HOOF OINTMENTS AND 'STOPPINGS.' 19 



opinion as to its use, besides being in the dark as 

 to what drugs, secretly given by the said man before, 

 may have caused the disease, which, however, will 

 be attributed to anything but his own act. 



There are yet other 'remedies' kept by all stable- 

 men. They are used more openly, and are even 

 highly approved of by some owners. First amongst 

 these rank ' hoof-ointments,' be they either a ' secret ' 

 with the stablemen, or a ' patent ' — it does not make 

 much difference which, as to their nonutiHty, or, 

 rather, their positive insalubrity. They almost 

 always consist of admixtures of some or all of the 

 following ingredients : — Tar, bees-wax, train oil, 

 tallow or suet, and honey. jNIr. Douglas says that 

 if applications of this kind were made daily instead 

 of occasionally, no horse would have a morsel of 

 sound horn at the end of six months to nail a shoe 

 to : ' for it shuts up the pores in the horn, prevents 

 the natural moisture from reaching the surface out- 

 wardly, and the air from circulating inwards — conse- 

 quences which act upon the horse with ruinous 

 results.' ' If you tell a groom this, he will either 

 refuse to listen to your arguments, or laugh at them 

 as being the height of absurdity.' How many 

 horse owners are on a level with their servants in 

 this matter ! 



Cowdung, mixed sometimes with some of the 

 above-mentioned abominations, is firmly believed in 

 by servants, and its use condoned by their masters, 

 for ' stopping ' — that is to say, stuffing the hoof with 

 — up (or down) to the level of the bottom of the 



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