90 Management and Treatment of the Horse. 



Keep the limb moist with linen bandages soaked 

 with the lotion; never let them get dry, or you 

 will do much more harm than good. It is better 

 to have the legs washed with the lotion and no 

 bandages put on than to let the bandage get dry. 

 Short-legged horses very seldom overreach, but 

 long-legged ones often do — to their owner's cost, 

 and risk of neck and collar-bone, etc. 



THOEK 



This is another troublesome customer to the 

 groom, for often it is in the horse's legs some 

 days before it can be detected. But every groom 

 after a day's hunting should examine very care- 

 fully the legs to ascertain if there are thorns in 

 them ; the two worst and most likely places for a 

 thorn to be is in the knee joint and the coronet 

 between the hair and hoof. Sometimes a horse 

 will get punctured with a thorn so deep in the 

 joint that it will cause synovia or joint oil to run, 

 and when this occurs, under the best treatment, 

 there is sure to be an enlargement of the joint, 

 especially if the thorn has pierced the second 

 joint. Often a limb is pierced with a thorn and 

 the point broken off and left in the wound. This 

 is more troublesome than a large thorn left in, for 

 the latter is soon detected, and when once pulled- 

 out causes but little trouble ; Avhile a very small 

 piece of thorn, especially black thorn, from its 

 acrid nature, will set up inflammation and sup- 

 puration, sometimes to a great extent before the 

 evil is found out, as many grooms are apt to 

 mistake a swelling from a thorn for a rap with 



