HORSE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



21 



a tight shoe, a nail driven too close, or 

 from bad shoeing. The toe being left too 

 long open, causes a horse to trip, tender- 

 ness in the feet, contraction, groggy lame- 

 ness, corns and thrush; a scar on the 

 head above the eye (for a decided fall of 

 the horse leaves unequivocal signs there) 

 is a suspicious sign; when no trace of 

 local disease can be found to account for 

 them, the inquiry should be followed up 

 into the horse's constitution, for the stag- 

 gers or megrins may have occasioned the 

 accident. 



When a scar on the knee is observed 

 in connection with low withers, a thick 

 and upright shoulder and pasterns, with 

 the legs inclined under the bone, he is 

 unwise who does not take the hint that 

 the faulty formation has not produced its 

 natural consequence. To discover the 

 integrity of the kr.se, is not so easy as 

 some suppose, a -^asionally the hair 

 grows so well over h . wound, as to leave 

 it hardly discernible; but on minute in- 

 spection, when there has been a scar, an 

 interception of the gloss is apparent, as if 

 the hair grew in an oblique direction ; 

 should this be observed on bending the 

 joint, the secret will be exposed. 



The shank should be examined for 

 splint, strained or enlarged flexors, and 

 the marks of firing or blisters. 



In inspecting the leg, the eye alone 

 should not be trusted, particularly in 

 hairy-legged horses; but after minutely 

 comparing the appearance of the two 

 limbs, the hand should be deliberately 

 passed down both shanks before and be- 

 hind ; any difference before, or behind, 

 points to a deviation from health. 



In the sound flat limb, the tendon is 

 well denned, perfectly distinct, and has 

 a hard, tense feel that resembles the touch 

 of a cord tightly strung. If *he back 

 sinews feel thick, the flexor tendons and 

 their sheaths swelled and rounded, leav- 

 ing no distinctive marks as it were be- 

 tween the one and the other, but all 

 swelled into one mass with the bone, 

 great mischief has at some time happen- 

 ed; either some of the ligaments have 

 been ruptured, or there has been inflam- 

 mation, effusion, and adhesion of the va- 

 ginial bursse, or synovial sheaths of the 

 flexor tendons; or such relaxation has 

 taken place from strain and subsequent 

 inflammation as will always keep him 



weak. When the injury is recent, it is 

 accompanied with more or less swelling, 

 heat and lameness; by time and treat- 

 ment the first are removed, but the swell- 

 ing remains, and the thickening of the 

 tendons shows the mischief that has been 

 done. Whenever there is manifest altera- 

 tion of structure here, and yet the animal 

 is apparently sound in action, the pur- 

 chaser should bear in mind that the 

 soundness is often the effect of rest, and 

 should the animal be again put to work 

 he will become lame. And bear in mind 

 in such case you cannot return him, for 

 no man in his senses would give a special 

 warrantry against it. 



Splints, if large, are apparent by the 

 deviation of the outline of the leg; if 

 small, the hand discovers them. 



Every excrescence on the cannon 

 bone, in horseman's language, is termed 

 a splint. The true splint is in fact a local 

 conversion into bone of a part of the tem- 

 porary cartilage, connecting together the 

 large and small metacarpal bones. The 

 inflammation is set up by concussion or 

 strain. Horses are lame from them while 

 there is inflammation in the cartilage. 

 But when the tumor is formed, the inflam- 

 mation has subsided, and the periostrum 

 has accommodated itself to the enlarge- 

 ment, the horse is no longer lame, nor 

 more likely to become lame from that 

 splint than one without ; the same causes 

 that produced the first, may produce 

 a second. 



The splint, if so large as to interfere 

 with action, rendering the horse liable to 

 strike, is objectionable, or so near the 

 knee or ligaments as to interfere with 

 their freedom of action ; otherwise they 

 are of very little consequence beyond the 

 blemish destroying the line of beauty. 

 The worst splints are those not discern- 

 ible but by the lameness they produce. 



Any marks of firing or blistering should 

 make the purchaser cautious, and en- 

 deavor to ascertain the cause of the treat- 

 ment; after blistering, the hair is some- 

 times a shade different in color, and stares 

 a little, is shorter and bristly, and wants 

 the natural gloss. 



The fetlock joint, from being the prin- 

 cipal seat of motion below the kaee, and 

 from its complicated structure, is particu- 

 larly subject to injuries. The fetlock 

 should be subjected to the strictest ex- 



