i84 PINK AND SCARLET 



Lameness caused by thorns is often very obscure, 

 and experience provides a case of one of the best 

 veterinary surgeons in England diagnosing a 

 coming ring-bone as the cause of lameness, which 

 a few days afterwards was proved to be the result 

 of a thorn prick. 



15. "Your saddle touched his back yesterday, 

 where there was a lump after you rode him the 

 other day." 



How annoying is this when said with an air of 

 superiority, almost triumph, by our groom the 

 morning after a day's hunting ! Yet, unless we keep 

 our eyes open, it will happen, for it seems the way 

 of many grooms, either not to see the signs of 

 mischief in due season, or to keep them to them- 

 selves if they do see them. It is the same sort of 

 want of observation in his men that makes it so 

 important for an Officer with mounted troops to 

 himself examine and feel all his horses' backs after 

 a march, or an unusually long field-day. To him who 

 is in the habit of watchinof his hunters' backs this 

 comes like second nature. 



16. Cold and cough. — These ought seldom to 

 occur in a well-managed and well-ventilated stable, 

 and when proper precautions are taken whilst the 

 horse is at work. They must, both in man and 

 beast, be taken in hand at once. A neglected cold 

 may mean pneumonia, influenza, etc., with all the 

 loss of condition and subsequent debility which 

 accompany these ; while the end may be roaring, 

 broken wind, and perhaps death. Treatment. — 



