MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE'S HOOFS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1666, 3 February 1904, Page 69

MANAGEMENT OF THE HORSE'S HOOFS.

"H.F.” writes as follows to the ' Live Stock Jon mail”: —The most important point requiring attention in regard to the proper management of horses’ feet is to see that the frog remains in a weltdeveloped ■ and healthy condition. Owing to the comparative obscurity of this organ of the foot, it receives but little or no intelligent attention from most horse-owners and their grooms. The only man who pays any' attention to it as a rule is the blacksmith, and he is the very person who ought not to do so, as his' attention is more often than not the reverse of intelligent, and does a lot of harm. Many farriers seem to think that tha frog in the horse’s foot exists for their special benefit, so that they may cut away parts of it. The fact that it is composed of soft horn, which it is easy ,to cut with the drawing knife, appears to be regarded by some of them ai3 ,a good reason for mutilating it when shoeing a horse. The healthy frog in an unshod horse is always preeminent and well-developed, and it stands to reason that it must be) quite wrongs to reduce its size by paring atvva.y silioe® of the .horn, because if its presence in the foot were, superfluous we may be sure it would not be there. The first thing a horse-owner should do, if he wishes to care for his horses’ feet in an. intelligent manner, is to instruct ’his farrier not to mutilate the frogs, but to keep his hands off them. The orders in this respect, should be absolutely peremptory, as it is often very difficult to induce some blacksmiths to leave the frog alone. When a horse has been reshod, the owner ought to look at tha feet to sete that his orders have really been followed. Next to the farrier's drawing knife, thrush is a great source of shrunken and small frogs. The prevention of this diseased condition of this foot is one'of the main features in the practical management of the feet. The bedding must be kept dry and clean,-a® dirty litter saturated with urine generally induces thrush if a horse stands on such for a continued period of time. The application of Stockholm tar to.the cleft of the frog is a very good means of preventing the appearance of thrush, and this measure ought fo be carried out once a week, while biweekly applications wouM be none too many.,; A tin containing Stockholm tar should be considered an absolute necessity in all well-managed stables. The hoof-picker must be resorted to 'daily by the groom, in order to remove all dung and dirt that has become bailed in the sole. It is ©specially necessary to keep the cleft of the frog free from particles of dung, because these arc often a cause of thrush, unless continually disilodged. Dung has a decomposing action on horn, and more •especially so in the case of the horn composing the outer frog, because this latter .is of a soft texture. Though most attention is usually bestowed on the outside wall of the hoofs by grooms, this part of the hoof in reality requires but little care so far as the management of tha feet is concerned. The principal point to attend to is to instruct the shoeing-smiths not to apply the rasp to the outside wall, most farriers being just as fond of rasping the surface of the wall -as they are of paring the frog. If cne examinee the feet of horses that have

not had the wall rasped at the forge, it will -be seen that the surface of the ''wall is more.or less shiny, and covered ■with ar thin layer of {gelatinous snibstahoq. This -layer forms the natural protection of • the horn ; of the wall* against the got£te*nn|? influence of moisture, and it also to some extent prevents the horn from getting brittle. If the farrier—aa he generally does-efP'pHes-the rasp to the outside of tbe h<oof, this layer is destroyed. and wall then readily suffers from the effeots of too much .moisture, or tei comes brittle keeping mtact of the celatiiwus layer on the surface of, the wall is certainly much more to the point than the application Of same oily or fatty substance. Though it does harm to arndy the latter to the ’feet, the benefit mxsruipg from tbe measura is very probimaginary; rather• lUgaza. • h Much moisture always has a softening . effect on the horn of the hoofs, sees increases its hardness and toagiin«e«» 0 the feet of-horse* are • genenfiv softer during a spell of ¥€R&ur t&ftn tßcjy ’when, u tJie ~ ■ weather is dry. Those having experience of. riding horses in an unshod state will

knew that unshod feet - wear better in a dry season, than in a w-pte one. £,, The comparative softness or toughness of horses’ feet depends, i hbwev er, not so much on external influences as upon the natural texture of the horny hoofs of each individual horse;; some horses have naturally much tougher: feet than others, and if a horsa has very soft or brittle hoofs, we cannot turn them into tough ones by any artificial means.