240 THE PRACTICAL HORSE KEEPER. 



clean, and get rapidly well. But before the saddle is again 

 used it should be attended to by the saddler. 



Injuries by harness should be treated in the same manner, 

 alum and water, or salt and water, being sponged over the 

 skin, to make it hard if it is tender. For tender skin from 

 saddle or harness, ordinary writing ink has been used with 

 good effect. 



FRACTURES. 



A simple fracture is when the bone alone is broken, with- 

 out protrusion through the skin ; compound fracture when the 

 bone pierces the skin j comminuted when the bone is broken 

 into many pieces j and complicated when other tissues than the 

 bone are also injured. 



Yery many in fact, most fractures are treated under 

 great disadvantages in the horse, as he cannot be induced to 

 keep the injured parts still; and he will, therefore, often 

 destroy the reparative work of months by a few moments 

 of struggling or restlessness. One of the most common frac- 

 tures is that of the point of the hip, and it is often caused 

 by knocking that bone against the door or gate-post while 

 going too hastily past it, or by falls or other accidents. In 

 this fracture the affected hip (when we view it from behind 

 the animal) is flatter than the sound one, and, when newly 

 done, the broken bone can be easily felt. It is, as a rule, 

 curable, so far as the horse becoming sound goes ; the fractured 

 parts either unite or the fragment becomes encysted, and does 

 not cause lameness. A horse with a broken point of the hip 

 is called " hip-down." It is a fault too often overlooked by 

 purchasers, and it is, of course, an unsoundness. When such 

 a fracture has recently occurred, the horse should be kept in a 

 stall, as quiet as possible, for six weeks or two months, when 

 the parts have either united or the detached fragment become 

 encysted, as above explained. 



