io8 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



a little heat and a trifling swelling and the mare 

 walked out lame. Her leg walked down, and 

 when she came in I fomented her with water as 

 hot as she could bear it, letting her stand up to 

 the knees in the hot water. I fomented her 

 two or three times during the day and after 

 each fomentation her legs were well dried and 

 rubbed and bandaged with hot dry bandages. 

 On the following morning she was exercised with 

 her bandages on and when she was brought in 

 these were removed and her legs were placed in 

 the bucket, which was filled with cold water, 

 and every now and again some saltpetre was 

 added with the object of reducing the tempera- 

 ture of the water. When the grooming of the 

 mare was finished wet linen bandages were put 

 on and dry flannel ones on the top of them. At 

 evening stables the fomenting and hot dry 

 bandaging was repeated and so on every day. 

 When that hunting season finished the mare's 

 legs were as fine as silk ; she never missed taking 

 her turn and she lasted some years after that, 

 and indeed was put down when there was still 

 some work left in her, but she had got into years 

 and her wind was gone. It may interest some of 

 my readers if I tell them it was from the late Mr. 

 Matthew Dawson that I learnt this method of 

 dealing with a lameness. One remark it is neces- 

 sary to make. The treatment will be found more 

 efficacious if the owner can make it convenient 

 to ' look in ' at stable time at irregular intervals 

 and pretty frequently. 



