About Horses.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7501, 2 July 1903, Page 4

About Horses.

The draught horse is the standard business horse of the world. There are other horses needed, but tho rank and file of them should be for draught purposes. By a draught horse, says Metropolitan and Sural Home, is meant the heavy, strong, well-built horse. These are the horses that sell well at all times, no matter what tho style or the fancy may be. Grow the 1700-pound horse, and see how well they will sell. It is a hard matter to put too high a price on such horses. They go like hot cakes among corn huskers. A few years ago, when almost everyone was riding bicycles (says a writer in the loiua Homestead, U.S.A.) we were threatened with a dire calamity. The horse was to be relegated io total disuse. At that time horses were cheap and bicycles were dear. Automobiles were sent as an adjunct in finishing the usefulness of the horse. Then there were 180 factories where bicycles were manufactured. Now there are only 16 in the United States, and nearly every cellar contains an old, worn-out bicycle. The horse breeder was biding his time then, and now he is selling tho product of his skill at good prices, and in many localities farmers get an occasional 10 dol. for pulling some dead automobile to town where it can be repaired and made ready for another spin. The horse has been here co long that wo are loth to give it up in a hurry. The man who is breeding really good horses is not engaged in a business that will lose him any money.

Probably the ideal farm horse best illustrates the kind of animals needed for the farm. A good plough horse is a heavy, but not clumsy animal, and one capablo of exerting great power and endurance in ploughing or hauling, writes C. W. Kuox, in Massachusetts Plotighman. At the same time the animal must be a fair road horse, not a trotter, but one that can get across tho country roads at a modorate pace. The animai should also be a fast walker, and not a slow, clumsy creature. Such ideal farm horses are bred now, and are to be found on thousands of farms. No farmer of any progressiveness would think of walking behind some of the old, slowwalking horses of a dozen years ago. Such an animal performs about one-half the work that a model farm horse does I in a day. If purchasing a new collar for a horse this spring, fit it on a certain animal, to belong to it all the time. A great many shoulders are continually being hurt by using misfit collars, even if they are about the right size. A collar which has been shaped to the shoulder of a certain horse may- not fit another having the same size neck. It is just like men's heads. One man may wiar a number seven and another a seven also, but one head is round, another oblong and another avoid. Fit the collar, then soak it over night in warm water, put it on the horse, buckle it up as desired, put on the harness, and leave it on all day, whether the horse works or not. A little light driving will be better. TO TRAIN THE COLT FOR A PAST WALKER. The best way to get a fast walking horse is to train him as a colt to walk as fast as he can without trotting. A colt generally wants to go as fast as be can, but the trouble is, he is allowed to do this at a trot. On tho walk he is made to go slow to cool off after a trot. It would be better to teach him to walk fast, and don't allow him to trot until he has learned to walk as fast as he can without trotting. Train him to walk fast and make him keep on walking as fast as he can, and tho habit will soon become a fixed one.