avery's own farrier. 175 



city lo the limbs, as food is to give vitality and vigor to 

 the body. I am ^villing to admit that, being fed high 

 and kept in this confined way, they can not endure much 

 hardship at first, nor until they have been exercised 

 moderately, or by degrees, sufficiently to have acquired 

 strength of body and limb to be able to perform what 

 may be required of them without injury; for when they 

 have been put to hard labor on the start, as the case 

 sometimes is in consequence of changing owners, the 

 purchaser, not knowing their situation, expects a great 

 deal of service from them, and is often wofully disap- 

 pointed when he finds his horse ringboned, spavined, or 

 dies with lung fever or dropsy of the heart. Now the 

 reason of all this is for want of sufficient exercise while 

 being fed in this way, and not in the feeding alone. 

 The horse requires a good deal of exercise at any age, 

 but more especially when high fed in order to have him 

 fit for immediate use, or to set out on a long journey, as 

 experience has taught us, which is the best authority 

 that I can give. 



The time has been when a mare colt was thought by 

 many to be almost valueless, or hardly worth raising for 

 the market; but that time, with many other false notions 

 (if there are no more to follow) has passed. They are 

 now thought to be by many as valuable as a horse colt, 

 and are even chosen in preference to him by some, for 

 the following reasons: From the time they are two to 

 five years old, they are not of much account as far as 

 work is concerned, although they are capable even at 

 this age of enduring as much or more without injury, as 

 the gelding; besides, they can be profitably employed in 



