324 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



THORNS IN LEGS AND STUBS 



There are few cases of mechanical injury to which 

 the horses of fox-hunters are more hable than thorns 

 in their legs, or stubs in their frogs or fetlocks. With 

 thorns, of course, the first point to be desired is extrac- 

 tion, but then it is often difficult to find the seat of 

 them ; also, when the seat of them is found, they are 

 not always easy to be got at, in which case I have 

 never been sparing of the knife or lancet. Sometimes, 

 however, we are compelled to wait for suppuration, 

 which must be encouraged as much as possible. In 

 two instances it has happened to me that four or 

 five gatherings of pus have been collected and dis- 

 charged before the thorn would make its appearance — 

 it having been, of course, deeply seated. I have the 

 point of a black-thorn, three-quarters of an inch long, 

 now in my possession, that a hunter of mine carried 

 nearly a whole season in his fetlock joint, causing 

 suppuration after every day's work. He was a game 

 horse, or he would not have worked sound with it, 

 which he never failed doing when he had got a mile 

 from his stable. 



The following case will shew how necessary it is to 

 cut and search for thorns when there is every reason 

 to believe a horse is lame from that cause. Some 

 years since I sold a mare to an intimate friend for a 

 good round sum. The second season he lamed her, 

 and, after having been severely fired by the late Mr 

 Walton, V.S., of Shiffnall, she was turned out for the 

 summer. When she came into work again the follow- 



