336 STABLE ECONOMY. 



given, the horse is bedded, and left to repose. Inferior horses 

 after ordinary work receive no other care. 



When the horse comes in very hot, he is, weather permit- 

 ting, to be walked about till cool ; he is not to enter a warm 

 stable until the breathing be perfectly quiet and the skin dry ; 

 a close stable makes him faint and sick, and encourages fur- 

 ther perspiration. When he comes in wet he is to be dried 

 immediately, or kept in motion till the skin dry of itself. 

 When very tired, the sooner he is stabled the better, but still 

 he must not be left at rest till dry and cool. When he has 

 been long out, encourage him to urinate before dressing him. 



FOMENTING THE LEGS. I believe this is a useful operation 

 after a day of extraordinary exertion. It subdues or prevents 

 the tumefaction of the joints and sinews, to which the legs 

 of many horses are very liable. The water should be as hot 

 as the hand can bear it, yet not hot enough to pain the horse. 

 Clean water is the best fomentation ; salt, sugar of lead, 

 Goulard's extract, soap, and herbs, are sometimes added ; they 

 are perfectly useless, and in large quantities some of them fire 

 the skin. The legs need not be bathed higher than the knee 

 and the hock-joints. The water is applied with a sponge, 

 and if possible, there should be a man to each leg. If there 

 be but one groom, the operation is tedious to a tired horse, 

 and wet warm bandages may be employed as a substitute for 

 fomentation. That the horse may lie dry, he should be 

 fomented out of the stall, or loose-box, whichever be destined 

 for his repose. If he flinch as the sponge passes over a par- 

 ticular place, that part is to be examined, lest a thorn be 

 lodged in it. After the mud is washed off, the hand may be 

 drawn gently up and down the legs in search of thorns. 



The fomentation need not be continued above ten minutes. 

 When finished, the legs are to be enveloped in flannel bandages, 

 dry if the legs be sound, or wet if there be any sign of injury 

 or inflammation. 



LEG BANDAGES are strips of flannel four to six yards in 

 length, and four or more inches in breadth ; each has strings 

 at one end for tying. It is coiled up with the strings in the 

 centre ; the groom unrolls it as he wraps up the leg. Two 

 coils run completely round the pastern, close to the hoof, and 

 the rest is wound round the leg in a spiral form, each coil 

 overlapping another until the leg is bound up to the knee or 

 the hock, where the bandage is secured. Few horses will 

 attempt to lie when the bandage is carried over these joints. 

 Care must be taken that the bandage presses equally, and not 



