CHAPTER XIII. 
THE FEET—THEIR ACCIDENTS AND THEIR DISEASES. 
LAMENESS. 
OF all inventions intended to mitigate the sufferings of the horse, 
uone, perhaps, is so generally useful as the foot-bath; certainly, not 
one is so decidedly beneficial in its operation. It consists merely of a 
wooden or iron trough, one foot deep; the shoes of the animal should, 
if possible, be taken off before the hoof is allowed to tread within the 
ELA EE Pt} 
ELE Se PEPE 
A READY MEANS OF 80FTENING THE HORN, WHERE PRESSURE OF THE HOOF AGGRAVATES THE LAMENESS. 
bath; or, if such a measure be not possible, then the burden of the 
horse’s body should be counterpoised by means of weights. This pre- 
caution is always prudent, for, should the shod horse occasion fracture 
or breakage, an alarm might be excited which probably would ever after 
prevent the employment of the foot-bath with the same quadruped. 
The water should always be mixed without the building; it is never 
well to excite an animal’s fears by allowing it to witness unnecessary 
preparation. The author is fully aware that most people assert the 
horse has a very limited comprehension: so it may have; but it has an 
active terror, which is apt to misconstrue the simplest of motives. Who- . 
ever has seen the busy eye of the quadruped watching all that takes 
(330) 
