BULLETIN No. 4 



VACATIONS FOR WORK-HORSES 



{Especially from the Economic Point of View) 

 By GILBERT TOMPKINS and HENRY C. MERWIN 



(ABRIDGED) 



THE EFFECT OF CITY WORK ON 

 HORSES 



There are thousands of horses hard 

 at work in cities to-day who have begun to 

 run down hill, and will be worthless or 

 nearly so within a year or two ; and yet if 

 these horses could be given a rest and a 

 chance to recuperate, they would in six 

 months' time be worth almost as much as 

 the price originally paid for them. 



Work-horses in the city, if worked too 

 hard or too fast, or if not properly cared 

 for, or if weakened by age, deteriorate in 

 the following different ways: 



(1) They become thin. 



(2) Their feet become sore or diseased. 



(3) They become grain-burnt or other- 

 wise weakened in digestion. 



(4) Their muscles become tired and 

 strained. 



Let us take these up in their order. 



(1) The first symptom of age in a 

 horse is apt to be a falling-off in flesh. 

 Others become thin from having a bad 

 driver, or from being over-hurried in their 

 work, or from poor feeding. A short rest 

 will often do wonders for a horse in this 

 condition. 



(2) The Feet. — Unquestionably the 

 best way to make a horse's feet last in the 

 city is to shoe him with rubber or leather 

 pads and plenty of tar and oakum under- 

 neath. This keeps the feet soft, and 

 deadens the concussion. But, with the 

 best of shoeing, horses' feet will give out 

 on the pavements; and nothing will tend 

 to preserve their feet more than an occa- 

 sional let-up during which their shoes can 

 be removed, their feet can get back to the 

 ground, their heels can expand, and fever 

 in the feet may be reduced by the moisture 

 of dew and wet grass, swampy land, etc. 



(3) The Grain-Burnt Horse. — It 

 must be remembered that a horse at work 

 in the city is not in a normal condition. 



The constant feeding on dry food, and es- 

 pecially on such stimulating food as oats 

 and corn, produces an unnatural condi- 

 tion of the blood. His whole system 

 becomes feverish and abnormal from years 

 of high graining without any chance to^get 

 back to nature, such as a horse gets by 

 being turned out to grass. Everybody 

 who has seen a horse turned loose in a lot 

 after being confined in a stable must have 

 observed how he first paws up a little turf 

 with his forefoot, and thus gets at the earth 

 underneath. He is more anxious to eat 

 this earth than to eat the grass, and it is 

 certain that the earth is wholesome for the 

 horse. It has a cleansing effect, and is a 

 cure for worms. Nothing, in short, is so 

 good for the digestion of a horse, especially 

 after long years of confinement in a stable 

 and high feeding, than an opportunity to 

 eat grass and earth. 



(4) Tired Muscles. — Not everybody 

 realizes that a horse, to the eye, may be 

 in perfect condition, and yet his muscles 

 may be so tired and strained that move- 

 ment is positively painful to him, and any 

 movement but a slow one almost impos- 

 sible. Work-horses and hack-horses in 

 this condition are often seen in the street, 

 especially when they begin to grow old. 

 These horses look fairly fat and sleek, but 

 they are tired, their heads droop, they have 

 no life and they lack energy and quickness 

 of movement. Nothing but a rest will 

 restore these horses; but a rest of a few 

 months will do it, and it will increase their 

 value at least one-half. The writers of 

 this Bulletin remember seeing a horse used 

 by a rural free delivery mail-carrier that, 

 being naturally a good feeder, and having 

 all the grain that he could eat, was in fine 

 bodily condition; but he did double the 

 work of an ordinary horse, that is, he 

 travelled twenty-three miles a day for six 

 days in the week, and he was so tired and 

 stiff that it was difficult to urge him from 



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