"No Foot, No Horse.''

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 409, 9 October 1889, Page 3

"No Foot, No Horse.''

'■Foil want of a foot the horse was lost," says the old adage, and how often is this found true in every-day experience. The horse's foot is the most vulnerable part of his body. Still, few owners of horses ever use tho precaution to examine the feet daily ro see if they are in good order. A case which occurred recently will act as a warning. A horse while being driven stumbled several times, and each time the owner lashed the poor animal. At last the horse went lame and limped excessively. To make time the owner still plied the whip, and it was after dark before the man readied home. The horse was put into the stable and left without any examination. In the morning; it was found standing with one foot held up from the ground and greatly swollen. A stone was found wedged in tho shoe, and the sole was so bruised that it was broken and bleeding. The ho r se has done no work since, and will probably lose the foot from interior ulceration, and the owner will loose a horse. Nearly every case of navicular disease occurs in this way, by bruises upon the sole by removing the frog from horses which have to go upon roujjh roads. The frog is designed by nature to protect the exceedingly sensitive interior of the foot, and especially the bone upon which the whole weight of the animal falls. This ends in the centre of the foot upon a loose cushion of bone which is called the navicular bone from its boat-like .shape, and it is also known as the coffin bone for a similar reason. When this bone is diseased intense inflammation occurs, and the foot suffers exceedingly. The horse flinches when going upon hard ground or down hill, and when resting eases the pain by extending the fooo forward and resting it upon the toe. The fore feet alone are subject to this disease, for obvious reasons. Some persons are so badly advised as to pour hot tallow in the foot of a horse so diseased. This is a sad mistake. It kills the horn, which scales off and increases the injury and suffering in the sensitive interior of the foot. More horses are lost by this disease than by any other. It is difficult to cure, because the bone is involved, and the foot is so completely cased up in its horny box. It is often necessary to cut away the diseased frog and open the foot to the reach of curative applications. Generally the soothing influence of hot baths and the injection of gentle caustics, as solution of sulphate of zinc, with the application of a blister between the heels, and long continued rest at pasture in a moist field, will remove this trouble. But how much better it is to avoid all this trouble and loss and suffering to a noble beastby considerate and thoughtful care. The torturing bearing- i-ein has to answer for much of this wrongand injury. A horse needs to see his path. Notice a horse on a road after dark, or cumbered with loose stone, how he will lower the head to see and pick out the best path. The bearing-rein prevents all this, and causes the horse to strike his feet upon every obstruction. There are many other reasons why the horse's head should be free, but this one is alone sufficient. — Gor, N. T. Tribune.