OVER-EEACHES. 81 



manifest that considerations of work will generally have their 

 weight when deciding as to the remedy. For instance, if anxious 

 not to put a horse on the sick list which is suffering from a 

 recently inflicted contusion on the withers, owing to an ill-fitting 

 saddle, it would be natural to try the effect of friction with spirits, 

 rather than that of an agent which would more or less blister the 

 skin. 



If pus forms, it should be given vent with the knife, and the 

 injury treated as an open abscess. Bathing and fomenting the 

 part with warm water should not as a rule be employed in the 

 early stages of contusions ; as these operations encourage the 

 formation of pus. 



Familiar instances of contusions are found in enlarged knees, 

 and bumps on shins and fetlocks from knocks when jumping 

 timber out hunting; in swollen withers from pressure of the gullet 

 plat© of the saddle ; in capped hocks from kicking ; and in capped 

 elbows from pressure of the heels of the shoes. It is evident that 

 when removal of the cause is possible, it is the best treatment. 



Over-reaches. 



An over-reach is a wound or bruise caused by a hind shoe or 

 hind hoof striking a fore leg. In the shod horse, it is generally 

 inflicted by the inner edge of the toe of the hind shoe; and the 

 wound will then, as a. rule, take the form of a flap. In exceptional 

 cases, particularly when leaping, it may be rnade by the front part 

 of the toe of the shoe, in which event, it will almost always occur 

 above the fetlock. 



The seat of injury is usually (a) on the soft horn just above the 

 heels ; (h) on the coronet a little in front of the heels, that is to say, 

 on the rear portion of the inside or outside quarter; or (c) on the 

 back tendons. 



In the illustrations in the chapter on the paces in " Points of 

 the Horse," it will be seen that in the canter or gallop an over- 

 reach can occur, under ordinary conditions, only on the leading 

 fore leg. In the leap, also, this leg, as shown in the same book, is 

 far more liable to this injury than the non-leading leg; as, in 

 almost all cases, it is the one which, on landing, is the first to be 

 brought down, and has to bear the whole weight of the body, until 

 the other fore leg is carried beyond it and placed on the ground. 

 The walk and the amble are the paces at which the horse is, 

 manifestly, least liable to over-reach. In the trot, both fore legs 

 are equally liable to injury from a hind one. Unless in the case of 

 a horse being thrown off his balance, the hind foot which inflicts 

 the injury, will always be the one on the same side as the 



