BENT KNEES INTERFERENCE, AND SPEEDY CUT.
The knee of a horse is a most complicated and beautiful mechanical
arrangement, singularly exempt from strain or disease in any form. Bony
enlargement, inflammation of the ligaments, do not attack it. The ravage
of the shoeing-smith--the horse's direst enemy--seems to be exhausted
upon the feet and the sympathetic pasterns; the concussion of iron and
pavement, uncushioned by the frog, will destroy the lower system of
joints before the knee can be shaken.
Notwithstanding this perfection and strength, many horses bend the knee,
and stand, or travel with it bent, until the flexor muscles shrink from
lack of use. This "over in the knees" condition is invariably caused by
imperfect use of the feet. The effect of heel-calks and their
accompaniment of corns, making a sore in each heel, is often indicated
by the horse to his regardless owner by bending his knee. The owner
asks the smith why he does it, and the smith, who never fails to give a
reason, says he has always noticed that horse had "weak knees." We know
of a shoer in Worcester County, Massachusetts, who has a wide local
reputation for "doctoring" weak knees. He holds that the muscles of the
leg in such cases are _too short_, and have to be lengthened with thick
iron heels and calks. It is a favorite theory of this class of shoers
that they are able to correct the errors of Providence in the horse's
construction, and piece him out with heel-calks and bar-shoes!
INTERFERING AND SPEEDY CUT.
If horses were not shod, they would not interfere; it therefore follows
that shoeing is the cause of this defect. A contracted hoof, pain from
corns, or any inflammation causes a horse to seek a new bearing. In
doing this he strikes himself. Blacksmiths make "interfering shoes,"
welding side-pieces and superfluous calks upon their clumsy
contrivances, and sometimes succeed in preventing the symptom, but they
never remove the cause. Few horses with natural feet, good circulation,
and shod with a light shoe, will ever interfere. In all such cases, take
off the heavy shoe, cure the contraction, get an even bearing, and let
nature have at least a momentary chance.
WORKING UP HORSES.
It is a common practice of large proprietors, engaged on railroad or
city work, to buy up horses with unsound feet, unfitted for speed or
gentle service, and use them up, as old clothes are put through a
shoddy-mill for what wool there is left in them. This cruel policy,
under an intelligent system of shoeing, would be impossible, because the
vast aggregate of foot diseases would be so abated that horses, sound in
general health but creeping upon disabled hoofs, could not be found in
droves, as at present, and the speculator in equine misfortune would
better serve his selfishness by buying young horses and keeping them
sound by a natural system of shoeing.
STUMBLING HORSES.
This annoyance is frequently caused by undue use of the toe, when the
heel is lame and sore from contraction and corns. When the horse has the
frog well on the ground and uses his heel without shrinking he is not
apt to stumble.
TO INCREASE COMFORT.
In dry weather, or when a horse with a hard, lifeless hoof is shod with
the Goodenough shoe, and shrinks from the unaccustomed pressure of the
frog on the ground, nothing is so grateful to his feet as cold water.
The hose turned on them is a delicious bath; or if he can stand for an
hour in a wet place, or in a running brook, he will get infinite comfort
from it. We have sometimes rapidly assisted the cure of contraction, in
the city, by manufacturing a country brook-bottom in this simple way:
Put half a bushel of pebbles into a stout tub, with or without some
sand, let them cover the bottom to the depth of two or three inches,
pour on water and you have a good imitation of a mountain brook. Put
the horse's forefeet into this, and let him bear his weight upon the
frog. The first time he will grow uneasy after a few minutes, but when
his frog becomes natural in its function he will be glad to stand there
all day.
Do not carry this treatment to excess. Moderation is the most
satisfactory course in all things. Abjure utterly all oils and greasy
hoof dressings, they are pernicious recommendations of unreasoning
grooms. They fill the pores of the wall, and injure in every way. Nature
will find oil, if you will allow circulation and secretion, through the
action of the frog.
"Stuffing the feet," is another wretched, groom's device. A horse has a
dry, feverish hoof from contraction, so his hollow sole, denuded of its
frog, is "stuffed" with heating oil-meal, or nasty droppings of cows.
When this sort of thing is proposed, remember _Punch's_ advice to those
about to be married, "Don't do it."