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Control Feet  while   Qrowing
1st Premium. —The feet of a ' horse
should receive as much care and attention
ns is possible to be given. To do this
properly, one must first supply himself
with a few tools. I would suggest a
good rasp, a three-quar- ——-_———_
ter inch chisel, or a pair
of hoof snips, and a
mallet. The cost of
these few tools is small.
Then, if you are an apt
hand, and have- a talent for correcting defects, you may soon
iiave a very unshapely
hoof, that has been
giving your horse no
small amount of discomfort, growing into
a nicely shaped foot.
Besides, your horse will
be doing yon better service. But do not wait
UBtil the colt is old
enough to put to use.
Instead, watch the feet
while the colt is at side
of dam. See to it that
the feet are not growing longer or wider out
on one side than on the
other. With a few
well directed strokes of
the rasp this difficulty
could soon be overcome.
See to it that the toes
do not tend inward too
much. Here again a
few strokes of rasp on
point aud inside of feet
will be of much benefit.
While thus engaged in
righting difficulties one
must be very careful,
as the coronet or hoof,is
very thin, and getting
too deep would cause
much trouble. With older horses alsomuch caution should be used. If their feet have
been neglected, and have grown too long
•and ill-shaped, take the horse on a floor,
or a smooth, solid piece of ground, and
with the chisel and mallet clip off the
long and ragged edges to almost proper
shape, finishing up with rasp,—rounding
edges both from above and a little below,
and giving them a nice, smooth finish, and
so prevent splitting and breaking.
In shoeing, always be' careful. Don't
let just anybody that calls himself a horse
shoer do your shoeing for you. Many
a horse has gone lame for the rest of his
life by one such mistake. See that the
shoe is of proper length, also that it is
wide enough. Be sure the foot is
trimmed level before the shoe is nailed
en. Don't drive  nails  too  high,     but
just high enough to hold shoe solid and
snug. Don't use large nails in putting
ou small shoes. If you have a scalper,
make outside bar of shoe heavier than inside. On hind feet it is oft times well
to turn a small calk, and turn outside bar
out a little at heel. If a forger you have,
make your front shoe heavy at the heel,
and rounded from the quarter to toe. This
is for nice, smooth action in roadsters.
And it is well to have a smooth calk
blazed on about an inch from heel, if
horse is to be used in mud.      The hind
shoes  should  be  light
and a square toe.
For farm or ordinary work use none
but medium weightshoes. For summer and
fall shoeing turn a small calk on heel, as
this will prevent slipping in mud and will
take the sudden jar from foot in stamping at flies For winter shoeing, use
weight of shoe according to weight and
size of horse Have calks and a 2y2 inch
toe, both well sharpened.
trying by every artifice known to horse
brain to step as easily as possible on their
tender feet, their aching pasterns. The
best of shoeing went for naught with
them. Their sire, big and fine looking,
because of past bad management and
long standing without exercise had developed the weakest set of legs and feet
a horse could be cursed with. He handed it down to his posterity, and most especially the mares.        We finally got rid
Trapis, AVorld's Fair Champion Belgian,   1904.    Imported by Crouch & Son, Lafayette,  Ind.
Keep a foot hook about barn, with
which to clean out the filth and dirt that
collects in bottom of foot. Never take
a horse out of stable and put him to a
hard pull, or drive him on hard roads,
without cleaning his feet, for a small
gravel or little stone may be imbedded iu
the dirt that has collected in shoe, and
would cause no little discomfort and injury.
Never allow a horse to stand in a wet,
sobby mass of manure, else his feet will
become brittle and rotten. Give him a
straw or sawdust bed. Then I think
you will find him a willing servant, and
ever ready at your command.
Reader.
The Blacksmith Should   be a Skilled
Workman
2d Premium.—No foot, no horse. To
all who have lived a lifetime with horses
this is an ever present truth. The care
of the foot must begin with the colt; in
fact, must often begin before it is a
colt. A few years ago our country was
overrun with a lot of high headed, rangy
mares and horses that only held their
beauty and flesh when running unshod in
pasture. A five mile drive, a day of
hard hauling, left them listless, sore, and
of him and his progeny.
Careful attention to the feet must begin with the colt. If not given, the horse
may come into the working age hopelessly
weak in feet and legs. The hoofs must
not be allowed to grow until they weaken
and break down the wall above, cover
the frog and deform or compress the heel.
If the colt is kept on good ground, its
hoofs will not need attention more than
once every few weeks; but if kept in a
stable, the rasp must be used quite often
to keep the hoof in good shape, while
the whole foot must be washed often and
the frog and clefts picked free of all that
might irritate. The floor should be kept
soft and warm with good, clean straw.
-\1I horses do not come into the world
with perfectly shaped feet and legs, and
if the start is bad neglect makes the matter worse, and bad shoeing may utterly
rvdn and disease both feet and legs.
One should look carefully to his choice
of a blacksmith. No man is fitted to
drive a horseshoe nail, or direct a hand to
do so, that has not made the anatomy of
the horse's foot and leg a close study. He
should know a healthy foot when he sees
it. He should know when the feet are
of the right shape and lined aright when
iu standing, running, trotting and pacing
position. If   the   feet   and   gait  show
lines not as laid down by the laws of
symmetry, then he must know how to
adapt a shoe to those feet, and (as nearly as possible with the shoe) bring back
the line nature very likely intended. He
must fit the shoe to the horse, not the
horse to the shoe as too many of them do.
lie must fit a shoe that will in nearly all
cases wear evenly on the bottom. There
are some diseased conditions (such as
from founder) when this is nearly impos- .
^^^^^^^^^ sible, but in most others a good blacksmith
can fit a shoe to make
it wear in this way,
and, fitting easily on
the feet, not come off
under a month unless
he himself pulls it off.
A horseshoe interferes to some extent
with the foot, as nature intended its last
evolution, but it is a
necessary evil and it
certainly strengthens
the horse for hard work
and long journeys. One
^reat fault with the
majority of our horse
shoers is that they cut
and pare entirely too
much. Instead of making the shoe to bring
the greatest amount of
pressure around the
outside, they make it to
briug an uneven pressure in a part susceptible to pain, especially
between bar and quarter, thus producing
corns. Some even cut
the frog, a thing not to
be done really at any
cost, while others will
shoe in such a manner
as not to allow it free
play against concussion.
Above all the shoe
should be made to fit
not only the condition
of the foot but the
roads upon which the
horse must travel. Valuable horses are often ruined because of
the smith's careless driving of the cold
rolled nails.
Some of the foot diseases common- to
horses are: Hoof-bound; cause, usually
high feeding and too little work, • and
sometimes bad shoeing. Split hoof;
caused by jar or strain, and sometimes
improper shoeing. King bone; faulty
pastern bone; hereditary, or caused by
rheumatism. Tread; wound of the coronet, usually caused by calking. Bruises
of the sole; cause, travel over stony or
pebbly   roads. Corns;   bruises   on   the
sensitive part of the sole; causes, various.
Quittor; ulceration of the sensitive parts
of the foot; this disease should not be
neglected one day after making itself
known; its rule is to completely destroy
the foot. Pumiced foot; cause, inflammation, it usually follows a founder. Thrush;
a disease of the frog. Canker is very
much like thrush, both being secondary
diseases. I. S.
Remedies for Font Troubles.
3d Premium. The foot of the horse is
a most complicated structure, and is liable to become diseased whenever the hoof
is interfered with. This ' often occurs
from poor shoeing, or from inflammation
Continued on page 8.