408 THE HORSE. 



and a cool stable, the horse may be enabled to do moderately fast 

 work. If the frog is not very prominent, a leather sole, put on 

 in the usual way, will save the jar, and in some measure supply 

 the place of the natural elastic tissue, destroyed in this disease. 

 Usually, however, it only adds to the mischief by increasing the 

 pressure on the frog, and then the leather must be introduced 

 between the foot and the shoe, but cut to the same shape as the 

 latter, so as not at all to bear on the frog. Many horses with slight 

 traces of laminitis can work for years with leather applied in this 

 way, and it may be said to be the most useful mode of treating 

 this disease when exhibited in a mild form. Sometimes by throw- 

 ing a horse by for six months, taking off his shoes, and blistering 

 his coronets two or three times, a great deal of good may be done, 

 but he must be put to stand on tan or sawdust during the whole 

 time, and never allowed to go on hard ground, even for half a mile 

 at a walking pace. By this plan, and by very careful and gradual 

 increase of exercise at the end of that time, I have succeeded in 

 restoring an elastic condition of the foot; but I have never known 

 one so patched up bear hard work, and I should never advise the 

 risk incurred by submitting him to it. Hunting and racing, or, 

 indeed, any kind of work on soft ground, will do no harm ; but 

 battering on the roads, especially without leather, applied as above 

 described, is sure to bring back the inflammation. 



THE SEEDY TOE. 



THIS TERM is so generally employed among horsemen, that 

 though the state which it describes is one of the ordinary con- 

 sequences of laminitis, I prefer to give it a distinct section. I 

 have already described its nature in the preceding page, and have 

 only now to allude to its treatment. This may generally be so 

 conducted as to restore the shape of the foot, if the inflammation 

 has not lowered the toe of the pedal bone, as shown at fig. 1 ; for 

 if this has taken place, although it is perhaps possible to get rid 

 of the cavities in the horn, the relative positions of the bony parts 

 cannot be changed. When, however, as is often the case, a 

 moderately small hollow has been formed between the layers of 

 the wall, and the foot retains a tolerably healthy shape, by cutting 

 away all the external horny walls, exposing the parts in contact 

 with the laminae, and resting the horse in a loose box, the secret- 

 ing surface will form a new wall, without any spongy texture, in 

 the course of three or four months, if the coronary band is con- 

 stantly stimulated by external applications. To effect this, the 

 horse should be put to stand on red deal sawdust, without shoes ; 

 and his coronets, after being gently stimulated by a mild liquid 

 blister, should be kept dressed with tar ointment, which should 

 also be applied to the exterior of the horn. It is seldom, how- 



