HORSE SENSE. 117 



WHEN SOAKED, THE HORSE CAN ADAPT THE COLLAR TO 

 HIS SHOULDER BY WORK. 



After the collar has been soaked and fitted to the neck of the horse, 

 by means of the hame-straps, and hame-tugs properly adjusted, then 

 work the horse moderately through the day, and the collar will be better 

 fitted to that particular horse and to every inequality of his shoulders 

 than the best expert in the whole country could do over an inanimate 

 form. This is the easiest, the best, and the most perfect manner of 

 fitting a collar that we have ever found, and dispenses with pads and 

 sore shoulders if well done. 



SOAK THOROUGHLY AS OFTEN AS THE COLLAR IS 

 FOUND NOT TO FIT. 



If you have fitted collars to your horses by this method in the spring, 

 when they were fat, and then worked them down thin in flesh, it will be 

 necessary to soak the collars again and readjust them as before, and in 

 this way you do not have to be at the expense of pads, which have a 

 tendency to soften the shoulders rather than toughen them, and are also 

 an addition to the harness that is entirely unnecessary if the collars are 

 properly fitted. 



HAME-STRAPS SHOULD BE BUCKLED TIGHT. 



Always see to it that the hame-stramps are buckled tight enough to 

 draw the collar close up to the sides of the horse's neck its entire width, 

 so there is no space whatever between the sides of the horse's neck and 

 the collar. If the horse shrinks in flesh this matter of drawing the hame- 

 straps up a little closer is of the utmost importance in preserving the 

 good condition of the shoulders. 



THE SHOULDER AND COLLAR MUST BE KEPT CLEAN. 



The shoulders and the collar should be kept scrupulously clean where 

 the horse is constantly at hard labor, and a weak solution of salt and 

 water, and sometimes a decoction of white oak bark, as a wash for the 

 shoulders, every night after the day's work is done, is found to be ex- 

 cellent in practice. 



BADLY ADJUSTED COLLARS ONE GREAT CAUSE OF 

 BALKY HORSES. 



There is but little question that the horse suffers more, and many of 

 his bad habits are traceable to, the abuse of his mouth through the agency 

 of torturing bits and badly fitting collars than from all else combined. 

 Should not, therefore, all thinking, feeling, sympathizing humanity who 

 have anything to do with horses, give these two subjects more careful 

 attention in the future and thereby relieve much of the torture now in- 

 flicted upon man's best animal friend? 



NOTE.— If this little book serves but the one purpose of supplying 

 all horses that have to draw loads with perfectly fitting collars, the au- 

 thor will feel fully compensated for the time and labor he has devoted to 

 the subject of the horse and his friends. 



