378 HORSES ON BOARD SHIP. 



intended, a horse will generally place his heels on them, 

 apparently with the hopeless object of digging his toes into 

 the wood beneath, and will thus adopt a position which is 

 well suited to bring on laminitis. Straw is slippery, and 

 consequently should not be employed. Cinders and sand 

 are very inefficient substitutes for rough cocoanut matting ; 

 although they are probably the best makeshifts that can be 

 usually found. 



With respect to the loss of Ossory and Prince lo, I read in 

 The Spirit of the Times that the man who had charge of 

 them said that he could not keep either straw or sawdust 

 under them, as it got washed away by the water which was 

 shipped. It is evident that no amount of wave-washing could 

 remove properly-placed cocoanut matting. When horses get 

 killed in this outrageous manner, any insurance company that 

 had taken the risk on them, would be right to resist all claims 

 for compensation ; because proper precautions had not been 

 taken for the safety of the animals. 



I believe I was the first to advocate the use of rough 

 cocoanut matting as a floor for horses on board ship, which 

 I did as far back as the 3Oth March, 1889, in Hayes" Sport- 

 ing News, which I owned and edited in Calcutta. Also, in 

 the 5th Edition of Training and Horse-management in India, 

 published in 1893, I recommended this kind of matting for 

 the purpose in question. 



Rough cocoanut matting not only gives a horse firm foot- 

 ing, but also saves him to a great extent from the danger 

 of getting laminitis, by enabling him to stand on a substance 

 which is a bad conductor of heat, and which causes the 

 pressure on the ground surface of his feet to be well dis- 

 tributed. By using cotton wadding bandages (p. 306) we may 

 further diminish the danger of laminitis ; for they are a 

 very efficient help in maintaining the normal rate of blood 

 circulation in the legs and feet. Unfortunately, the idea 



