346 STABLE ECONOMY. 



caps made entirely of Indian rubber have been introduced, 

 but it is said that they shift more than those of cloth. They 

 are too heavy. 



Injuries of the Back most frequently happen in the 

 field or upon ice. The hind feet slip backward, sometimes 

 in leaping across a ditch, and sometimes going up a steep 

 hill. The violent effort which the horse makes to recover 

 his footing seems to be the cause of the injury. The joints 

 of the loins are put upon the stretch ; the bones are partly 

 separated, sometimes completely, and sometimes broken. A 

 sprain of the loins may be so slight as to attract no attention 

 till the horse is cool. When the bones are displaced, ^the 

 horse stands stock still, he refuses to proceed ; when urged, 

 he staggers, perhaps falls. When the spinal marrow is in- 

 volved, the hind legs are partially or completely paralysed. 

 The horse has little control over them, or he has none. If 

 he can be raised, he may be taken to stable, assisted by a 

 man at each haunch to steady him. If, after raising him, it 

 be evident that the horse can not stand, if he have no power 

 whatever over his hind legs, he will never recover. If he 

 start to his fore feet, and rest on his hip or haunch, and can 

 not get further, he may be lifted by the tail. 



Injury of the back is seldom apparent from external ex- 

 amination. The bones may be broken and crushed upon the 

 spinal marrow, without presenting any external mark of dis- 

 placement. The extent of mischief is known by the extent 

 and degree of the palsy. Sometimes the paralytic limbs are 

 likewise insensible, and sometimes there is a twist of the 

 back, slight, but evident. 



Injuries of the Neck are produced by falls upon the 

 head. They occur most frequently in hunting, and in steeple- 

 chasing. When there i* merely displacement of the bones, 

 the neck is twisted and the head carried to one side ; some- 

 times it droops almost to the ground, and the horse can not 

 raise it. In either case he may recover, although it is com- 

 mon for the neck to remain permanently distorted. 



When the neck is fairly broken, the spinal marrow crushed 

 or strained, the horse is instantly deprived of motion and 

 sensation in every part behind the seat of injury. When the 

 fracture is close to the head, the horse dies instantly, and 

 without the slightest struggle. If he fall with the head under 

 him, there it remains ; he is dead before he can make an 

 effort to extricate it. When the fracture is farther back, 

 nearer the middle of the neck, the horse lives for a while 



