202 GENERAL TREATMENT OF HORSES. 



man, the digestive organs are oftener than any 

 other disordered, so the respiratory organs in the 

 horse are the most common seat of disease. It 

 is, however, in the power of a groom, by great at- 

 tention to feeding, keeping the habit of body from 

 becoming foul and plethoric, and well regulated 

 w^ork, to make horses of this description tolerably 

 fit to go with hounds ; whereas in bad hands, they 

 would be nearly useless, at all events dangerous to 

 ride. Such horses are generally hearty feeders, 

 and when so, should have a setting muzzle, as used 

 with race-horses, put on them on the night before 

 hunting, unless they have been out with hounds 

 within three days. Water also should be sparingly 

 given to them on that day, and not after three 

 o'clock, p. M. Frequent mild aperients, or alterative 

 medicines, are very efficacious here ; for as, in the 

 human subject, the lungs often become the seat of 

 disease as a second cause of indigestion, the state 

 of the digestive organs should be minutely attended 

 to with horses of this description. 



A broken-winded horse is never seen in a stud 

 of hunters. Most veterinary surgeons attribute 

 this disease to the consequences of high keep. Here, 

 no doubt, they are in a great measure correct ; but 

 if good grooming were not for the most part a 

 match for the effect of high keep, what would be 

 the fate of our race-horses, which eat almost as 

 much corn as they can swallow from the first month 

 of their existence I Amongst them a broken-winded 

 horse is a rarity. 



Many nostrums are prescribed for thick-winded 



