SWELLED LEGS. 297 



where all four, or both hind legs, are, ^' like mill-posts :'* 

 they are swollen from the knee or the hock to the foot ; 

 they feel warm, and pit on pressure ; but do not evince any 

 remarkable sensibility. The horse may be oiBf his feed, and 

 feverish — pulse increased, skin warm, mouth dry, membranes 

 of the nose and eyes reddened. This accessory disorder, 

 however, is as often absent as present : oftentimes the swel- 

 ling of the legs is the only derangement. 



Young Horses — their management with respect to «ir, 

 food, and exercise, when received from the breeders — occa- 

 sionally constitutes an important duty of a veterinary sur- 

 geon ; the main object is to avert certain ailments to which 

 the change has predisposed them. The stable should be 

 spacious. Their diet, for the first month, should consist of 

 bran-mashes night and morning, and a feed of bruised oats, 

 mingled with double the quantity of hay-chaff, at noon. 

 During the second month, a feed of bruised corn and chaff 

 may be given in the afternoon. During the third month, 

 one mash may be withdrawn, and a third feed substituted. 

 In regard to the withdrawal of the other mash, and giving 

 whole oats instead of bruised corn, this change should not 

 be made until the animal is taken into regular work. 

 Should any disrelish for bran-mashes be manifested, as will 

 frequently be the case with individual animals — let scalded 

 corn, or oats steeped in boiling water, be substituted ; but 

 then, the bruised corn given with the chaff should be dimi- 

 nished, or entirely withdrawn. The custom of mingling bran 

 with oats is a bad one : nothing disposes a horse so much to 

 swallow his corn unmasticated as this mixture. The exer- 

 cise, the first month, should consist of walking half an hour, 

 morning and afternoon ; for the second month, it must be 

 increased to an hour morning and afternoon ; for the third 

 month, an hour and a half: during some part of which the 

 horses may be trotted. 



Physic. — No sooner have young horses entered on their 

 domestication, than it is usual " to put them into physic. ^^ 

 I never, however, allow this step to be taken : I have had 

 sufficient reason to repent of this imprudent custom. The 



