212 LIGHT HORSES: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



meadow is most advisable. The toe of the hoofs should be 

 kept short, and if shoes must be worn, and the wall is strong 

 enough, the short imbedded or preplantar shoe ought to be 

 preferred. If the horse is kept in the stable, cold water 

 swabs must be applied to the feet, or the horse may stand in 

 a foot bath of cold water for some hours every day. In some 

 cases a cantharides blister applied to the coronets appears to 

 be beneficial. In chronic cases, dividing the nerves of sensa- 

 tion that supply the foot (neurotomy) is the only palliative 

 measure, and when the cases are judiciously selected, and 

 the feet are carefully managed afterwards, such " unnerved " 

 horses frequently perform good service. 



Thoroughpin. 



This is the name given to distension of the sheath of the 

 tendon of the hind foot at the upper and back part of the 

 hock. The tendon may be sprained or its sheath injured at 

 this part, just in front of the point of the hock, and the 

 swelling may be pushed from one side to the other hence 

 the name. The injury may occur in slipping or jumping, but 

 the horses most liable to it are those with short hocks. There 

 may or may not be lameness, but in either case the swelling 

 is unsightly. 



Treatment. If the sprain is recent, then rest must be 

 allowed, and a high-heeled shoe applied to the foot of the 

 affected leg. Fomentations with warm water may be re- 

 sorted to for some days, after which compound tincture of 

 iodine should be painted over the swelling every day until the 

 skin becomes slightly blistered ; or the biniodide of mercury 

 ointment may be applied two or three times at intervals of a 

 week or ten days. When the swelling is chronic, then the 

 pring truss, made for the purpose of applying pressure to 

 his part of the hock, and sold by veterinary instrument 

 makers, should be tried. 



