HOW TO BUY AND SELL. 63 



ASTHMA. 



Asthma may be recognized by the short, soft cough 

 that it produces. In some cases the inconvenience caused 

 by this complaint is but slight, the horse giving merely a 

 scarcely perceptible cough on coming out of or going 

 into the stable, and the more in the winter than in sum- 

 mer: the extent of such cough depends upon the atmos- 

 phere and cleanliness of his box. Very commonly, horses 

 touched with asthma do not cough when working, nor 

 seem distressed like broken-winded horses. 



Such horses often last many years, fulfilling the func- 

 tions of their particular class, without inconvenience; 

 yet, as there is chronic disease present, besides an as- 

 sumed predisposition to injury of the kings, they are 



CKIB-BITIKG. 



Crib-biting is a habit that some horses nave, of taking 

 hold of the manger with the teeth, or of resting the jaws 

 upon it, accompanied by a disagreeable noise caused by 

 sucking in and ejecting wind. It is a trick which horses 

 sometimes learn of one another, but it is generally caused 

 by neglect in providing work for these naturally active 

 animals; by omitting, when young, to keep them, when 

 unexercised, on a mouthing bit; and by allowing them to 

 stand idle in the stable with no food before them, es- 

 pecially when their heads are tied up, so that they can- 

 not amuse themselves by picking about in their beds. 



The stomach of the horse has a natural tendency to 

 keep distended, and therefore, if it be not replenished 

 with food, it will become filled with air, and, if distended 

 by too profuse a supply of the latter, will cause uncom- 

 fortable sensations to him: in which case, as he is, by na- 

 ture, incapable of eructating; reason or instinct, which- 



