416 AGRICULTURE AND THE HORSE. 



early stages of the. disease, and give the horse comfort, 

 and ability to discharge well the service of a quiet life. 

 But laminitis and navicular disease do not surrender so 

 easily, and are as troublesome as the gout when they 

 find their way into the luxurious horse-circles, — those 

 circles in which they are most usually found. 



So, too, of ring-bone and spavin. More conspicuous 

 than diseases of the foot, they are more easily managed. 

 I would never resign a promising young horse on ac- 

 count of the appearance of these diseases ; and I would 

 never neglect them until they were past relief I once 

 removed from the pasterns of a likely two-year-old, by 

 a couple of blisterings, what I was told in mild phrase 

 were "spreads," but what, had they been let alone, 

 would have been nugbones in all their deformity ; and 

 so effectually did I remove them, that, at four years old, 

 the enlargements were not visible, except on the most 

 careful inspection. Two of the best horses I ever bred, 

 two of the best that anybody ever bred, became dis- 

 eased in their hocks at four years old, and were threat- 

 ened with incurable lameness. They were too good to 

 be wasted. I could not bear the thought of their 

 being cripples for life. They were fired and blistered as 

 soon as the spavin manifested itself; were given a year's 

 run at grass and in the winter-yard ; and have done con- 

 stant work on the road from that day to this, without 

 the slightest appearance of even stiffness in their joints. 

 I do not think their speed, even (and they both have 

 a great deal of it), has been reduced a particle. I am 



