How to Care for the Feet of your Horses and Mules

By Anon

"How to Care for the Feet of your Horses and Mules" was originally published with the indention of helping farmers get more work from their farm animals by keeping them in better physical condition. This timeless volume contains a range information and suggestions that will be of utility to modern horse-owners, and it would make for a useful addition to collections of allied literature. Contents include: "Description of Horses' Feet", "How the Hoof Grows", "Caring for Colt's Feet", "Caring for Feet of the Unshod Horse", "The Need for Horseshoeing", "Preparation for Shoeing", "Fitting the Shoe", "Nailing the Shoe", "Common Diseases of the Hoof and their Treatment", "Brittle Hoofs", "Spongey Hoofs", "Thrush", etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Home Farm Books
• Release date: Feb 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781528783651

Book preview

Horses – Care and Maintenance

The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family ‘Equidae’. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. We, as humans have interacted with horses in a multitude of ways throughout history – from sport competitions and non-competitive recreational pursuits, to working activities such as police work, agriculture, entertainment and therapy. Horses have also been used in warfare, from which a wide variety of riding and driving techniques developed, using many different styles of equipment and methods of control. With this range of uses in mind, there is an equally extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colours, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behaviour.

Looking after horses is a time consuming, as well as moderately expensive task – only to be embarked upon seriously. Horses can consume approximately 2% to 2.5% of their body weight in dry feed each day. Therefore, a 450-kilogram (990 lb) adult horse could eat up to 11 kilograms (24 lb) of food! Sometimes, concentrated feed such as grain is fed in addition to pasture or hay, especially when the animal is very active. In practical terms, horses prefer to eat small amounts of food steadily throughout the day, as they do in nature when grazing on pasture. Although this is not always possible with modern stabling practices and human schedules that favour feeding horses twice a day, it is important to remember the underlying biology of the animal when determining what to feed, how often, and in what quantities.

Aside from these more basic requirements – food (and water), horse grooming; the hygienic care given to a horse, is a very important practice. Grooming is an important