104 THE ORANGE COUNTY 



nate immediately on the subsiding of the purgative action; 

 the absorbent vessels, having been overloaded, become dis- 

 tended and relaxed, and some time intervenes before they 

 resume their healthy tone, under the most judicious treat- 

 ment. This is clearly exemplified by the habitual tendency 

 which many horses exhibit of having swelled legs. When 

 this evil exists, any persons who entertain a doubt as to the 

 primary cause may readily convince themselves, by investi- 

 gating the course of treatment to which the animal has been 

 subjected. Horses which are reared on wet, marshy land are 

 invariably afflicted with this relaxed condition of the absorb- 

 ent vessels of the legs. Constant supplies of green succulent 

 food render these defects constitutional, and the most scien- 

 tific stable management is often frustrated when such ani- 

 mals are required to perform ordinary labor; their legs fail, 

 not from anatomical defects, but from the cause explained, 

 which operates injuriously upon a structure which is natu- 

 rally perfect. 



Superficial judges of horses do not mark the difference 

 between the appearance of a fat and a muscular-formed an- 

 imal If the bones are covered, the points filled out, and the 

 general contour looks pleasing to the eye, they conceive that 

 every requisite is accomplished. A more fallacious impression 

 cannot exist. A horse of moderate pretensions, if in perfect 

 condition, will prove himself infinitely superior in the quality 

 of endurance or capability to perform work, than one of a 

 higher character which is not in condition. If two horses are 

 ridden side by side, at a moderate pace of seven or eight 

 miles in the hour, on a warm day in the summer, one of 

 which has been taken out of a grass field and the other 

 fed on hay and corn, the difference will be very soon de- 

 tected. The grass-fed horse will perspire profusely, yet the 

 other will be cool and dry. This propensity to perspire like- 

 wise proves that the system of the former is replete with adi- 

 pose deposit, and fluids destined to produce that substance; 

 an unnecessary incumbrance, and in such quantities opposed 

 to freedom of action. 



Under an impression that an abundance of luxuriant grass 

 will increase the flow of milk, it is frequently given to brood- 

 mares, but if it has the effect of producing relaxation it is ex- 

 ceedingly prejudicial. A moderate portion of good milk is 

 far preferable to that which is weak and poor. Thorough- 

 bred mares are not unfrequently deficient in their lacteal 

 secretions, more so than those of a common description. It 

 is obviously necessary that either class should be supplied 



