44 STABLE ECONOMY. 



never accumulate fat ; they can not oat too much. When the 

 work is irregular and fast, the horse sometimes idle and some- 

 times tasked to the utmost, he may eat too much. He may 

 become fat and unfit to do his work, which is the most ruinous 

 of all work. 



To keep a horse in condition for fast work, his work should 

 be regular, and when it can not, his food should be given in 

 such measured quantities that it will not make him fat. 



A sudden change from a poor to a rich diet does not at once 

 produce fatness. It is more apt to produce plethora, redun- 

 dancy of blood. The stomach and bowels, previously accus 

 tomed to economize the food, and to extract all the nutriment 

 it was capable of yielding, continue to act upon the rich food 

 with equal vigor. A large quantity of blood is made, more 

 than the system can easily dispose of. Were the horse 

 gradually inured to the rich food, there would be time to make 

 the necessary arrangements for converting the superfluous 

 nutriment into fat. But the sudden change fills the system 

 with blood. This often happens to cattle and sheep, but the 

 horse does not suffer in the same way as these animals. 

 Sheep and young oxen, after entering a luxuriant spring pas- 

 ture, take what is called the blood. All at once they become 

 very ill ; some part of the body is swelled, puffy as if it con 

 tained air : in two or three hours the beast is dead. Upon 

 dissection, a large quantity of blood, black and decomposed, 

 is found in the cellular tissue, where, in life, the swelling ap- 

 peared. This, if ever it occur in the horse, is exceedingly 

 rare. In him, plethora seems to create a strong disposition to 

 inflammation in the eyes, the feet, and the lungs. Sometimes 

 an eruption appears on the skin ; this is termed a surfeit heat. 

 The hair often falls off in patches, and the skin beneath is 

 raw or pimpled ; these are termed surfeit blotches. The 

 horse is prone to grease. Those of the heavy-draught breed 

 often have what in some places is termed a weed, in others 

 a shoot of grease, in others still, a stroke of water-farcy. One 

 of the legs, generally a hind-leg, swells suddenly ; it is pain- 

 ful ; it is lame ; pressure inside the thigh in the course of the 

 vein, produces great pain ; the horse is a little fevered. In a 

 few cases, among the same kind of horses, there are numerous 

 puffy, painless tumors all over the body, especially about the 

 eyes, muzzle, belly, and legs. This is most commonly termed 

 water-farcy. The proper name is acute anasarca. The horse 

 may be left well, or apparently well at night ; in the morning 

 he is found with his eyes closed, buried in soft pitting tumors. 



