PART IV-HORSES 



INTRODUCTION 



"From remotest ages he has come with man, side by side, in 

 the glory and achievements of the white race. In all the dar- 

 ings and doings of the Saxon, wherever countries were to be 

 conquered, battles fought, and the banner of Britain carried 

 round the world, wherever has been a footprint, there also was 

 the hoof-beat." — John Trotwood Moore in The Gift of the 

 Grass. 



For centuries the horse has been a faithful servant of man in the 

 capacity of a burden bearer. As compared with other domesticated 

 animals, the horse is peculiar in his relation to man, for he is valuable 

 on account of his ability to do work and not because he furnishes a 

 tangible product useful as food or otherwise. It is his athletic ability 

 which makes the horse useful. 



None other of our domestic animals occupies as important a place 

 in the economy of things as does the horse; if all the horses were sudden- 

 ly taken from the nations of the world, agriculture, business, and com- 

 merce would be seriously impaired and we would soon be in a state of 

 famine. Consider the vast number of horses in use on farms, on city 

 streets, on country roads, in armies, and for numerous pleasure pur- 

 poses, such as riding, driving, racing in harness and under saddle, 

 hunting, and polo. We could give up any of the other domesticated 

 animals with much less serious results, and this in spite of the advent 

 and improvement of the automobile, motor truck, and tractor, and 

 their wide use at the present time. 



The horse may be said to be a locomotive which consumes hay 

 and grain instead of coal. He is self-feeding, self-controlling, and self- 

 reproducing, and is at the same time a very efficient motor. Farmers 

 who use horses may be compared to the engineer who operates a motor. 

 Farmers who breed horses may be compared to the manufacturer of 

 motors. No man can manufacture or operate a motor with real 

 success unless he understands its construction, the importance of its 

 various parts, their strength or weakness, and their relation to one 

 another. No man can learn the construction of a motor by studying 

 its exterior only; he must take it apart and study the various parts, 

 and then put them together again. Then he must put it in motion 

 and study the action of the various levers, pulleys, and springs, in 

 order that he may know the location of weaknesses and at what points 



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