304 BREAKING DOWN. 
tender, harder, softer, or slightly warmer, than the rest. Should this 
not succeed, pinch them hard, and run the fingers down them, marking 
the part at which the animal flinches. Healthy tendon will endure any 
amount of pressure; diseased tendon is acutely sensitive. Having dis- 
covered the locality of the injury, order the hair to be cut short. Puta 
linen bandage round the lesion, and see that it is constantly kept wet; 
but do not expect a speedy cure. Those structures which are slow to 
exhibit disease are always tardy in resigning it. Bone and tendon are 
of this kind. 
Therefore do not expect any relief before three months have expired, 
and it will certainly be six months before the horse is fit to resume labor. 
Do not blister, bleed, seton, or fire: these things are expensive, and 
occupy much time. Have patience. Grant the time which the supposed 
specifics would employ, and the effect, with or without their use, is very 
likely to be the same. The only remedy for a badly-contracted tendon 
is an operation, and to that subject the reader is referred. 
The horse, however, which has been subjected to such a remedy will 
never be fit for its former uses. No art can restore the primary strength 
of nature, although human intelligence may arrest the progress of dis- 
ease. The thought, that the consequences of ill treatment are not always 
to be eradicated, should surely induce greater care of that property 
which, once lost to man, can never be replaced. 
When a tendinous structure is injured, the best treatment is gentle- 
ness and patience. Blisters, setons, etc. can only change an acute dis- 
order into a chronic deformity. ‘Entire rest, with such applications as 
ease the attendant agony, and a sympathy that can afford to wait upon 
a tardy restoration, are better than all pretended specifics. 
BREAKING DOWN. 
Breaking down is the severest injury which the tendons can endure. 
In proof of this may be cited the general notion that, when a racer 
breaks down, some of the back sinews are ruptured. This, however, 
does not often occur; but though the tendons are, generally, only se- 
verely sprained, some of the finer tissues, which enter into the composi- 
tion of the leg, are in all cases actually sundered. 
The animal is at its full pace—doing its utmost, and delighting its 
rider, who feels confident of coming in first. Instantaneously the horse 
loses the power of putting one fore leg to the ground. The jockey 
knows what has taken place. He flings himself from the saddle, and 
hastily glances at the animal’s foot. It probably is distorted; or, per- 
chance, the accident may have taken effect higher up, and the injury 
