00.

Graham (Sylvester).— Science of
HuMAN LIFE, LECTURES ON THE. With
a copious Index and Biographical Sketch
of the Author. Illustrated, $3.00.

—Chastity.—Lectures to Young
Men. Intended also for the Serious Con-
sideration of Parents and Cuardians,
1zmo. Paper, 50 cents.

Gully (J. M., M.D.) — Water-Cure
In CHRonic DISEASES. An Exposition
of the Causes, Progress, and Termination
of various Chronic Diseases of the Di-
gestive Organs, Lungs, Nerves, Limbs,
and Skin, and of their Treatment by
Water and other Hygienic means. $1.50.

For Girls; A Special Physiology, or
Supplement to the Study of General Phy-
siology. By Mrs. E. R. Shepherd. $1.00.

Page (C. E., M.D.)—How to Feed
the Baby to make her Healthy and Hap-
py. i1zmo. Third edition, revised and
enlarged. Paper, 50 cents; extra cloth,
75 cents.

This is the most important work ever publish-
ed on the subject of infant dietetics.

-—The Natural Cure of Consump-
TION, Constipation, Bright’s Disease, Neu-
ralgia, Rheumatism, ‘‘Colds” (Fevers),
etc. How these Disorders Originate, and

How to Prevent Them. 12mo, doth: $1.00.

 

 

Horses : THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET.
—A Manual of Horse Hygiene. Invaluable
to the veteran or the novice, pointing out
the true sources of disease, and how to pre-
vent and counteract them. By C. E,
PaGE, M.D. Paper 50 cts., cloth 75 cts.

Diseases of Modern Life. By Brn-
JAMIN WARD RICHARDSON, M.D., M.A.,
F.R.S. 520 pages, $1.50.

The Health Miscellany. An impor-
tant Collection of Health Papers. Nearly
100 octavo pages. 25 cents.

Gully (jl. M., M.D.) and Wilson
(JAMES, M. D.)—PRACTICE OF THE
WATER-CURE, with Authenticated Evi-
dence of its Efficacy and Safety. Con-
taining a Detailed Account of the various
Processes used in the Water Treatment,
a Sketch of the History and Progress of
the Water-Cure. 5ocents. ~

Jacques (D. H., M.D.}—The Tem-
PERAMENTS; or, Varieties of Physical
Constitution in Man, considered in their
relation to Mental Character and Practical
Affairs of Life. With an Introduction
by H. S. DRayToN, A.M., Editor of the
Phrenological Fournal. 150 Portraits
and other Illustrations. $1.50.

—How to Grow Handsome, or
Hints toward Physical Perfection, and
the Philosophy of Human Reauty, show-
ing How to Acquire and Retam Bodily
Symmetry, Health, and Vigor, secure
Long Life, and Avoid the Infirmities and
Deformities of Age. New Edition. $1.00.

Johnson (Edward, M.D.}—Domes-
TIC PRACTICE OF HYDROPATHY, with
Fifteen Engraved Illustrations of impor-
tant subjects, from Drawings by Dr. How-
ard Johnson. $1.50.

White (Wm., M.D.)}—Medical Elec-
TRICITY.—A Manual for Students, show-
ing the most Scientific and Rational Ap-
plication to all forms of Diseases, of the
different Combinations of Electricity,
Galvanism, Electro-Magretism, Magneto- |
Electricity, and Human Magnetism,
12mo0, $2.00.

Transmission ; or, Variations of Char-

acter Through the.Mother. By GEORG-
ina B. KirBy. 25 cls., cloth, 50 cts.

Sent by Mail, post-paid. FOWLER & WELLS, Publishers, 753 Broadway, New York,

 

f

 

osoffR

    

 
 

Peck (J. L.~-The Human Feet.—
Their Shape, Dress, and Proper Care.
Showing their Natural, Perfect Shape
and Construction, their present Deformed
Condition, and how Flat Feet, Distorted
Toes, and other Defects are to be Prevent-
ed or Corrected. Jilustrated. $1.00.

The Diseases of Modern Life. By
B. W. Richardson, M.D. Ex. clo , $1.50.

Pendleton (Hester, Mrs.)— The
PARENTS’ GUIDE; or, Human Develop-
ment through Pre-Natal Influences and
Inherited Tendencies. Revised Ed. $1.25.

