484 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and repairing waste of tissue, and, in short, favor in every way that con- 

 dition and disposition which it is desired that every stallion should 

 transmit to his offspring. As "like produces like" it is reasonable to 

 expect that a stallion, capable of efficient work in harness, will be likely 

 to procreate horses possessed of ability in the same direction; while fat 

 flabby stallions, maintained in idleness and luxury, will be much less 

 likely to impart vim, vigor, power and staying qualities. 



Stallions exhibited at our leading stock shows and offered for sale 

 throughout the state are often pampered in condition. Many of them for 

 this reason fail to beget an average number of foals from their quota 

 of mares, or beget foals that are weak in constitution, deficient in size 

 or crooked in limb v/hen born. The over-fat condition alluded to is not 

 altogether the fault of the importers and dealers who handle such stallions. 

 The average buyer admires, appreciates and demands plethoric condition. 

 It is pleasing to his eyes and those of his neighbors who own brood mares, 

 and he will not buy a thin horse for fear he will meet with on unap- 

 preciative reception and patronage in the breeding district to which he 

 is taken. Naturally, then, the stallion salesman feeds for polish and 

 plumpness, and the buyer is too apt to continue the process at home, with 

 the result that the horse does not give the best of satisfaction, in number 

 or strength of progeny. Under the circumstances, it is often good policy to 

 buy young stallions in preference to matured ones that have long been 

 pampered for show purposes or sale and such colts should be so fed as 

 to develop them naturally and thus favor the best results from their 

 use. 



These matters require and deserve consideration from all concerned 

 and the education of both stallioner and mare owner to the advantages 

 to be derived from normal, healthy condition rather than abnormal and 

 detrimental fatness and flabbiness in breeding stallions. The same truth 

 applies with equal force to brood mares. The best results in breeding 

 have come from the use of mares that have to work for their living 

 during pregnancy. Over-fat condition in brood mares is detrimental; 

 natural condition is beneficial. It is true that semi-starvation and over- 

 work equally are to be avoided. The emaciated, run-down, tired work- 

 mare is no more fit to breed from than is the plump, idle, sluggish or 

 unhealthy mare. 



TRAINING HOOFS AND SHOEING. 



It is absolutely necessary and very profitable to properly care for the 

 feet of growing colts. If left to nature the foot will not always grow out 

 full, strong and perfect in form. Where there is stone or gravel in the 

 soil the horn wears off as fast as necessary to keep the foot in fair 

 proportions, but the wearing is not always even, unless judiciously 

 directed. On prairie soils, which are soft and do not wear the foot, the 

 horn, growing rapidly is not kept in shape, with the result that the feet 

 split, become uneven and, indeed, the entire bony column is not infre- 

 quently altered in form and the animal partially if not wholly ruined 

 in consequence. It is due to this fact that we have so many bad-footed 



