I .^ 



TRAINING, AND GENERAL iMANAGEMENT. I I I 



life, couldn't put her foot to the ground. I had to 

 crawl along at about four miles an hour. I was sorry 

 for the poor little thing, but I couldn't get another to 

 take her place. I pulled up at the tent exactly at the 

 class time, instead of being there some hours before it. 



The feet are always an object of particular atten- 

 tion with every horseman. I always make it a standing 

 rule that the ivalls and soles of each foot shall be 

 washed clean before the animal is stabled ; then there 

 is no excuse for passing a stone or nail in a foot — a 

 thing that may occur at any moment. 



Every morning the feet should be carefully 

 examined with a pick ; the clenches of the nails 

 looked to ; the position of the shoe, if moved ; also 

 for broken nails, and the condition of the shoes 

 generally. 



Three weeks is usually quite long enough to keep 

 the shoes on. 



Now the question arises in a thinking horseman's 

 mind what causes the necessity for shoeing, and what 

 are the benefits that arise from it ? I will answer the 

 first question by stating that many people have said, 

 and say now, that it is not necessary to shoe a horse 

 if he never has been shod, but I say there is a 

 necessity, under certain circumstances. Take a horse 

 in its wild state, and there is no necessity at all ; yet 

 he gallops over hills and rocks without impairing his 

 feet in any way, in fact he improves them by wearing 



