FOOD 343 



box should be tried. Crocker recommends, as a "sure cure", that a weight 

 should be suspended by a rope over a pulley on a girth and the other end 

 of the rope attached to a hobble placed below the fore fetlock. 



Lying on Elbow. — Capped elbow is an enlargement on the point of 

 the elbow caused by the horse, when lying, jjressing his elbow against the 

 heel of the shoe. The usual preventive measure is the use of a soft pad 

 fitted round the heel of the foot (fig. 385, Vol. II., page 360), or of a 

 large soft pad suspended against the elbow. Another and very effectual 

 method is to place the horse in slings for a time. After this many, when 

 again allowed to lie down, cease to press their elbow on the shoe. 



Capped Hocks. — Horses which kick or stamp in the stable are liable 

 to injure the jDoint of the hock, in which case a capped hock is the usual 

 result. To prevent this, padded stall divisions, loose - boxes, and the 

 employment of the ordinary preventive measures for stamping are the 

 methods usually relied upon. 



Crib-biting is a pernicious habit, the subject of which seizes the 

 manger or any convenient fixed object, and makes a belching noise. The 

 habit is usually associated with more or less digestive derangement. To 

 prevent cribbing various kinds of neck-straps, &c., are in use. Whether 

 one or another of these be used, none of the fittings should be such as the 

 cribber can catch hold of, and no eribber should be permitted to remain in 

 the same stable with non-cribbing horses. A cribber is easily recognized 

 by the condition of his teeth. 



Wind-sucking is allied to crib-biting, but here the horse does not 

 take hold of tlie manger. He simply arches his neck, opens his mouth, 

 and sucks in air. Like crib-biting it is generally accompanied by indiges- 

 tion, and horses addicted to it should always be stabled alone. 



FOOD 



The various food-stuffs used for horse provender in these days of cheap 

 and rapid transport are drawn from a great portion of the habitable world. 

 This wide extension of the sources of supply has naturally led to a large 

 increase in the kinds of food-stufis used, and the different sorts of oats, 

 beans, peas, maize, barley, bran, linseed, hay, &c., imported into the 

 country are daily increasing. 



The old plan of feeding with oats and hay stood the test of experience 

 very well, but economy could not be disregarded, and in most large studs 

 an extended and more varied bill of fare is now the custom. But it is not 

 solely to economic considerations that this change is due. It is not difiicult 

 to understand that no single food, however admirable, can provide for a 



