THE HUNTER AT HOME. 177 



incurable. Veterinary assistance is liere demanded^ but 

 rest is the great thing. For sprains of the back sinew^ 

 which are of all degrees,, I know of no better application 

 than the absurdly named lotion which I have alluded to 

 above. Many people advise the wearing of a high-heeled 

 shoe in these cases; I should prefer no shoe at all. 

 Firing injured sinews is only too common a remedy. 

 I had rather try the rest necessitated by the firing 

 alone, without the pain to the horse of the operation. A 

 horse fired on the fore legs loses more or less the action 

 of them, even if the blemish is not considered. Frog 

 pressure is the secret of clean fore legs. My idea that 

 firing fore legs is not a certain improvement, is rather 

 confirmed by the practice of the racing stable. As a 

 general rule it may be said that no race-horse is of any 

 use after he has been fired. However, many hunters will 

 be fired on the back sinews, whatever a minority of horse 

 owners may think on the subject. Now, though I do 

 not approve of firing sinews, I do approve of the use 

 of the iron for bony excrescences when they are first 

 appearing. For spavins I believe firing is the most 

 efiectual remedy. If a horse is lame by a spavin in the 

 middle of the season, if he be sound enough to work at 

 all I should not rest him ; that is, supposing that he goes 

 sound when he has travelled a moderate distance. I 

 should after each day^s hunting blister the hock with 

 some absorbent — perhaps the ointment recommended in 

 the case of ring-bone is as good as any, though it is 

 very mild, according to some people^s notions — and at the 

 end of the season I should have the hocks fired. But 

 there is no occasion to score the hocks all over, as a 

 few lines drawn on the spavin place answers every 

 purpose, and of course heal quicker, with hardly any 



