HORSE. 



to eleven miles an hour. The mus- 

 cular exertion is severe while it lasts, 

 but it is soon over. The excitement, 

 however, of high keep and excessive 

 exertion gradually wears the horse 

 down, and it is rarely that he contin- 

 ues in a fast coach more than six 

 years. 



" Carting. — Cart-horscs usually 

 work from eight to ten hours, six 

 days in the week. The pace varies 

 from two miles to three and a half 

 per hour, and the weight rarely ex- 

 ceeds twenty-four cwt., besides the 

 cart, which probably is seven or eight 

 more. All beyond this in weight or 

 in time of work is cruel. 



" Ploughing. — The average work 

 is about eight hours in the day. The 

 severity of it depends on the pace, 

 the nature of the soil, and the breadth 

 of the furrow-slice. The pace is from 

 two miles to two and a half per hour ; 

 the horse and the man can well sup- 

 port this as long as the ploughing 

 season continues. 



" Diseases of Horses (from Youatt). 

 — It may be readily supposed that the 

 animal doomed to the manner of liv- 

 ing just traced in every variety of the 

 horse, will be peculiarly exposed to 

 numerous forms of suffering. Every 

 natural evil will be aggravated, and 

 many new and formidable sources of 

 pain and death will be superadded. 



"Interest and humanity require 

 that we should become acquainted 

 with the nature, and causes, and rem- 

 edy of the diseases of the horse. Only 

 a slight sketch of them can be given 

 here, but sufficient, perhaps, to enable 

 the owner to recognise their exist- 

 ence, to avoid their causes, or to in- 

 duce him to apply to the proper quar- 

 ter for their removal or alleviation. 



" The principal diseases of the 

 liorse are connected with the circu- 

 latory system. From the state of 

 habitual excitement in wiiich the an- 

 imal is kept, in order to enable him 

 to execute his task, the heart and the 

 blood-vessels will often act too im- 

 petuously. The vital fluid will be 

 hurried along too rapidly, either 

 through the frame generally, or some 

 particular part of it, and there will be 

 394 



congestion, accumulation of blood in 

 that part, or there will be inflamma- 

 tion, either local or general, disturb- 

 ing the functions of some organ or 

 of the whole frame. 



" Congestion. — Take a young horse 

 on his first entrance into the stables ; 

 feed him somewhat highly, and what 

 is the consequence 1 He has swell- 

 ings of the legs, or inflammation of 

 the joints, or perhaps of the lungs. 

 Take a horse that has lived some- 

 what above his work, and gallop him 

 to the top of his speed : his nervous 

 system becomes highly excited ; the 

 heart beats with fearful rapidity ; the 

 blood is pumped into the lungs fast- 

 er than they can discharge it ; the 

 pulmonary vessels become gorged, 

 fatigued, and utterly powerless ; the 

 blood, arrested in its course, becomes 

 viscid, and death speedily ensues. 

 We have but one chance of saving 

 our patient, viz., the instantaneous 

 and copious extraction of blood ; and 

 one means of preventing the recur- 

 rence of this dangerous state, name- 

 ly, by not suffering too great an ac- 

 cumulation of the sanguineous fluid 

 by over-feeding, and, by regular and 

 systematic exercise, inuring the cir- 

 culatory vessels to prompt and effi- 

 cient action when they are suddenly 

 called upon to exert themselves. The 

 cause and the remedy are sufficient- 

 ly plain. 



" Again, the brain has functions of 

 the most important nature to dis- 

 charge, and more blood flows through 

 it than any other portion of the frame 

 of equal bulk. In order to prevent 

 this organ from being oppressed by 

 a too great determination of blood to 

 it, the vessels, although numerous, 

 are small, and pursue a very circui- 

 tous and winding course. A horse 

 highly fed, and full of blood, is sud- 

 denly and sharply exercised : the 

 course of the blood is accelerated in 

 every direction, and to the brain 

 among other parts. The vessels that 

 ramify on its surface or penetrate its 

 substance are completely distended 

 and gorged with it. Perhaps they are 

 ruptured, and the effused blood press- 

 es upon the brain ; it presses upoa 



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