GRASS-FED HORSES. 



can for a short period of time at all events (which in 

 general is all that is required) do quite as well as any 

 of their corn-fed companions. 



A grass-fed horse can therefore carry his rider from 

 day to day, and take an occasional short run after 

 game, without hurt. If it is a good animal it is quite 

 equal to any reasonable amount of work that can 

 fairly be expected of him, without falling away seri- 

 ously in condition. We have seen horses, fed merely 

 upon the natural grasses of the plains, after months of 

 such work, done with judgment while carrying careful 

 riders, come into the settlements in excellent condition, 

 and as sound in wind and limb as when they set out. 



We might number several of our own horses in 

 this category, which produced when sold actually more 

 than we originally gave for them. All our horses 

 used in wild countries, we may add, were unshod. 

 It is not at all necessary to nail iron shoes to the 

 feet of horses when travelling over the natural surface 

 of the earth. The demand for these protections 

 to the natural hoof has arisen solely in consequence 

 of the artificial conditions under which horses have to 

 work in civilized lands, upon roads constructed of the 

 hardest possible materials, where grit and- gravel are 

 continually wearing away the feet. Upon the great 

 plains however these objections cease to operate, and 

 horses very rarely indeed get anything the matter 

 with their feet for want of shoeing. On the contrary 

 the whole foot (including the frog) rests evenly upon 

 the ground, and we have no doubt that horses are 

 much less liable to stumble and fall than they are 

 when shod. The absence of broken knees among 

 Indian ponies, we have noticed, is in consequence 



