"Im Winter ruht der Wagen, in Sommer der Schlitten, aber nie ruht das Pferd." ("The wagon rests in winter, the sleigh in summer, but the horse, never.") This old German proverb brings home the importance of the horse to the farmer in pre-industrial America. For these hard-pressed tillers of the soil in rural Pennsylvania, a horse was a prized possession; it provided transportation, motive power, companionship, and fertilizer. Few crises on a farm were more worrisome than an ailing horse. Just as every household had a "domestic physician" book packed with home remedies for human diseases, so...
"Im Winter ruht der Wagen, in Sommer der Schlitten, aber nie ruht das Pferd." ("The wagon rests in winter, the sleigh in summer, but the horse, never....