Horses and Roads or How to Keep a Horse Sound on His Legs

Free Lance

• Publisher: Home Farm Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781473336735
• eBook ISBN: 9781473343887
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Technical & Manufacturing Trades

First published in 1880, this vintage book contains a series of papers on the subject of riding horses on roads, with chapters on avoiding accidents, proper care and maintenance of both horse and carriage, trips for horse control, notes on shoeing, and much more. "Horses and Roads" will appeal to modern readers with an interest in traditional horsemanship, and it is not to be missed by collectors of allied literature. Contents include: "Spring and Brakes to Vehicles", "Douglas on Horse-shoeing-Street Accidents and Brakes-Lord Pembroke and Mayhew on Servants", "Nostrums-Arsenic and Antimony-Hoof-ointments-Stoppings", "Litter-Xenophon and Lord Pembroke on Bare Paving for Stalls-Physicking and Blistering", etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in a modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on maintaining and caring for horses.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Horses – Care and Maintenance
• Preface
• Contents
• Chapter I. Springs and Brakes to Vehicles
• Chapter II. Douglas on Horse-shoeing—Street Accidents and Brakes—Lord Pembroke and Mayhew on Servants
• Chapter III. Nostrums—Arsenic and Antimony—Hoof-ointments—‘Stoppings’
• Chapter IV. Litter—Xenophon and Lord Pembroke on Bare Paving for Stalls—Physicking and Blistering—the Bearing Rein
• Chapter V. Shoeing—Lord Pembroke on Servants—Lupton on Farriers—Fitting the Foot to the Shoe—Calks—Injurious Effects of fitting Shoes by burning them on—Douglas on Cold Fitting—Shoeing in Spain—Brushing
• Chapter VI. Youatt on the Weight of Shoes—American Trotting Horse ‘St. Julien’—‘An Ounce at the Heel tells more than a Pound on the Back’—Lunette Shoe or Tip of Lafosse—Douglas on the Structure of the Crust—Miles on Expansion and Contraction
• Chapter VII. Expansion entirely prevented by present Mode of Shoeing, but favoured by ‘Tips’—Mayhew and Professor Percival on ‘Tips’—‘It is the Shoe, not the Road, that hurts the Horse’—‘Impecuniosus’ says there is too much sameness about all existing Writings on the Horse’s Foot, and ‘Original’ Ideas are wanted
• Chapter VIII. The ‘Charlier’ Shoe—‘Impecuniosus’ and ‘Kangaroo’ on the Charlier System —Sole Pressure—India Rubber Cushions and Pads—Pumice Foot—St. Bell on ‘Imitation of Nature’ in Shoeing—Mayhew, ‘Nature is a strict Economist’—Douglas on the short average Life of our Horses—‘One Horse could wear out four pairs of Feet’—Philip Astley, ‘He who prevents does more than he who cures’—The Charlier ‘Short’ Shoe, and the Charlier ‘Tip’—Stanley says Navicular Disease is impossible with the Charlier System—Experience of Messrs. Smither with Charlier Shoes—American Experience of Charlier ‘Tips’—‘Four inches of Iron curled round the Toe’
• Chapter IX. Description of Frog and Sole, by Douglas—Russell on Hot Fitting, and ‘Clips’ on Shoes—Facility of ‘Backing’ when a Horse stands upon his feet—Strength of the Horse’s Toe—Excessive Growth of Horn on Toes of Unshod Donkeys in Ireland—All Shoeing only an Affair of Routine, and is quite unnecessary—Mayhew, ‘Veterinary Surgeons cling to the Practices in which they have been educated’—Retreat of Napoleon from Moscow with Unshod Horses
• Chapter X. Unshod Horses in the Indian Mutiny—Unshod Horses in the Zulu War—Farriers in the Army are Tailors, etc.—‘Daily Telegraph’ on Frozen Streets—Comparative Inutility of Cogs and Studs—Unshod Horses in Mexico, etc., and their remarkable Freedom from Lameness and Diseases of the Feet and Legs
• Chapter XI. Brittle Hoof and the Treatment it gets—The ‘Water-cure’ more effective—Brittle Hoof often leads to Sandcrack, Seedy Toe, and Pumice Foot—Hard Roads are favourable to the Unshod Hoof
