PREMIUMS ON HORSES. 91 



ance iu utilizing the powers of the horse in his artificial life ; 

 but, in the common way of doing it, it is the most onerous 

 tax imposed upon mankind. A horse condemned to wear 

 heavy shoes to which heel and toe calkins are affixed begins 

 to fail from that moment. At the age when he should be in 

 the fullest enjoyment of his strength, he is called old. And 

 few of our horses live out half their days, the great cause of 

 theu- decline being from diseases of the feet; all of which 

 are caused by ignorant shoeing. In the management of colts 

 on a farm, they should not be shod until they come to rapid 

 and long-continued labor on hard roads ; and then the light- 

 est possible application of iron should be made. The safest 

 way is to let the liind-feet be bare, and to shoe the fore- 

 feet with tips or crescents of iron that only cover the toe. 

 It must be borne in mind that the frog is ^e natural level 

 of the horse's foot, and the hoof must be trimmed, keeping 

 that ever in view. I cannot close this paper without com- 

 ment upon the manner in which horses are judged, and pre- 

 miums awarded, at the annual fairs of our county associa- 

 tions. Regardless of breeding, form, comeliness, or temper, 

 the only point considered is speed at the trot. And even 

 when there is an award for the " family horse," so called, or 

 the "roadster," the premium usually falls to the horse of 

 these classes ; that is, the faster trotter. I have seen a first 

 premium awarded to a " stallion for general purposes " that 

 was suffering from periodic ophthalmia, and that was stone 

 blind within a year, and a first premium awarded to a three- 

 year-old stallion which had, under his paraphernalia of trot- 

 ting-boots, as much as two ring-bones ; in both cases be- 

 cause they were skilfully driven by a professional horse- 

 sharper, and made the fastest mile. A system under which 

 such awards are made calls for thorough reform. In other 

 departments of live stock, animals are judged by their points, 

 and receive credit accordingly ; and, if our agricultural socie- 

 ties wish to make their exhibitions occasions of profit and 

 education, they should adopt a scale of points for judging 

 horses of all ages, in which speed at the trot may be reck- 

 oned as one point, but in which size, symmetry, soundness, 

 action, &c., should constitute others. Then if a ring-boned 

 or spavined scrub, that has been " handled " and " devel- 

 oped" so that he can make a fast mile, beats a large, fine, 



