JOTTINGS ON HORSE-SHOEING.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 227, 23 December 1859, Page 3

JOTTINGS ON HORSE-SHOEING.

It is too nyueh the habfc tp; considetfithat shoeing hq.s accomplished all, that can be expected of it, if the sh,oss are only firm on the horse's feet when the master requires his services; whether they are tight and pinch him, or are easy and, comfortable to him, are matters that are seldom considered, so long as he can go at ali, and contrive to keep himself on his legs, and not diminish his marketable value by tumbling down and breaking his knees; all the pain that he endures passes unheeded, except by the poor brute himself, and until he becomes positively lame and useless he receives np sympathy or care from those whose bounden duty it was .by timely attention to have spared him. "No foot no horse" is a truth that I doubt not has been realized to many of my readers, when, in the expectation of an agreeable ride either on business or pleasure, they have found their horse emerge from the stable, marking tinie with his head at every step with the precision of drill-sergeant.

The first thing that occurs to every one on such occasions is. to travel yesterday's journey over again in the mind's eye, in the hope of discovering some particular hole in the road, or some particular stone that must have caused the unlooked-for and unexpected calamity; the bare possibility -of. its being, the gradually developed result of long continued bad shoeing, and bad treatment in the stable, of course never suggests itself, because the horse has always been treated as other horses are treated, and therefore those things can have nothing whatever to do with it; and this would be considered a sufficient and satisfactory answer to any one who had the temerity to surmise such a cause. I will, nevertheless, venture to assert, that in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases of foot-lameness out of every thousand, bad shoeing and bad stabling have more to do with it than the supposed accident that causes the hoise to "drop his head to it,' and thereby shew that the, culminating point had at last been reached, and that he is indisputably lame.

Foot-lameness is a very insidious affair, particularly the, most painful and common form of it, navicular lameness. It steals on very gradually, and for the most part unobserved by all but the unfortuuate horse; he, poor beast, notes its every stage, and if those who look after him, ahd those who employ him, would only attend to the indications he gives them, they would know as much about it as he does, excepting the pain. His courage enables him to bear a good deal without flinching, nevertheless he soon shows to a close observer that mischief is brewing; the first indication he gives is the straightening of. the pastern bone, so as to place the weight of the leg more on the coffin bone, and less on the navicular bone; then, as time goes on, and the pain increases, he relaxes the feslock joint, and bears less weight on the foot altogether; still there is not much in his mode of standing to attract the attention of a casual observer; his next plan ior obtaining relief is to advance the foot slightly, so as to bring the toe of the.lame foot a little in front of the toe ot the opposite foot, whereby he removes it in some degree from the base which supports the weight.

All this may have been going on for months, and no one have observed it, until at last he can bear the pain no longer, and he thrusts his foot fairly out in front of him in undisguised " pointing;" nevertheless, he contrives, when he is at work, by shortening his stride and stepping a little quicker, to conceal the lameness, and the groom and his master become in time so accustomed to his posture in the stable, that they look upon it as a mere trick, and say, " it is all nothing, he always stands so when at rest;" the latter may be true, but the former is something more than doubtful. Some horses are unquestionably given to tricks, but no horse ever indulges in a trick which compels him to stand almost constantly on two legs instead of four; the pain and inconvenience of such a proceeding would soon induce him to relinquish it as a matter of amusement. Before he can point a fore foot he is obliged to dispense with the support of the opposite hind kg, which he does by relaxing the muscles, lowering the hip, bending the joints, and resting the limb on the toe; he then has to divide his weight as equally as he can between the other hind leg and the opposite fore leg, and having done this,he raises the lame foot and deposits it sufficiently forward to ensure its exemption from sustaining any portion of his weight; he then lowers his head and neck, with a view of still further diminishing the weight on his feet, and presents altogether such a picture of misery that it would require a very lively imagination in the beholder to suppose the horse is merely .indulging himself in an agreeable trick.

The horse's foot is made up of a variety of textures so elaborately and beautifully combined as to form one complicated but perfect spring, and unless that spring is permitted to have constant freedom of action, it very soon gets out of order, the more delicate parts lose their elasticity, and the power of expansion, which is so essential to the soundness of the foot, becomes first diminished, and ultimately (destroyed, whereby the horse is soon rendered useless. I take it there are few p rsons who will dispute the expansion of the horse's foot, but whatever the general theory about it may be, the all but universal practice is to treat it as an inelastic solid, whose chief use is to pound macadamized roads.

The horse in a state of nature roams.about at will with his feet unfettered, and they take no harm, simply because he is permitted to look where ho is going, pick, his way over difficult ground, and direct bis own pace ; but as soon, as he enters the service of man these valuable privilege* aud safeguards arg withdrawn, and the varipus uses which be h» t>qt, and the rapid ra»t* # y/U^^ J&kr^uiredto travel oW^gß^«o*Js, caUfor mm <**

jcient protection to hia feet, and it is not only our duty, in return for the important services he renders, to see that it is applied in a manner the least detrimental to him, but it is our interest to do so, in anticipation of( the lengthened service it will ensure to 'us. If horses were always propeily shod, and properly stabled, they would repay the care thus bestowed on them by the increased lengfh of efficient service they would perform. When he works seven tr eight years it is no uncommon thing to hear his master say," he owes me nothing," which may be-perfectly true, considering the treatment he has received; but if he had been properly treated during the time he would be still some eight or ten years of active service in his masters debt. The horse is a much longer lived animal than people generally suppose him to be; but the prevalent mistake as to the length pf his natural life may be attributed to two opposite causes: first, the very large number that are known to die at an early age—