• Chapter XII. Letter of ‘Aberlorna’ in ‘Farm Journal’—Lieut.-Col. Burdett on Hot Shoeing, Greasing, ‘Stopping,’ and Paring the Hoof—Cold Shoeing—North Metropolitan Tramway Horses are shod cold with the Seeley Shoe—Gradual Breaking in of Horses to go unshod—Different Characteristics of Countries where Horses are bred—Ancient Writers on bare Stone and Wood for Stalls—Osmer has known Unshod Horses go Sound in England—‘Our moist Climate and hard Roads’—Mayhew and Douglas on Opposers of Progress
• Chapter XIII. ‘Aberlorna’s’ Second Letter in ‘Farm Journal’—His second Horse shod with Tips—Putting on Tips—His Experience in South America of the Exuberance of Growth of Horn and its Toughness, in Unshod Horses—Shod Horses go lame over good roads, whilst the unshod ones go sound over those of the very worst description—Ignorance of People in England of the Nature of a Horse’s Foot—‘The Lancet’ on the Indefensibility, in a Physiological Light, of the Use of Horseshoes—Success of two Gentlemen in working unshod Horses in England—Newspaper Complaints, about the Slipping of Horses, and Stoppage of Traffic on Ludgate Hill—The false Light in which Slipping is looked at
• Chapter XIV. Ludgate Hill only rises about four feet in every hundred—Societies—The Bearing Rein only required on Cripples
• Chapter XV. Brittle Hoof—Ignorance of Farriers—‘Impecuniosus’ says the existing Ideas on the Horse’s Foot have sprung from wrong roots altogether—Fearnley says ‘The Charlier is the most Common-sense Shoe ever invented’
• Chapter XVI. Custom of H. Jennings of training Racehorses unshod, and running them in their Races with Tips on their Fore Feet, with the Hind Feet bare—‘Evening Standard,’ instance of impaired Sight in a Young Lady from wearing high Heels on her Boots—Many Diseases of Horses may be attributable to Ill-treatment of their Feet—Caries of the Teeth is known to affect a Horse’s Action—Veterinary Dentists in America—Crib-biters, Wind-suckers, and Weavers—Letter of a Cavalry Officer in ‘Daily Telegraph’—His favourable Experience of Tips and Unshod Horses
• Chapter XVII. The Hunter considered—Experience of ‘Impecuniosus’ with Tips on Hunters—Miles on Unilateral .Nailing—Col. Anstruther Thompson’s Experience with Guttapercha Soles—Natural Transpiration continually going on in the Horse’s Foot
• Chapter XVIII. The Lady’s Horse—Must not be exposed to Stumbling—Light Tips will wear as long as heavy Shoes—Horses as Hacks for Elderly Gentlemen—Park Hacks—Carriage Horses—Abnormal Action and graceful Action—Concussion through the Iron Shoe—Bearing Rein for ‘Screws’—It ‘pulls them together’—Cruelty thereof—‘Docking’ a Horse’s Tail is Vivisection—‘Cutting’ caused by Shoeing—Cruel Mode of Cure at present employed—Coachmen
• Chapter XIX. The ‘Ride and Drive’ Horse—Omnibus, Van, Tramway, and Cab Horses—Tramway Mules—Mr. Fearnley on Calks—Unscientific Shoeing of Mules—Mr. Fearnley on the Charlier Shoe—Bracy Clark—Mayhew on the various kinds of Shoes
• Chapter XX. Question in the ‘Field’ as to an unshod Horse working in London—No Roads too hard for an unshod Horse—Xenophon on hard, rough Stable Floors, etc.—Erroneous Idea of ‘something nice and soft’ to stand upon—Flint Roads of Hertfordshire—‘You cannot treat an organic body as if it were an inorganic one ’—Bracy Clark, ‘the miserable, coerced, shod Foot’—Bracy Clark on Difference of Growth of Horn in the shod and the unshod Horse—Failure of Bracy Clark and Miles to produce a perfect Horse-shoe
• Chapter XXI. Asphalte Paving, and different Opinions concerning it—Dissatisfaction that reigns with regard to the ordinary Method of Shoeing—Transmission by Parents, of Diseases produced by Shoeing—French Statistics as to Diseases of the Feet and Legs of the Horses in the Army—Shoeing, a National Question
• Appendices
• Index