8« THE DIFFEKEXT BREEDS OF ENGLISH HORSES. 



him deeply cut tlie bars of the palate with a knife. The lungs will be thus 

 reUeved, and the horse may be able to crawl home. Then, or before, 

 if possible, let some powerful cordial be administered. Cordials are, 

 generally speaking, the disgi^ce and bane of the stable ; but here, and 

 almost here alone, they are truly valuable. They may rouse the exhausted 

 powers of nature. They may prevent what the medical man wou.ld call 

 the re-action of inflammation, although they are the veriest poison when 

 inflammation has commenced. 



A favourite hunter fell after a long burst, and lay stretched out, con- 

 vulsed, and apparently dying. EQs master procured a bottle of good 

 sherry from the house of a neighbouring friend, and poured it down the 

 animal's throat. The patient immediately began to revive : soon after- 

 wards, he got up, walked home, and gradually recovered. The sportsman 

 may not always be able to get this, but he may obtain a cordial-ball from 

 the nearest veterinary surgeon ; or, such aid not being at hand, he may 

 beg a little ginger from some good housewife, and mix it with warm ale ; 

 or he may give the ale alone, or even strengthened with a little ardent 

 spirit. When he gets home, or if he stops at the first stable he finds, let 

 the horse be put into the coolest place, and then well clothed, and diligently 

 rubbed about the legs and belly. The practice of putting the animal, thus 

 distressed, into ' a comfortable warm stable,' and excluding every breath 

 of air, has destroyed many valuable horses. 



We are now describing the very earliest treatment to be adopted, and 

 befoi-e it may be possible to call in an experienced practitioner. This 

 stimulating plan would be fatal twelve hours afterwards. It will, how- 

 ever, be the wisest course to commit the animal, the first moment it is 

 practicable, to the care of the veterinary surgeon, if such a one resides in 

 the neighbourhood, and in whom confidence can be placed. 



The labours and pleasures of the hunting season being passed, the farmer 

 makes little or no diflTerence in the management of his untrained horse ; 

 but the wealthier sportsman is somewhat at a loss what to do with his. It 

 used to be thought, that when the animal had so long contributed, some- 

 times voluntarily, and sometimes with a little compulsion, to the enjoyment 

 of his o-wner, he ought for a few months to be permitted to seek his own 

 amusement, in his 0"v^^l way ; and he was turned out for a summer's run 

 at grass. Fashion, which governs everything, and now and then most 

 cruelly and absurdly, has exercised her tyranny in the case of the hunter. 

 His field, where he could wander and gambol as he liked, is changed to a 

 loose box ; and the liberty in which he so evidently exulted, to an hour's 

 walking exercise daily. He is alloAved vetches, or grass occasionally ; but 

 from his box he stirs not, except for his dull morning's round, until he is 

 taken into training for the next winter's business. 



In this, however, as in most other things, there is a medium. There are 

 few horses who have not materially suffered in their legs and feet, before 

 the close of the hunting season. There is nothing so refreshing to their 

 feet as the damp coolness of the grass into which they are turned in April 

 or May ; and nothing so calculated to remove every enlargement and 

 sprain, as the gentle exercise which the animal voluntarily takes while his 

 legs are exposed to the cooling process of evaporation that is taking place 

 from the herbage on which he treads. The experience of ages has shown 

 that it is superior to all the embrocations and bandages of the most skilful 

 veterinarian. It is the renovating process of nature, where the art of man 

 fails ; let him therefore have his paddock as well as his loose box. 



The spring gi-ass is the best physic that can possibly be administered to 

 the horse. To a degi^ee, which no artificial aperient or diuretic can reach, 

 it carries off every humour that may be lurking about the aninud. It fines 



