3* 



HORSE— DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 



and unmanageable when breaking be- 

 comes necessary. Then they have to be 

 reduced to obedience by violent and 

 barbarous usage, by which they are often 

 permanently injured, besides acquiring 

 evil and mischievous habits. Breaking 

 should begin so early and proceed so 

 gradually that the horse will grow up in 

 those habits of obedience and docility 

 which give him really his highest value. 

 The colt should be made docile and fear- 

 less by familiar handling and petting. 

 No such thing as a whip should ever be 

 allowed to touch the very young foals. 

 But man, however, should always appear 

 among his stock as master. Colts, and 

 sometimes horses, are spoiled by being 

 petted and played with by children and 

 others, who, half afraid of them, do not 

 maintain the proper attitude toward 

 them. The feed for colts must not be 

 heavy ; during the first year they should 

 depend upon the mare and what grass 

 and fodder they pick up on the pasture, 

 with one or two quarts of oats a day, 

 after weaning and during the winter. 

 Plenty of fresh air is an important re- 

 quisite for horses, whether young or old. 

 After the colt is accustomed to being 

 led about by the halter, it is time to be- 

 gin his education as a trotter. He can 

 be led on a trot around the yard, never 

 being led too fast or too long. It should 

 be made a game or play, and the colt 

 should enjoy it, being always encouraged 

 to trot and never allowed to break or 

 run. After the first year the feed may 

 be increased to four or five quarts of oats 

 a day, decreasing it during the months 

 of good pasturage and increasing it in 

 winter. A suitable bitting apparatus may 

 now be put on, the reins substituted for 

 the halter. The colt should be exercised 

 on the road and made familiar with pass- 

 ing vehicles and the common sights and 

 noises. When two years and a half old, 

 the colt may be safely broken to go un- 

 der the saddle. Before attempting to 

 use him in that way, he may be accus- 

 tomed to the saddle, and by occasionally 

 placing a child on his back, while stand- 

 ing beside him, there will be no trouble 

 in using him in that way at the proper 

 time. Too much weight in the saddle is 

 apt to affect the symmetry of the line of 

 the back and otherwise injure a young 

 horse, and a rider of light weight should 



always be selected. After being accus- 

 tomed to the road, under the saddle, the 

 colt may be harnessed and driven with a 

 well-broken horse. And after being thus 

 accustomed to harness, the colt may be 

 hitched to a sulky, but, as soon as it is 

 safe, should be changed to a skeleton 

 wagon. This is preferred to a sulky, as. 

 the weight of the sulky and driver presses 

 too much on the back and loins. This is 

 the time of the principal danger by over- 

 driving. The young horse is going nice- 

 ly to the skeleton wagon, and every time- 

 he shows a fine gait and burst of speed, 

 the driver is anxious to keep it up, or 

 make him do it again. These evidences 

 of capacity and promise should make the 

 driver doubly cautious; and the young 

 horse be allowed to make only short 

 spurts of speed, and those for a short 

 distance, and very few at any one drive. 

 Many young horses are urged and driven 

 until they get tired of trotting; thus, 

 whole seasons are lost, and frequently 

 they are put permanently back. 



HORSE, Diet for the. — In acute dis- 

 eases no food whatever ought to be given 

 until improvement has taken place, and 

 even then only in a sparing manner; the 

 articles of diet most suitable are bran,, 

 oats, hay, carrots, Swede turnips, and 

 green food, either grass or clover. 



The bran may be given either dry or 

 wetted, whichever way the animal pre- 

 fers it. 



Oats may be given mixed with the 

 bran, either raw and crushed, or whole 

 and boiled. 



It is necessary to keep the animal 

 without food or water half an hour be- 

 fore and after administering the medi- 

 cine. 



HORSE, Clipping, Singeing and Trim- 

 ming. — The coat of the horse is changed 

 twice a year, the long hair of the winter 

 coming off in April and May, or some- 

 times earlier when the stables are warm 

 and there is no exposure to severe cold. 

 A slight sweat hastens this shedding, as 

 every horseman knows by experience, and 

 even in harness the hairs are cast in the 

 face of the driver to his great annoyance 

 on a windy day. Clipped horses are 

 I_nger than others in shedding their 

 coats, and present a most disagreeable 

 mottled appearance, which makes the 

 state still more noticeable. The long 



