SWELLED LEGS. 367 



a capped hock is very properly regarded with a suspicious eye. The whole of 

 the hock should be carefully examined in order to discover whether there are 

 other marks of violence, and the previous history of the animal should be care- 

 fully inquired into. Does he kick in harness or in the stall, or has he been 

 lying on a thin bed, or on no bed at all ; and thus may the hock have been 

 bruised, and the swelling produced ? 



It is exceedingly difficult to apply a bandage over a capped hock ; and punc- 

 turing the tumour, or passing a seton through it, would be a most injudicious 

 practice. Blisters, or iodine, repeated as often as may be necessary, are the best 

 means to be employed. Occasionally the tumour will spontaneously disappear ; 

 but at other times it will attain a large size, or assume a callous structure, that 

 will bid defiance to all the means that can be employed. 



MALLENDERS AND SALLENDERS. 



On the inside of the hock, or a little below it, as well as at the bend of the 

 knee ^A, p. 351), there is occasionally a scurfy eruption, called mallenders in the 

 fore leg, and sallenders in the hind leg. They seldom produce lameness ; but 

 if no means are taken to get rid of them, a discharge proceeds from them which 

 it is afterwards difficult to stop. They usually indicate bad stable manage- 

 ment, j, 



A diuretic ball should be occasionally given, and an ointment of sugar-of-lead 

 and tar, with treble the quantity of lard, rubbed over the part. Should this 

 fail, a weak mercurial ointment may be used. Iodine has here also been useful. 



The line of direction of the legs beneath the hocks should not be disregarded. 

 The leg should descend perpendicularly to the fetlock. The weight and stress 

 will thus be equally diffused, not only over the whole of the hock, but also 

 the pasterns and the foot. Some horses have their hocks closer than 

 usual to each other. The legs take a divergent direction outward, and the 

 toes also are turned outward. These horses are said to be Cat or Cow hocked. 

 They are generally supposed to possess considerable speed. Perhaps they do 

 so ; and it is thus accounted for. The cow-hocked horse has his legs not only 

 turned, more outward, but bent more under him, and this increases the distance 

 between the point of the hock and the tendons of the perforating muscle : see b, 

 in the cut, page 357. It increases the space which is usually occupied by tho- 

 roughpin, see o, in the same page. Then the point of the hock, moved by the 

 action of the muscles, is enabled to describe a greater portion of a circle ; and in 

 proportion to the increased space passed over by the point of the hock, will the 

 space traversed by the limb be increased, and so the stride of the horse may be 

 lengthened, and, thus far, his speed may be increased. But this advantage is 

 more than counterbalanced by many evils. This increased contraction of the 

 muscles is an expenditure of animal power ; and, as already stated, the weight 

 and the concussion being so unequally distributed by this formation of the 

 limbs, some part must be over-strained and over-worked, and injury must 

 ensue. On this account it is that the cow-hocked horse is more subject than 

 others to thoroughpin and spavin ; and is so disposed to curbs, that these hocks 

 are denominated by horsemen curby hocks. The mischief extends even farther 

 than this. Such a horse is peculiarly liable to windgall, sprain of the fetlock, 

 cutting, and knuckling. 



A slight inclination to this form in a strong powerful horse may not be very 

 objectionable, but a horse decidedly cow-hocked should never be selected. 



SWELLED LEGS. 

 The fore legs, but oftener the hind ones, and especially in coarse horses, are 

 sometimes subject to considerable enlargement. Occasionally, when the horse 