Pereira (Jonathan, M.D., F.R.S.)—
Foop AND DIET. With observations on
the Dietetical Regimen, suited for Dis-
ordered States of.the Digestive Organs,
and an account of the Dietaries of some of
the Principal Metropolitan and other Es-
tablishments for Paupers, Lunatics, Crim-
inals, Children, the Sick, etc. Edited by
Cuar_es A. Leg, M.D. $1.40.

Shew (Joel, M.D.)—The Family
PuysicIax.—A Ready Prescriber and
Hygienic Adviser. With Reference to
the Nature, Causes, Prevention, and
Treatment of Diseases, Accidents, and
Casualties of every kind. With a Glossary
and copious Index. Illustrated with nearly
Three Hundred Engravings. $3.00.

—Letters to Womenon Midwifery
AND DISEASES OF WOMEN.—A Descrip-
tive and Practical Work, giving Treat-
ment in Menstruation and its Disorders,
Chlorosis, Leucorrhea, Fluor Albus, Pro-
lapsus Uteri, Hysteria, Spinal Diseases,
and other weaknesses of I’emales, Preg-
nancy and its Diseases, Abortion, Uterine
Hemorrhage, and the General Manage-
ment of Childbirth, Nursing, etc. $1.50.

---Pregnancy and Childbirth, with
Cases showing the remarkable Effects of
Water Treatment in Mitigating the Pains
and Perils of the Parturient State. 50 cts.

Tobacco : its Physical, Intellectual,
and Moral Effects on the Human System,
By Dr. Alcott. New and revised ed., with
notes and additions, by N. Sizer. 25 cts.

 

 

WORKS ON HEALTH AND HYGIENE.

Shew (Joel, M.D.)—Children, their
Hydropathic Management in Health and
Disease. A Descriptive and Practical
Work, designed as a Guide for Families
and Physicians, $1.50.

Sober and Temperate Life.—The
Discourses and Letters of Louris CORNARO
on a Sober and Temperate Life. 50 cts.

Taylor (G. H., M.D.)—The Move-
MENT CurRE. The History and Philoso-
phy of this System of Medical Treatment,
with Examples of Single Movements, The
Principles of Massage, and Directions for
their Use in various Forms of Chronic
Diseases. New and Enlarged Ed. $1.50.

— Massage. Giving the Principles
and Directions for its Application in all
Forms of Chronic Diseases. 12mo, $1.59.

The Science of a New Life. By
John Cowan, M.D. Extra cloth, $3.co.

Horses: Their Feed and Their Feet.
A Manual of Horse Hygiene. By C. E.
Page, M.D. 50 cents.

Philosophy of the Water-Cure. By
John Balbirnie, M.D. 50 cents.

Chronic Diseases.—Especially the
Nervous Diseases of Women. 25 cents.

Prevention and
25 cents.

Consumption, its
Cure by the Movement Cure.

Notes on Beauty, Vigor, and Devel-
OPMENT ; or, How to Acquire Plumpness
of Form, Strength of Limb, and Beauty
of Complexion, Illustrated. 10 cents,

Tea and Coffee.—Their Physical,
Intellectual, and Moral Effects on the
Human System. .By Dr. Alcott. New
and revised edition, with notes and ad-
ditions by Nelson Sizer, 25 cents.

Heredity.— RESPONSIBILITY AND PAR-
ENTAGE, By Rev. S. H. Platt. ro cts.

Special List.—We have in addition
to the above, Private Medical Works and
Treatises. This Special List will be sent
on receipt of stamp.

Sent by Mail, post-paid, FOWLER & WELLS, Publishers, 753 Broadway, New York.

 

 

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WORKS ON HYGIENE BY R. T. TRALL, M.D.

Hyd.opathic Encyclopedia.—A Sys-
tem of Hydropathy and Hygiene. Em-
bracing Outlines of Anatomy, Illus’ed ;
Physiology of the Human Body; Hygi-
enic Agencies, and the Preservation of
Health ; Dietetics and Hydropathic Cook-
ery ; Theory and Practice of Water-Treat-
ment; Special Pathology and Hydro-
Therapeutics, including the Nature,
Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment of all
known Diseases; Application of Hydrop-
athy to Midwifery and the Nursery, with
nearly One Thousand Pages, including a
Glossary. Designed as a guide to Families
and Students. With numerous Illus, 2
vols.inone. $4.

