1856.] Founder and Diseases of Horses^ Feet 275 



FOUNDER AND DISEASES OP HORSES' FEET. 



The tollowing, which we clip from the Ohio Cultivator, is from Capt. J. C. 

 Ralston, a graduate of the Royal Veterinary College, and will well repay perusal 

 by all who esteem " the Horse." Capt Ralston says : 



The editor (A. B. Allen), in his preface, expresses a strong impression 

 of the diflference ef management required for horses, in consequence of 

 the diflference of the climate and food of the two countries, (America 

 and England). The writer, from what he has seen of both countries, is 

 unable to recognize any marked diflference. The more perfected care 

 and stable discipline, and the improved shoeing of horses in Britain, 

 would be attended with high advantages if introduced here. As to food, 

 except that the British animal never partakes of Indian corn or fodder, 

 there are small differences otherwise. The greater dryness of the climate 

 is much in favor of the horses of this country. In fact America is 

 qualified to produce the finest horses in the world ; for while her varieties 

 of soil fit her for either raising the heavy draft horse or the fleet courser, 

 from the dryness of atmosphere she is peculiarly adapted for raising the 

 latter. In this respect she possesses those advantages which have 

 mainly conferred on the desert Arab his fine form, compacted tissues, 

 speed, and unrivaled hardihood. 



In regard to the effects of dryness of climate, there is an attendant 

 drawback to shod or stabled horses, which inattention renders serious. 

 In a horse's so artificial state, the horny covering of the foot — the 

 hoof — is apt to become altogether too dry, hard, and inelastic. This 

 evil is augmented by extreme dryness of atmosphere ; and the confine- 

 ment of that needful, but baneful defense, the shoe, greatly aggravates 

 the mischief. Here it is that plank floors, as being bad conductors of 

 heat, are objectionable. But for this, plank flooring ( at least for the 

 stalls,) when judiciously arranged for carrying oflf the urine, is excel- 

 lent. And if the hoofs are skillfully prepared for the shoe, and the 

 latter is good in form and properly adjusted, and if at the same time, 

 proper stable care is resorted to, for the purpose of keeping the horn of 

 the fore-feet cool and supple, — then, neither plank floors, stabled life, 

 nor shoeing, need impair the feet, or produce chronic foot-lameness. 

 There are, however, more horses suflfering from foot-lameness in New 

 York, than in any other part of the globe among three-fold the same 

 aggregate number of horses. It is chronic foot-lameness, and the mis- 

 erable form of fitting the shoes, that occasion the terrible falls and 



