Dad always advised Uncle Walter to check the shoes on each horse every morning, for a loose shoe could easily mean a lost team and a lost day's work. How many horseshoe nails were planted along the roads of America is anybody's guess. But many of them were certainly picked up by the newfangled motorcar tires in the days before the "slap" was laid.
Horses were given a bit of unearned credit in the saying about "having horse sense." They have none whatever when it comes to eating, and unless you keep the oat bin well locked, will actually founder on fresh oats or other grain.
There are some other "horse related" gems of wisdom worth remembering:
Then there is "Give someone a horse laugh." This is an exaggerated and exceedingly wide-open-mouth guffaw that is more to embarrass the speaker than to applaud him.
Uncle Walter used to use the phrase, "She is a little long in the mouth," when he was talking about the Widow Parsons when she was not acting her age.
"Kicking up one's heels" refers to someone who is acting like a young colt and frolicking in the pasture.
"Taking the bit between the teeth" is what happens when a person takes complete control of the occasion and is uncontrollable, just as when a horse holds the bit between its teeth and defies the person holding the reins.
"A short horse is soon curried" refers to a small job that is quickly completed.
"To kick over the traces" is to get things fouled up, as a horse does when he gets his legs tangled in the trace chains, a real mess!