CAEE AND MANAGEMENT OF ANIMALS 771 



horses out of condition are worked. Stating the case 

 broadly, we may say that laminitis is a disease which may 

 positively be prevented by attention to condition. 



Early in this section we spoke of pulmonary trouble 

 following on want of condition, and elsewhere* we have 

 recorded the fact that if horses be galloped even a short 

 distance, when in ' dealer's condition,' pneumonia will 

 supervene ; in fact by these means the disease may almost 

 be produced at will. But there is a form of pulmonary 

 trouble met with in the conditioned horse which results 

 from being over- galloped ; the term pulmonary apoplexy 

 is a very suitable one, for the lungs are unable to get 

 rid of the blood as fast as it is received, and the horse 

 finally drops. This is the condition which exists when 

 a man gallops his horse to death in the hunting field, 

 while the cruelty of the proceeding is covered up by that 

 convenient term ' sport.' 



It must not for one moment be imagined that the whole 

 of the lameness due to want of condition is comprised in 

 laminitis and sprains ; it is quite possible, though we have 

 no direct evidence, that bones may become conditioned 

 just as muscles and vessels are. Greater attention to the 

 question of condition might reduce the production of 

 lameness due to bone and joint diseases, which in horses 

 is only too frequent and the treatment unsatisfactory. 



It may take three months to get a horse fit for the 

 hunting field, during which he should be gradually accus- 

 tomed to perform towards the end of his training twelve to 

 sixteen miles daily, which is best divided into two periods of 

 two and a half to three hours in the morning, and an hour 

 in the afternoon, depending on the distance travelled. 



Continual walking is very trying for horses ; the exercise 

 should be arranged so that a certain amount of trotting 

 (that is assuming horses are fit for it) should be done every 

 hour. By this means other muscles are brought into play, 

 and the effect of trotting is refreshing. 



* ' Pneumonia and Pleurisy in the Horse' : Journal of Comparative 

 Pathology and Therapeutics, vol. x. , 1897. 



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