Oterine Diseases & Displacements.
A Practical Treatise on the Various Dis-
eases, Malpositions, and Structural De-
rangements of the Uterus and its Append-
ages. Fifty-three Colored Plates. $5.

The Hygienic Hand-Book.—Intend-
ed as a Practical Guide for the Sick-
Room. Arranged alphabetically. $1.50.

{llustrated Family Gymnasium —
Containing the most improved methods
of applying Gymnastic, Calisthenic, Kine-
sipathic and Vocal Exercises to the Devel-
opment of the Bodily Organs, the invigor-
ation of their functions, the preservation
of Health, and the Cure of Diseases and
Deformities. With illustrations. $1.50.

The Hydropathic Cook-Book, with
Recipes for Cooking on Hygienic Princi-
ples. Containing also, a Philosophical
Exposition of the Relations of Food to
Health; the Chemical Elements and
Proximate Constitution of Alimentary
Principles; the Nutrit've Properties of
all kinds of Aliments; the Relative Value
of Vegetable aud Animal Substances;
the Selection and Preservation of Dietetic
Material, etc. $1.95.

Fruits and Farinacea the Proper
Foop oF Man.—Being an attempt to
prove by History, Anatomy, Physiology,
and Chemistry that the Original, Natural,
and Best Diet of Man is derived from the
Vegetable Kingdom. By JoHN SMITH.
With Notes by TRALL. $1.50.

Digestion and Dyspepsia.—A Com-
plete Explanation of the Physiology of
the Digestive Processes, with the Symp-
toms and Treatment of Dyspepsia and
other Disorders. Illustrated. $1.00.

 

The Mother's Hygienic Hand-Book
for the Normal Development and Train-
ing of Women and Children, and the
Treatment of their Diseases. $1.00.

Popular Physiology.—A Familiar
Exposition of the Structures, Functions,
and Relations of the Human System and
the Preservation of Health. $1.25.

The True Temperance Platform.—
An Exposition of the Fallacy of Alcoholic
Medication, being the substance of ad-
dresses delivered in the Queen’s Concert
Rooms, London, Paper, 50 cents.

The Alcoholic Controversy.—A Re-
view of the Westménster Review on the
Physiological Errors of Teetotalism. 50c.

The Human Voice.—Its Anatomy,
Physiology, Pathology, Therapcutics,
and Training, with Rules of Order for
Lyceums. 50 cents; cloth, 75 cents.

The True Healing Art ; or, Hygienic
vs. DRUG MEDICATION. An _ Address
delivered before the Smithsonian Institute,
Washington, D.C. Paper, 25 cents;
cloth, 50 cents.

Water-Cure for the Million.—The
processes of Water-Cure Explained, Pop-
ular Errors Exposed, Hygienic and Drug
Medication Contrasted. Rules for Bath-
ing, Dieting, Exercising, Recipes for
Cooking, etc., etc. Directions for Home
Treatment. Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts.

Hygeian Home Cook-Book; or,
HEALTHFUL AND PALATABLE [oop
WITHOUT CONDIMENTS. A Book of
Recipes. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts.

Accidents and Emergencies, a guide
containing Directions for the Treatment
in Bleeding, Cuts, Sprains, Ruptures,
Dislocations, Burns and Scalds, Bites of
Mad Dogs, Choking, Poisons, kits, Sun-
strokes, Drowning, etc. By Alfred Smee,
with Notes and additions by R. T. Trall,
M.D. New and revised edition. 25 cts.

Diseases of Throat and Lungs.—
Including Diphtheria and Proper Treat-
ment. 25 cents.

The Bath.--Its History and Uses in
Health and Disease. Paper 25c.; clo., 50c.

A Health Catechism.—Questions
and Answers, With Illustrations, 1c cts.

Sent by Mail, post-paid. F OWL ER SSM F Wir shRleree” ss 753 Broadway, New York.

 

«

 
 

 

MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.

Hand-books for Home Improve-
MENT (EDUCATIONAL); comprising,
“How to Write,” ‘‘How to Talk,”
‘How to Behave,” and ‘‘How to do
Business.” One 12mo vol., $2.00.

How to Write: a Pocket Manual of
Composition and Letter-Writing. 75 cts.

How to Talk: a Pocket Manual of
Conversation and Debate, with more than
Five Hundred Common Mistakes in
Speaking Corrected. 75 cents.

