296 Western Live-stock Management 
acquire the habit and will always make trouble in han- 
dling the feet, either for shoeing or for trimming. A com- 
mon method is to stand the colt on the board floor and 
trim off the surplus horn with his foot on the floor. One 
front foot is tied up to make him keep his other foot on 
the floor. In working with the left hind foot, tie up the 
left fore foot; and with the right hind foot, the right 
fore foot. With this method, the horn is cut with a 
mallet and chisel. This is a quick and easy device 
adapted to vicious horses, but the operator cannot do 
as good a piece of work, and often has difficulty in telling 
exactly where to cut, since he has to guess at the position 
of the sole. In buying nippers or any instrument for 
hoof cutting, one should procure only the best, for the 
poorer ones will probably not cut at all. (See Fig. 31.) 
WINTERING THE FOAL 
Many persons in raising their young horses make a 
mistake in not supplying them with a liberal enough ration, 
especially during the first year. After the colts are weaned 
from the dam, it is difficult to keep them in good condition, 
and at such times special care and feed should be given 
them. Feed is seldom made too liberal, as this is the time 
to shove the colt if exceptional growth is desired. Horse- 
men agree that if vou stunt the colt you stunt the horse, 
and that if you have a stunted yearling you seldom obtain 
a good mature horse. On the other hand, a growthy 
yearling does not need the feed nor care afterwards that 
the stunted one demands. In order to get this growth in 
the winter, it is necessary that the colt be fed some grain 
in connection with hay and roughage. If timothy is fed 
as the roughage, the grain must be of nitrogenous char- 
