ACCIDENTS TO THE LEGS AND FEET 615 



down, and the knacker may bo sent for without delay. The chief danger 

 lies in undiscovered pricks and festered corns which may lead to losing 

 the hoof, because no pain is evinced and separation may take place before 

 it is ascertained that anything is wrong. It should, however, be clearly 

 understood that there is no reason why, if detected, an injury to the foot 

 cannot be treated successfully, as the nerves of nutrition are not divided, 

 and I have worked a horse with a seton through a festered corn, the horse 

 trotting sound, until he recovered. I mention this merely as a proof, and 

 not as a practice to be recommended, as it was done to demonstrate the 

 practicability of treatment. 



ACCIDENTS TO THE LEGS AND FEET 



These parts are subject to a variety of accidents, trifling perhaps in 

 the cause which produces them, but serious in their effects, from the 

 lameness which ensues. The chief of these are ordinai-y cutting, speedy 

 cutting, and pricks of the foot either from putting the sole down upon 

 a nail or a piece of glass. Bruises and over-reaches also come under 

 this head. 



Ordinary cutting may occur either in front or behind, the latter being 

 the more common. It is often met with in poor horses, where the flesh 

 is so reduced in substance that the legs are brought nearer together than 

 in a proper condition. Here all that is required is patience, till the legs 

 are restored to their proper relative position, taking care in the meantime 

 that there is no permanent injury done. Usually the inside of one or 

 both feet strikes the fetlock joint of the other leg in passing it, but some- 

 times the blow is given higher up, and it may occur anywhere on the 

 cannon-bone except just below the knee, when it is called " speedy 

 cutting," which will be separately considered. Sometimes this blow on 

 the side of the cannon-bone is either the cause or the efiect of a splint, 

 the blow of the foot having a tendency to produce exostosis (see Splints, 

 page 507). But if a splint is thrown out on a part of the cannon-bone 

 which comes in the way of the natural action, the horse whose foot pre- 

 viously passed clear of that part of the other leg will hit it, and not only 

 give pain, but cause a considerable access of inflammation in the previous 

 enlargement. 



In the Treatment, therefore, of cutting, it is necessary to prevent the 

 habit being continued from the swelling produced either by a splint or by 

 previous blows. A horse perhaps, either from weakness or bad shoeing, hits 

 his leg and produces considerable swelling and soreness. Here, unless the 

 swelling is reduced or protected, there is no chance of preventing the cutting, 

 because there is a projection of the swollen soft parts right in the way of 

 the other foot. No alteration of the shoeing, and no increase of strength 

 or flesh, will be of service until the inflammation is reduced, and the sore, 

 if any exists, is healed, and this can only be done either by rest or by pro- 

 tecting the leg with a boot. The latter is the better plan, and wherever a 

 horse cuts it is, in my opinion, advisable to let him wear a boot for some 

 weeks, until the skin is quite sound again and reduced to its proper thick- 

 ness. A piece of an old rug folded round the leg so as slightly to overlap- 



s s 