How to Behave: a Pocket Manual
of Republican Etiquette and Guide to
Correct Personal Habits, with Rules for
Debating Societies and Deliberative
Assemblies. 75 cents.

How to Do Business: a Pocket
Manual of Practical Affairs, and a Guide
to Success in Life, with a Collection of
Legal and Commercial Forms. 75c.

How to Read.—What and Why; or,
Hints in Choosing the Best Books, with
Classified List of Best Works in Biogra-
phy, Criticism, Fine Arts, History, Nov-
els, Poetry, Science, Religion, Foreign
Languages, etc. By A.V. Petit. Clo., $1.

How to Sing; or, the Voice and How,

to Use it. By W. H. Daniell. soc; 75¢.

How to Conduct a Public Meeting ;
or, The Chairman’s Guide for Conduct-
ing Meetings, Public and Private. 15 cts.

Hopes and Helps for the Young of
BoTH SExEs.—Relating to the Forma-
tion of Character, Choice of Avocation,
Health, Amusement, Music, Conversa-
tion, Social Affections, Courtship and
Marriage. By Weaver. $1.25.

Aims and Aids for Girls and Young
Women, on the various Duties of Life.
Including Physical, Intellectual, and Moral
Development, Dress, Beauty, Fashion,
Employment, Education, the Home Re-
lations, their Duties to Young Men, Mar-
wiage, Womanhood and Happiness. $1.25.

Ways of Life, showing the Right
Way and the Wrong Way. Contrasting
the High Way and the Low Way; the
True Way and the False Way ; the Up-
ward Way and the Downward Way ; the
Way of Honor and of Dishonor. 75 cts.

The Christian Household.— Embrac-
_ing the Husband, Wife, Father, Mother,
Child, Brother and Sister. $1.00.

 

Weaver’s Works for the Young,
Comprising ‘‘ Hopes and Helps for the
Young of Both Sexes,” ‘‘ Aims and Aids
for Girls and Young Women,” ‘ Ways
of Life; or, the Right Way and the
Wrong Way.” Onevol.12mo, $2.50.

The Right Word in the Right Place.
—A New Pocket Dictionary ana Reference
Book. Embracing extensive Collections
of Synonyms, Technicai Terms, Abbre-
viations, Foreign Phrases, Chapters on
Writing for the Press, Punctuation, Proof-
Reading, and other Information. 75 cts.

How to Learn Short-Hand ; or, The
Stenographic Instructor. An Improved
System of Short-hand Writing arranged
specially for the use of those desirous of
acquiring the art without the aid of a
teacher. By Arthur M. Baker. 25 cents.

Phonographic Note - Book. — For
Students and Reporters. Double or Sin-
gle ruled. 15 cents.

The Emphatic Diaglott, Containing
the Original Greek Text of THE NEw
TESTAMENT, with an Interlineary Word-
for-Word English Translation; a New
Emphatic Version based on the Interline-
ary Translation, on the Readings of the
Vatican Manuscript (No. 1,209 in the Vat-
ican Library). By Renjamin Wilson.
884 pp., #4.00; extra fine binding $5.00.

A Bachelor’s Talks about Married
LIFE AND THINGS ADJACENT. By Rev,
William Aikman, D.D. s12mo, extra
cloth, $1.50. Ready November 1.

History of Woman Suffrage.—Tllus-
trated with Steel Engravings. Edited by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. An-
thony, Matilda Joslyn Gage. Complete
in Three Octavo Volumes. Price per Vol-
ume, Cloth, $5.00. Sheep, $6.50.

Life at Home; or, The Family and
its Members. Including Husbands and
Wives, Parents, Children, Brothers, Sis-
ters, Employers and Employed, The Altar
in the House, etc. By Rev, William
Aikman, D.D. 12mo, $1.50; fuil gilt $2.

A New Theory of the Origin of
Species. By Benj. G. Ferris. $1.50.

Man in Genesis and in Geology or,
the Biblical Account of Man’s Creation
tested by Scientific Theories of his Origin
and Antiquity. By Joseph P. Thompson,
D.D., LL.D. $1.00,

Sent by Mail, post-paid, FOWLER & WELLS, Publishers, 753 Broadway, New York.

 
 

The Conversion of St. Paul.—By
Geo. Jarvis Geer, D.D. In three Parts.
1st. Its Relation to Unbelief. 2d. Its
False Uses and True. 3d. Its Relation to
the Church. $1.00.

