Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1858 — Hoofs of Young Horses. [ARTICLE]

Hoofs of Young Horses.

We saw recently an instance of the illeffects resulting from the neglect to shorten the excessively long hoofs of young horses. Ascolt, with unusually long Imois, had, in his pla , stepped on some hard substance and broken off the front part of the hoof of one foot to the quick. The accident was attended with some blleed'hg nnd excessive lameness, the poor fellow being unwilling to put his foot to the ground. Ten minutes’ work wotild have saved the animal much pain, and the owner might have had the profit of three months’ growth, instead of having it arrested for that period. But the occasional breaking off a part of the boo! is 'out a trill■; when compared with other mischiefs resulting from the same cause. When the toei is too long the-strain on the fetlock-joint is greatly increased, and permanent injury to the suspensary ligament of the foot often follows. Young horses frequently have windgalls, and other evidences of sprains, before they are put to work; and in ninetynpine cases out of a hundred, these are where shortening of the toe has been neglected. On some gravely and stony lands, and hard roads, the hoofs will wear fast enough, as nature evidently intended they should; but if horses are kept on good sipootlrturf, their feet must be kept short by artificial means.— Ohio Farmer.