CONTRACTED FEET— COOKED FOOD 



differs from inoculation so far that in the case of the latter 

 it is necessary for the germs of disease to be obviously and 

 directly conveyed from one horse to the other, whilst in 

 contagion it is sufficient if the animals have simply touched 

 each other. Thus if one horse is suffering from a disease 

 which produces a discharge which is conveyed to a raw place 

 or wound on a stable companion, the latter becomes inocula- 

 tive, but if the germs are conveyed by merely the bodies 

 touching, it is a case of contagion. (See Infectious Diseases, 

 Inoculatioft.) 



Contracted Feet are those which are abnormally narrow 

 in their shape, and may be described as unusually long, 



narrow feet. Sometimes both 

 hoofs are contracted, and some- 

 times only one ; but it does not 

 necessarily follow that a pair of 

 small, narrow feet, if they match 

 in shape and size, should be 

 contracted, as they may be 

 natural to the horse, though 

 undesirable. As a rule, the 

 defect is the result of navicular 

 disease or bad shoeing, the latter 

 being a common cause of con- 

 tracted heels, which exist when 

 the heels are too close together, 

 and the hoof too narrow behind. 

 Contracted heels, naturally, are 

 likely to affect the frog and bars of the foot, and thereby 

 cause lameness. (See Foot, Thrush.) 



Contracted Foot. 



Cooked Food, excepting in the case of a sick horse or 

 shy feeder, is not to be recommended as a food for horses. 

 An exception may, of course, be made in the case of a bran 

 mash, which, given occasionally the night before a day of 

 rest, is excellent. Such feeds as a mess of boiled roots are 



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