The Temperance Reformation.—Its
History from the first Temperance Soci-
ety in the United States to the Adoption
of the Maine Liquor Law. $1.50.

Man and Woman, Considered in
their Relations to each other and to the
World. By H.C, Pedder. Cloth, $1.

4£sop’s Fables.-—-With Seventy Splen-
did Mlustrations, One vol, 12mo, fancy
cloth, gilt edges, $1. People’s Edition,
bound in boards, 25 cents.

Pope’s Essay on Man, with Illustra.
tions and Notes by S. R. Wells. 12mo,
tinted paper, fancy cloth, full gilt, price $1.
People’s Edition, bound in boards, 25c.

Gems of Goldsmith: ‘The Travel-
er,” ‘‘ The Deserted Village,” ‘‘ The Her-
mit.” With notes and Original Ilustra-
tions, and Biographical Sketch of the
great author. One vol., fancy cloth, full
gilt, $x. People’s Ed., bound in boards, 25c,

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
In Seven Parts. By Samuel T. Coleridge,
With new Illustrations by Chapman. One
vol., fancy cloth, full gilt, $1. People’s
Ed., bound in boards, 25 cents.

Footprints of Life; or, Faithand Na-
TURE RECONCILED.—A Poem in Three
Parts. The Body; The Soul; The Deity,
Philip Harvey, M.D. $1.25.

How to Paint.—A Complete Compen-
dium of the Art, Designed for the use
of Tradesmen, Mechanics, Merchants and
Farmers, and a Guide to the Protession-
al Painter, Containing a plain Common-
sense statement of the Methods employed
by Painters to produce satisfactory results
in Plain and Fancy Painting of every De-
scription, including Gilding, Bronzing,
Staining, Graining, Marbling, Varnish-
ing, Polishing, Kalsomining, Paper Hang-
ing, Striping, Lettering, Copying and
Ornamenting, with Formulas for Mixing
Paint in Oil or Water. Description of
Various Pigments used: tools required,
etc, By F. B.Gardner. $1.00,

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS WORKS.

The Carriage Painter’s Illustrated
MANUAL, containing a Treatise on the
Art, Science, and Mystery of Coach, Car-
riage, and Car Painting. Including she
Improvements in Fine Gilding, Bronzing,
Staining, Varnishing, Polishing, Copying,
Lettering, Scrolling, and Ornamenting.
Bj F. B. Gardner. $1.00,

How to Keep a Store, embodying
the Experience of Thirty Years in Mer-
chandizing. BySamuelH. Terry. $1.50.

How to Raise Fruits.—A Hand-book.
Being a Guide to the Cultivation and
Management of Fruit Trees, and of
Grapes and Small Fruits. With Descrip-
tions of the Best and Most Popular Varie-
ties. Illustrated. By Thomas Gregg. $1.

How to be Weather-Wise.—A new
View of our Weather System. By I. P.
Noyes. 25 cents.

How to Live.—Saving and Wasting;
or, Domestic Economy Illustrated by the
Life of two Families of Opposite Charac-
ter, Habits, and Practices, full of Useful
Lessons in Housekeeping, and Hints How
to Live, How to Have, and How to be
Happy, including the Story of ‘‘A Dime
a Day,” by Solon Robinson. $1.25.

Oratory—Sacred and Secular, or the
Extemporaneous Speaker. Including a-
Chairman’s Guide for conducting Public
Meetings according to the best Parliamen-
tary forms. By Wm. Pittenger. $1.25.

Homes for All; or, the Gravel Wall.
A New, Cheap, and Superior Mode of
Building, adapted to Rich and Poor.
Showing the Superiority of the Gravel
Concrete over Brick, Stone and Frame
Houses ; Manner of Making and Deposit-
ing it. By O.S, Fowler. $1.25.

The Model Potato.—Proper cultiva-
tion and mode of cooking. 50 cents.

Traits of Representative Men. With
portraits. By Geo. W. Bungay. $1.50.

Capital Punishment ; or, the Proper
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS, 10 cents.
“Father Matthew, the Temperance Apos-
tle,” 10 cents. ‘*Good Man’s Legacy,”
zo cents, Alphabet for Deaf and Dumb,
Io cents,

Sent by Mail, post-paid. FOWLER & WELLS, Publishers, 753 Broadway, New York,

 

 

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