270 TRAINING THE TROTTING HORSE. 



ately tight, it must not be ti^^ht enough to interfere 

 with the circulation, and should not be left on long 

 enough to allow the leg to become heated — certainly 

 not over two hours — but the time will, in a great 

 measure, be governed by the conditions, the weather, 

 etc. I have found this lotion excellent in hardening 

 and keeping hard and clean the legs of horses in 

 strong w'ork. But, perhaps, after all there is no lotion 

 or no treatment so cooling and beneficial in effect as a 

 walk in the dewy grass of earl}^ morning. 



I am much opposed to the use of the soaking tub. 

 Soaking horses legs and feet in hot water is certainly 

 injurious, though the practice is much favored by 

 trainers. As far as the legs are concerned it opens the 

 pores, relaxes everything, and causes them to fever-up 

 quicker every time it is resorted to, until the whole 

 mechanism of ligament and cartilage is ripe for break- 

 down. As to the feet, can you imagine that to keep a 

 horse's foot immersed in hot water, for quite a pro- 

 longed period, can have a good effect ? I know that it 

 is demoralizing to the foot. The texture of the horn it 

 destro3^s, and renders brittle and hard. The horn of 

 a horse's foot is "a series of small tubes cemented 

 together by a natural glue having such adherent power 

 as to bring them into a compact mass nearly as dense 

 as whalebone." As Mr. Joseph Cairn Simpson very 

 correctly argues : " The outside of the wall is naturally 

 protected from imbibing moisture by a thin covering 

 of enamel which, when in a natural state, is an abso- 

 lute protection against the ingress of water. . . . 

 When the enamel is rasped away as high, oftentimes 

 higher than the ' clinches,' when the knife and rasp 



