Hand Book On The Treatment Of The Horse In The Stable And On The Road PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ... THE CARE OF HORSES. SO many treatises have been written concerning the horse and his stable that I should do better, some critics might think, to let the matter alone. But my excuse is this: I do not mean to write a treatise, but only a chapter; and, unless my knowledge of horse books is at fault, the modest task of putting the essentials of the subject in so brief a form has never yet been attempted. The present essay will contain no long Latin words, no medical terms, no vague prescriptions; it will merely treat of those commonplace things which more learned authors are apt to omit. Nor do I pretend to write for the typical horseman, who would scorn to obtain information from the printed page. He knows already all that man can know. I have not forgotten the auger and contempt with which a certain blacksmith, a good mechanic, moreover, once told me of a present that he had just received from a grateful customer. It was a work on the diseases of the hoof, written by a Vet of five times his experience and ten times his information. "To think," he exclaimed, in the tone of one whose pride had received a wanton insult, --"to think that any book could teach me anything about the foot of a hoss!" Now I fear that we horsemen are all more or less like this blacksmith; and accordingly I address myself, not to the craft, but to the ordinary horse owner, who has acquired no special knowledge of the animal, and who does not enjoy the services of a stud-groom. Nevertheless, I make bold to say that among the following pages will be found a few original remarks, worthy the attention even of a horseman. It would be odd indeed had I failed to pick up an idea or two concerning matters that lie so near my heart. And here I might repeat what was said to me...