584 The Book of the Horse. 



the tendons or joints, it may be recognised by the discliarge containing synovia — "joint oil" — a 

 fluid much resembUng in appearance white of &%%y which may generally be determined by care- 

 fully probing the wound with the index finger. Unless the animal be a valuable stallion or brood 

 marc, it had better be destroj^ed, for under the most favourable circunistances a stiff knee is 

 certain to result. When a discharge of synovia takes place from the sheaths of the tendons 

 the inflammation should firstly be reduced by fomentations, laxative medicines, and succulent 

 diet ; afterwards styptics should be carefully applied, to dry up the wound. 



In all cases of broken knees the horse should be so secured by the head as to prevent 

 his lying down or rubbing the wounds against anything ; he should be fed mainly upon 

 succulent diet, and submitted to walking exercise for a quarter of an hour twice daily. This 

 treatment must be rigidly attended to if the healing process is to be secured with little 

 blemish. Sometimes, even after slight injury, all the care that can be brought to bear will not 

 prevent the hair at the part growing roughly, while in others a serious wound, which has 

 been carefully and judiciously treated, will heal with scarcely perceptible traces. The great 

 object, when inflammation has ceased, is to dry up the wound as soon as possible, therefore 

 all oils and greasy nostrums should be firmly prohibited.* 



WOUNDS TO FOOT AND CORONET. 



The injuries which most commonly happen to horses' feet and coronets are prick or stab 

 in shoeing, those produced by picking up nails or treading upon sharp flints while travelling, 

 overreach, and treading upon the coronet. 



Horses are pricked usually owing to a want of skill or care on the part of the smith. There 

 are circumstances the existence of which may render the most skilful and careful of artisans 

 liable to such an accident: for example, a thin, shelly, and brittle or broken hoof, or the remnant 

 of a nail left in the hoof; but it seldom happens to a good workman. The injury is inflicted 

 by the nail being driven into the "quick" or sensitive structures of the foot. As much mischief 

 may arise from one or more of the nails being driven so close to the vascular tissues as to 

 unduly press upon them — this condition is commonly expressed by the term " bound." It is 

 a good plan to see the horse trot slowly in hand prior and subsequent to being shod, so that 

 any difference in action may be detected. Should any lameness be detected on the return 

 from the forge, the shoe should be at once removed, and if an offending nail be discovered, 

 the horn opposite to this hole should be removed, and the foot placed in hot water or a warm 

 bran poultice. Untoward results may thus frequently be avoided. Should tlie formation 

 of an abscess follow, the veterinary surgeon must be called in. 



In the event of a horse " picking up " a nail or sharp flint, after it is removed, the horn 

 around the puncture shoud be cut away so as to expose the sensitive surface immediately 

 surrounding it, and the case then treated similarly to one of prick. Most of these accidents require 

 but simple treatment to bring about recovery, but others are much more serious matters. If 

 the nail enters near to the centre of the foot, about an inch behind the point of the frog, and 



* Note by Author. — If a hoise is not very valuable, .ind you w.int his stall, it is belter to dispose of him, and let 

 some one else cure him of any accident or disease, than nm the risk, afl^r three months, of having a blemished or roaring 

 horse, woith no more to sell than the day after the accident. This especially refers to horses in London or its suburbs, 

 where stable room is limited and all fodder must be purchased. In the country, with paddocks and sheds at command, the 

 case is different. A hunter of character with badly chipped knees will sell for three figures, where a park horse of the same 

 original value would scarcely be wortli £20. The reason is obvious. The inference is that the himter fell in his vocation, 

 and m,iy still be fit for tliat Ir.ide. The business of a park horse is to be handsome and safe on the ruad. — S. S. 



