176 UNASKED ADVICE. 



mucli soreness of the parts where the hair has come off, 

 an application of fuller^ s earth is coohng and efficacious. 

 When the skin peels off between the fore legs, the horse 

 is quite lamed by the soreness thereby produced, and 

 goes as if he were stumped up for life. A horse with 

 mud fever all over him is a disgusting object, and 

 continues to be one until his summer coat begins to 

 come, and then for a time he looks still worse, being 

 all over patches. The disease, if it may be called so, 

 generally appears at the time when the winter coat has 

 ceased to grow, and before the new coat has begun. 

 But I have seen it appear before Christmas, and this was 

 the case in which it appeared on an undipped mare, 

 and after her third day^s hunting. Horses that are not 

 working hard do not have it — at least, very seldom. It 

 is those who are coming out in their turn all the season 

 through, who are most liable to it. All that can be done 

 is to give a dose of physic immediately on the appear- 

 ance of the first spot. Roaring, whistling, &c., I say 

 nothing of, as, though they are the hunter's greatest 

 hetes noirs, they are incurable. A man who buys a 

 roarer without knowing it is a ^''muff;'' one who sells 

 one without mentioning the failing, a rogue. Sprains 

 are a great bore in the hunting stable. I don't know 

 anything much better than rest and cooling applications 

 for them, though a vet. often manages to run up a 

 fair- sized bill for embrocations and liniments, which he 

 considers beneficial. Sprains of the shoulder are gene- 

 rally imaginary ; when the groom cannot otherwise 

 account for lameness, he declares it to be there. I have, 

 however, known several cases of lameness from falling 

 on the point of the shoulder, or from a blow received 

 there, and these are very troublesome affairs, and often 



