SUMMERING 307 



sugar of lead, rather than to use wet bandages or bran poultices, which I 

 have sometimes known to be applied. 



Simple as well as contused cuts are far better treated in the horse 

 with hot fomentations than by any attempt to heal them at once. Unless 

 they are very extensive or deep, the only point in which they are to be 

 regarded is with reference to the blemish which they may leave. Some- 

 times the edges gape so wide, that a stitch or two must be inserted, but in 

 such a case it is better to entrust the operation to a competent veterinary 

 surgeon. 



SUMMERING 



It was formerly th^ custom to strip hunters of their clothing in April, 

 and turn them out to grass on or about the first of May, and without 

 gradual preparation, such as is now recognized as desirable if we would 

 avoid risk of inflammation of the lungs, bowels, etc., caused by sudden and 

 violent changes, nor is it any answer to say that horses more frequently 

 get a cold in coming in to a hot stable than on being turned out, even in 

 winter, a fact which is referred to in another place (see Catarrh, page 538). 

 Much will depend on the weither as to the propriety of turning out, since 

 the month of April may be more genial in some years than May in others. 

 The system of turning out early and upon good pasture has the disadvan- 

 tage of making some horses too fat and heavy for their legs, and the 

 sujDerabundance of fat has to be removed before they can be got into 

 condition again. 



Considering the slow pace at which hunting was carried on in the 

 eighteenth century, a horse recently up from grass, if he had been allowed 

 corn while out of doors, as was generally done, was able to go through a 

 run, though it might be at the expense of the coat tails worn by his rider, 

 which were liberally lathered with soapy sweat. But in the present day, 

 when the hunter requires to be as fit as a racehorse, he must have the 

 same amount of preparation ; and we all know what sort of chance a horse 

 would have of winning a race in November if he is eating nothing but grass 

 in August. Indeed a fast run in Leicestershire is even more trying to 

 condition than an ordinary race, because, though the pace is not quite so 

 good, it is more true, and lasts four or five times as long. Hence the old 

 plan has been given up or greatly modified by the best horsemen, some 

 preferring to soil him on vetches, lucerne, rye-grass and clover, keeping him 

 in a loose box entirely or with a yard only in which to exercise himself. 



The advocates of soiling insist that far more good is done to the legs by 

 keeping the animal in doors, and the weight of experience is on their side, 

 but we have to remember that the feet do not benefit so much as upon a 

 cool, moist pasture, and it is even more necessary to cool them and remove 

 the effects of concussion than the legs, since the latter can be acted upon in 

 or out of the stable, by medicaments applied directly over the strained 

 structures and greater results obtained by a month's treatment than by 

 three months' rest, in or out doors, but the feet need the cooling grass and 

 the moisture of the soil, the benefit of a summer's run being lai^gely 

 dependent on the rainfall. In dry seasons where the ground was previously 



