SWOLLEN OR FILLED LEGS. 2939 
SWOLLEN OR FILLED LEGS. 
These are one of the most common troubles of the stable; the coach- 
man is very apt to complain piteously that in the morning he is sure to 
find such and such a horse with the legs filled. Commonly the hinder 
limbs below the hock are thus affected; sometimes the fore legs below 
the knee will be involved. The coachman mostly bandages the parts. 
In mild cases this resort may answer; but in bad instances the leg 
THE HORSE’S LEG OF A NATURAL SIZE. THE HORSE’S LEG WHEN FILLED. 
above the bandage is apt to enlarge. The cloth or flannel, before ap- 
plied, should be wetted; this, however, affords but a temporary relief; 
the wet often causes the hair to curl, aud the uniformity of the appear- 
ance is thereby spoiled. After some time, the bandage frequently leaves 
its impress upon the leg, and it is astonishing how long in peculiar cases 
this impress will continue. 
Swollen legs mostly occur in heavy animals and in overgrown carriage 
horses; such creatures are of weakly or soft constitutions. They have 
a vast tendency to become partially dropsical. Fast work exhausts the 
system of the carriage horse, while high food stimulates its natural dis- 
position toward disease. With heavy horses, the prolonged hours of 
labor are equally debilitating, and the Sunday’s stagnation generates 
disorder; neither have any innate hardiness to withstand injurious in- 
fluences; both, when highly fat, have the weakness inherent to their 
constitutions greatly increased. The quadruped, loaded with the accu- 
mulations of many months’ repletion, may please the eye of the master; 
but it is rendered more subject to disease, and less capable of labor or of 
activity. 
Persons who require fast work, should employ light vehicles aud 
small horses; the creatures should be principally supported by grain— 
a little hay may be allowed during certain times, when the animal’s 
