OF FARRIERY. 



i87 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



ON ROARING; CHRONIC COUGH; THICK WIND; BROKEN WIND. 



ON ROARING. 



Roaring is a disease that the Horse is 

 very subject to, especially carriage Horses, 

 and particularly those of the Yorkshire breed ; 

 and that in particular from their fine up 

 standing height, of from sixteen to eia:hteen 

 hands high, with long necks. These Horses 

 are principally used for carriage-horses in 

 London, on account of their height and 

 showy appearance ; for with this kind of 

 Horse, the coachman is enabled to shorten his 

 bearing rein to any length he thinks proper ; 

 by doing which he brings his Horse's neck 

 into a beautiful curve ; this is done to exhibit 

 him in style, or what these knights of the 

 whip call, bringing him out in form, though 

 by such means the disease called roaring is 

 produced ; and in many cases, it is exceed- 

 ingly unpleasant to hear the noise the Horse 

 makes every time he breathes; indeed, in 

 some cases it is so distressing, as from exer- 

 tion the Horse will fall, but still this tight 

 bearing rein must be used. It will be here 

 necessary to explain what the cause of roar- 

 ing is. 



Roarins; is occasioned by any thing that 

 obstructs the air passages, or in other words, 

 any thing that impedes the air passing up and 



down from the lungs. Inflammation of the line 

 secreting membrane which lines the wind-pipe 

 will frequently produce it, from an alteration 

 of the arterial action, that an effusion of 

 coagulable matter may be thrown out, and 

 become organized, and in consequence re- 

 mains as a permanent obstruction to the 

 passage. Inflammation of the lungs will 

 sometimes occasion it ; strangles also will, by 

 occasioning general inflammation round the 

 throat, frequently cause it. But the most 

 frequent cause of roaring is, the tight reining 

 in of carriage-horses, by which the wind-pipe 

 becomes distorted, or in other words, to suit 

 all my readers, contracted and diseased ; and 

 for this reason, the Horse in his natural state 

 feeds off the ground, consequently, his neck is 

 at full stretch ; but when he becomes domes- 

 ticated, this natural stretch of it is removed from 

 him, for he has his rack level with his head, 

 and the manger but little lower, so that those 

 muscles of the throat connecting the wind- 

 pipe with the spur-bone (as it is sometimes 

 called), and the inner sides of the posterior 

 part of the jaw, becomes in a manner useless ; 

 consequently, contraction takes place, and as 

 Nature finds but little or no use for them in 

 such a case, so absorption takes place, and thfv 

 become shortened ; it is from this cause iDal 



