Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1875 — Let Horses Go Barefoot. [ARTICLE]

Let Horses Go Barefoot.

Every day of my life I see horses who are begging their owners to relieve them from tight shoes. Let us bring the case hame. What does a man do who has bad corns? To relieve himself he at once pulls off his boot and relieves the pressure from the corn. Now, what is good for a man is good for a horse in very many cases, certainly where corns exist, and very few horses are entirely free from them. A month’s work barefooted on the snow will help a horse with corns more than his owner will believe, without trying ■ the experiment. Instead of being stuck upon three calks, the foot gets the true bearing which nature intended it should have. When I urge people to drive their horses barefoot on the snow, if only for a week or two, I am constantly told, “ My horsewill fall down, or break his hoof all to pieces.” Now, I know the horse will do “ nothing of the sort.” I don’t say that he can be driven at a three-min-ute gait and not chip his hoof; but Ido say that for all light driving, at a moderate, respectable rate, the hoof will never break to injure it. I drove my old horses (twenty-one and twenty-two years old), without shoes last winter, and tkey did not fall once, or slip any more, if as much, as horses which were calked, and whose calks were worn down. Another immense advantage in going barefoot is being able to drive through deep snow without feeling afraid that your horse will get cut with his calks.— Cor. Our Dumb Animals.