victims, it may be truly said, of overwork, bad management, and cruel treatment; the next; the great difficulty- there always is of ascertaining the real age of a horse when the mark has disappeared from his mouth. Horses are marketable commodities, and few persons are disposed to lessen their value, by recording very accurately the number of years that pass over their heads, after the mark is gone; the consequence is, that they remain about 9 or 10 years old so long that their real age becomes buried in oblivion, and at last no one really knows how old they are. Many a man at this moment is using a horse perhaps some eight or ten years older than he thinks he is. I remember many years ago purchasing an active showy horse, said to be about the mysterious age of other people's horses, and there was nothing in his appearance or powers of work to indicate greater age; bt t on tracing his history I discovered that he was twenty-nine years old, and the sire of a very large progeny, Now, if I had not taken the trouble to trace > him back, I should never have known within fifteen or sixteen years how old he really was. I have, at different times, met with four horses who were all known to be over forty

years old, and were still at work; one of

them was shot at the age of forty-five, not because he was incapable of further work, but because the master saw the servant ill use him. But, perhaps without taxing my memory for further facts, those supplied by my own stable in November of last year may sufficiently illustrate my position, that the natural life of a horse is longer than it is generally supposed to be. I had at that time six horses in my stable whose combined ages amounted to one hundred and fortyfive 3 Tears, and five of them are still there with clean legs, and hoofs looking like cok's hoofs. The sixth I had destroyed last December, at the age of twenty-six. When I purchased him nineteen years ago he has incipient navicular disease, but I contrived by shoeing and stable management to keep it at bay all that time.

The Argits of 28th ultimo says:—Yes; ti day, Victoria lost a genuine sportsman in the person of Mr. Redwood, the owner of Strop, Miss Rone, and 10. . This gentleman, though but a short time. in the colony, has, by his unaffected simplicity and sterling honesty, gained "golden opinions from all sorts of men." He leaves, we nre convinced, with the regret of all who have met with him personally, or have had any opportunity of knowing what manner of man he is. Though unfortunate in his venture—(he must have expended £'2000 and £3000 on his horses, first and last)-—Mr. Redwood left Melbourne as happy as he landed. It but reflected little credit upon our sporting men that hardly a gentleman Iciumvu upon the Victorian turf was on the wharf yesterday to say " Good-bye" when the City of Sydney cast off.

: Chloroform and Bees.—Mr. Wilson, nurseryman, of Christchurch, lately had occasion to take the honey from a hive of bees, and instead ot resorting to the usual mode of destroying the bees" by the fumes of the sulphur, dipped a small piece of linen cloth into choloform, instantly introducing it into the hive by the entrance. Immediately afterwards the hive was closely covered with a table-cloth to prevent the escape ot the ascending fumes of the chloroform, and in ten minutes from its introduction the hive was turned upside down, the best portion of the honey-comb was removed, and the hive restored to its original position. Meanwhile the bees were partially inanimate and incapable o£ stinging; but on the following day every he& seemed completely revived, and was agaift at work rebuilding the cells as industriously as before — Standards

Classification of Newspaper Readers.— The readers of a newspaper were divided by Shenstone the poet into seven classes. The illnatured man, he says, looks to the list of bankrupts, ths tradesman to the pike of bread, the stock-jobber to the lie of tho day, the old maid to marriage, the prodigal sou to death, the. monopolist to the hopes of a wet harvest, and the boarding school Miss to everything relating to Gretna Green. Coleridge, oii the other hand, divided them into three classes; the first be compared (o thehour-glass*their reading -being us the sands which run in and. out without leaving a vestige behind. The second class of readers, lie said, resembled a sponge, which sucked in everything, and. returned it in the same state, only a little dir'j P ,. # The third, class he compared to the diamond ',nmers in Golconda^ who, casting aside all that is. worthless, preserve only the pure gem. Extraordinary Fecundity.—A cow in the possession of Mr. Samphey, M Outturn's Creek has lately brought forth three bull calves-at a birth. They are aU remarkably, fine calves, and are doing well, '- The same cow last year gave birth t<* twins, both of which throve excAleaH^.-^-Matyborough and Duuolly Advertiser. ..' , , Dfpahwre ofthe 'Am. England' Cricketers for N»RTu America.—Amongst the passengeis in the screw steamer Nova Scotia, which saiied on Wednesday from Liverpool to Canada, were the following "AHEngland" cricketers:—Parr, Jackson, Diver, C*sar, Hayward, Daft, Wisdeu, Lilly white, Caffyn, Locker, Grundy, and R. Carpenter, who are engaged to play a series of matches with tl»e cricketers of Canada, and the United States.—English Paper. , .

Cobb's Coach, with its six prancing steeds usujally makes a sensation when it-rat ties t brough our streets each afternoon;. but the Ballarat Times states that "-on Saturday it made rather more Vliaiv the usual stir, there being an additional horse about it* Th»seventh was on the top,-.an outside passenger in a case. It certain! v' was not a large horse, only about thirty inches li igh, though. old enough to be double that 4 fcize. It was a little Timor pony,- recently nvtlved fr om India," 4 which Hs owner, Mr. Craift of Bath's Hotel, badtaken this singular mg^.ftf bringing up country. —Bendigo Mcrcur/. Seven priest* wrete fishing at Nantes, whea thtk.