from a sponge down nnder the pad every time 

 he washed them, and perhaps he has forced 

 a little oil or something down into the oakum 

 so that the foot has been saturated for weeks 

 and has become too soft. You know a foot 

 can be too soft and mushy as well as not soft 

 enough. Had the pads been removed every 

 ten days or two weeks, the foot dressed a little 

 and fresh packing put in. the colt would have 

 been treated in a much more intelligent 

 manner. 



And then there is the case of the fellow who 

 has pads put on and maybe in a few days the 

 horse gets sick and is thrown out of training, 

 or the man goes away on business or pleasure 

 and forgets all about the matter, and the pads 

 stay on for months, when, as a matter of com- 

 mon sense, they should have been taken of¥ at 

 the outset and left oflf all of the time the horse 

 was not in use. Now, the owner did not mean 

 to do the good horse harm ; he wouldn't know- 

 ingly do him the slightest injury or injustice 

 any more than he would one of his own chil- 

 dren ; he simply forgot, but that does not ex- 

 cuse him; he should never forget his horse. 



If you are asked to race your horse on a 

 track that is muddy or sloppy and your horse 

 has rubber pads on take them off. If he is 

 wearing full leather pads — that is, all over the 

 foot — cut out the center and remove all of the 

 packing. If you have been racing on a hard, 

 smooth track and you come to a track that is 

 loose and "cuppy," put on a sharp, swedge- 

 shoe wnth the pads, or braze on low, sharp 

 calks, and if the pad, is of leather cut out in the 



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