Things Worth Knowing About Horses

Contents

The archive kept this book’s contents page but not its chapters. Each section is listed with the first lines it opened with.

1. Tricks And Bad Habits In Harness HorsesThere are many habits horses may have that in no way owe their origin to vice, yet are often as troublesome and sometimes as dangerous as those which do. I have lately said as much about breaking h...
2. Starting And Shying HorsesPersons sometimes place these failings in the same category; but there is a wide distinction between the two, and they are frequently the result of widely different causes. They are both annoying to t...
3. Starting And Shying Horses. ContinuedI have no doubt many of my readers have found a horse, or seen one, in technical term, buck on coming to a (say) large white stone on the road, without its appearing to have attracted his attention ...
4. Trotting HorsesIt is perfectly well known to most persons, how. ever little conversant they may be with the habits and attributes of quadrupeds, that there are four paces natural to the horse, viz., the walk, the tr...
5. Trotting Horses. Part 2Trotters, like racehorses, have their distances: some go a mile at a terrific pace, then their bolt is shot others can keep up their speed three or four miles, others seven; while Tom Thumb and some ...
6. Trotting Horses. Part 3I consider it may be acceptable to some of my readers, if I mention some facts as regards practising and training trotters. We will conclude no man would be insane enough to attempt making a trotter o...
7. Trotting Horses. Part 4I had one, a stallion, good hunter as need be, had always passed as a half-bred; it was few horses he could not run up to; but there he would stick, and all the hustling, threatening, or whipping, cou...
8. Trotting Horses. Part 5Let us now consider what could originally have been the cause of teaching horses this one mode of going. Persons will perhaps say, a horse leading with the near leg throws me out of my seat. Your pa...
9. Safety Of Pace With HorsesI am not aware that we can in general estimation hold one pace of the horse as more safe, or the reverse, than another. It all depends on the way in which the animal does that pace. Some horses are pe...
10. Driving HorsesWe have seen many curious specimens of horsemanship in our streets, and in the environs of London; I say have seen, for an equestrian has now become an object of rare occurrence, save and except amo...
11. Driving Horses. ContinuedMrs. Wilkins was, however, at the height of her wishes; she sported her carriage, and probably would have remained in this state of blissful ignorance and fancied greatness, had not her aspiring tho...
12. Draught, Harness, And DrivingThis article being written in compliance with a lady's wish, I feel sure that, though it may not personally interest many of my male readers, it will be read with more zest than those on subjects that...
13. Pulling HorsesAn article which appeared in The Field, signed Boarspear, relative to his hard-pulling mare, is, take it all in all, perhaps as difficult a one to answer in any satisfactory way as could be proposed...
14. Treatment Of Ailing Horses, EtcIn a previous article on Starting and Shying, I mentioned defective or deceptive sight as one of the causes of these failings, and I am bold enough to say I feel confident I shall be borne out in this...
15. Treatment Of Ailing Horses, Etc. ContinuedI should say that horses in disease call for professional aid even more than human beings. It is true their ailments are not usually of so complex a nature as are man's; but we can learn from the latt...
16. Corns In HorsesThere are few ailments that lame more or cause more acute pain to the horse than do corns, if not properly treated, and few that are more easily alleviated if scientifically set about. Corns, I quite ...
17. Corns In Horses. ContinuedThe smith, satisfied with the shape to which his paring and rasping had brought the foot, and having discovered the latent corn, or at all events bruise, we must suppose he would have been equally sat...
18. Peculiarity Of Shape In HorsesThere is a saying among horsemen, that They go in all shapes. This is quite true, and many do go better than common, still owning very queer shapes; but though it may please nature at times to produ...
19. Peculiarity Of Shape In Horses. ContinuedA huntsman's argument that he sat on the strongest part of his horse when riding as it were on his shoulders, might have some plausibility in it when he mounted him before daybreak, and continued on h...
20. Peculiarity Of Make In HorsesThere are few more unsightly peculiarities in the horse's make than a low or hollow back; it is at all times objectionable in point of appearance, but in many cases I must consider it perfectly hideou...
21. Peculiarity Of Form. Large-Carcased HorsesWhenever I venture an opinion on any subject, I neither do so as considering it incontrovertibly right, or presuming to think others will hold it as such: in fact, it will be admitted I at all times c...
22. Big Heads On HorsesWe must all agree that a neat, light, deer-like head is a beauty in the horse, indicative, to a certain degree, that he will ride pleasantly and light in hand. Some persons go so far as to consider it...
23. Horses With Small FeetI am not surprised at anyone being struck aghast at the bare mention of small feet as regards the horse; for with them is associated the idea of contracted heels, with the frequent accompaniments to s...
24. Horses With Contracted FeetAs I before stated, the great mistake persons make as regards contracted feet, arises from their not attributing their existence to the right cause. To reason by analogy, we see a man walking apparent...
25. Horses With Large FeetI of course mention these in contra-distinction to small feet, the subject of the two last articles. As I have attempted to show that small feet are by no means always to be held as indicative of aili...
26. Curby-Hocked HorsesMany, indeed perhaps most persons, on reading the heading of this article will conclude that by curby-hocked horses are meant those labouring under the direct presence of curbs. It is not so, however....
27. Faulty-Hocked HorsesIn reference to spavin, it is a somewhat peculiar disease, inasmuch as its existence ranges from confirmed and incurable lameness, to being all but (sometimes, indeed) perfectly innocuous-this not dep...
28. Small Boned HorsesThere are many persons who indiscriminately condemn all horses that do not possess large leg-bones. Doubtless, good bone is a great desideratum in the horse; but persons are apt to form their conclusi...
29. Ewe-Necked HorsesThere are few greater drawbacks on symmetrical formation in the horse than a ewe-neck. A very trite punster would say it makes him look sheepish. It does so; for, in the common acceptation of the word...
30. Peculiar Habits In Horses. WindsuckingI reply willingly to H. R.'s letter relative to his mare, and also make such observations as I conceive may be found interesting-among others, on wind-sucking in general H. R. states he has a Loudon ...
31. Athletic Exercise For HorsesI have been frequently asked (as it will be inferred by persons totally unacquainted with such matters) how long it usually takes to bring out a racehorse fit to run. Now, no man alive-no, not John Sc...
32. Horse StablesA Correspondent, C.W., having made some inquiry respecting the dimensions of stables, it being an object in which the interest of the public is materially involved, the following article, I conceive, ...
33. Warmth Of Horse StablesI feel it a duty I owe myself, and also a proper respect to pay to my readers, to account for my articles being of so desultory and erratic a character. I beg to remark that most of them take their ri...
34. Training Horses To HarnessAlthough I should be one of the very last to recommend any private person that could employ his time better to usurp the place of the colt-breaker or breaksman, still there may be circumstances under ...
35. Training Horses To Harness. Part 2We will suppose him to have been got quietly between the shafts, traces fixed, kicking strap and belly-band fastened, of course, the precaution must be taken of having a flat-headed hemp halter under ...
36. Training Horses To Harness. Part 3The generality of persons are not aware to what extent a determined kicker will carry his propensity. I have had the toe-board split under my feet. Horses will sometimes kick over the traces (or ra...
37. Effect Of TreatmentMany persons quote what is, or what they consider to be, the natural state of animals, and hold that out as a guide by which we should shape our treatment of them in a state of domestication. Nothing ...