2IO LIGHT HORSES : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



Ring Bone. 



This is a deposit of bony matter on the surface, front or 

 sides, of the pastern bones, and is generally very serious, 

 owing to the deposit interfering with the tendons and liga- 

 ments covering it. It is most frequently observed in the 

 front pasterns. 



The treatment should be the same as for splints, but it 

 must be long continued, and the horse should be rested as 

 much as possible, the stall or loose box being laid with peat- 

 moss litter. In chronic cases firing may be necessary. 



Side Bone. 



This is comparatively rare in light horses, and in them it 

 is limited to the coarser breeds. The name is given to the 

 lateral elastic cartilage on each side of the foot, towards the 

 heels, when it becomes hard and rigid from deposition of bony 

 matter in its substance. This may occur from injury, such as 

 a tread, but more frequently it is due to inflammation set up 

 in the cartilage from some internal cause. Bad shoeing may 

 give rise to it, as when one side of the hoof is left higher than 

 the other, and so causes twisting of the limb. Sometimes 

 there is lameness, and there is nearly always impaired action. 



Treatment. Little can be done in the way of treatment. 

 Repeated blistering with the biniodide of mercury ointment, 

 exercising on soft ground, keeping the hoof level, and allowing 

 the frog to come in contact with the ground, or shoeing with 

 a bar shoe, are the measures likely to render the horse so 

 affected serviceable. 



Naviculav Disease. 



Navicular disease is almost entirely confined to light horses, 

 and is the most serious, and also one of the most frequent 

 causes of all lamenesses. There may be a hereditary ten- 

 dency to it in the way of predisposition or conformation, but 

 it is rarely seen in young horses, and most frequently attacks 

 those which undergo fast work. This, and the circumstance 



