HORSE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



custom with hunters in England, where 

 the hair is cut squarely off about eight or 

 ten inches above the hocks. 



" No apology is offered for not giving 

 in this work a description of these two 

 operations ; they are so barbarous and so 

 senseless that they are going very rapidly 

 out of fashion, and it is to be hoped that 

 they will ere long have become obsolete, 

 as has the cropping of the ears, formerly 

 so common in England. 



" A more humane way of setting up 

 the horse's tail, to give him a more stylish 

 appearance, is by simply weighting it, for a 

 few hours each day, in the stall, until it 

 attains the desired elevation. This is 

 done by having two pulleys at the top of 

 the stall, one at each side, through which 

 are passed two ropes, which come togeth- 

 er and are fastened to the tail, the ropes 

 having at their other ends weights (bags 

 of sand or of shot are very good for the 

 purpose), which must be light at first, and 

 may be increased from day to day. The 

 weighting should be continued until the 

 tail has taken a permanent position as de- 

 sired. It is true that this method requires 

 a somewhat longer time than that of cut- 

 ting the muscles, but while it is being 

 done, the horse is never off his work, and 

 he suffers infinitely less pain. 



"The method of nicking or pricking, as 

 usually performed in this country, is not 

 quite so cruel or so hazardous as the cut- 

 ting of the muscles, described in Stewart's 

 1 Stable Book : ' 



" ' The tail has four cords, two upper 

 and two lower. The upper ones raise the 

 tail, the lower ones depress it, and these 

 last alone are to be cut. Take a sharp 

 penknife with a long slender blade ; insert 

 the blade between the bone and under 

 cord, two inches from the body; place the 

 thumb of the hand holding the knife 

 against the under part of the tail, and op- 

 posite the blade. Then press the blade 

 toward the thumb against the cord, and 

 cut the cord off, but do not let the 

 knife cut through the skin. The cord is 

 firm, and it will easily be known when it 

 is cut off. The thumb will tell when to 

 desist, that the skin may not be cut. Sever 

 the cord twice on each side in the same 

 manner. Let the cuts be two inches apart. 

 The cord is nearly destitute of sensation; 

 yet, when the tail is pricked in the old 

 manner, the wound to the skin and flesh 



is severe, and much fever is induced, and 

 it takes a long time to heal. But with 

 this method the horse's tail will not bleed, 

 nor will it be sore, under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, more than three days ; and 

 he will be pulleyed and his tail made in 

 one-half of the time required by the old 

 method.' " 



HORSE, Unnerving. — The nerves dis- 

 tributed to the foot are sometimes divided 

 for navicular disease, as they lie on each 

 side of the bone above the fetlock joint. 

 No one, however, should attempt this op- 

 eration without having previously seen it 

 performed, as it requires considerable dex- 

 terity for its due execution. We have de- 

 scribed such operations as can be wanted 

 in the country, where a veterinary sur- 

 geon cannot always be reached, but un- 

 nerving is never required there, and we 

 shall therefore omit any detailed account 

 of it. 



HORSE, Hernia, Reduction of— Her- 

 nia is sometimes strangulated ; that is to 

 say, the protruding portion of bowel is 

 confined in its situation by such pressure 

 on its neck as to cause danger of mortifi- 

 cation. Under such circumstances, if it 

 is found to be impossible to return the 

 bowel by careful manipulation, an opera- 

 tion must be performed. This consists in 

 carefully dissecting through the coverings- 

 of the bowel, and when it is exposed a 

 long and narrow guarded knife (Bistouri 

 cache) is passed by the side of the intes- 

 tine through the opening into the abdo- 

 men, and then making the blade promi- 

 nent it is withdrawn, and the fibres caus- 

 ing the pressure are divided. This usu- 

 ally allows of the Bowel being passed 

 back again into the abdomen, when the 

 operation is completed by bringing the 

 parts together with one or two stitches. 



When hernia occurs in the colt either 

 at the naval or scrotum, it is often desired 

 to effect a cure by returning the bowel 

 and causing the opening to close by ad- 

 hesive inflammation. If the colt is uncut 

 the performance of the covered -operation: 

 on the French plan (see Castration) will 

 generally succeed, great care being of 

 course necessary to return the intestine 

 before the clams are applied. In umbili- 

 cal hernia, a similar plan has been tried, 

 but the adhesion is too superficial to be 

 of much use; and the only successful 

 method is the passas." of one or two 



