CAEE AND MANAGEMENT OP ANIMALS 789 



board ship, and the exercise which is prescribed for horses 

 at sea is directed against this condition. What is true for 

 the horse at sea is equally true for the one ashore. 



Severe work and prolonged rest may both result in the 

 production of the same diseases of locomotion, but we must 

 consider the former in a little more detail. 



A horse even in condition cannot perform an unlimited 

 amount of work. Valuable as condition is there is a limit 

 to the protective influence it exerts ; it cannot prevent a 

 horse from getting tired. In a tired state of the body both 

 tendons and joints may suffer, the latter become inflamed, 

 resulting in conditions of joint disease peculiar to the 

 horse, of which spavin and ringbone are good examples. 



The causes of these inflammations are compression of the 

 bones, and concussion, or sprain of the connecting ligaments. 

 In the production of the latter, irregularities of ground 

 must be taken into consideration. For example, the foot 

 on a perfectly level surface bears evenly all over the wall, 

 as may be seen by studying footprints. If the surface on 

 which the foot is bearing is irregular, then the foot only 

 bears on the most prominent part of the irregularity, so 

 that a great deal of the bearing surface is lost ; but, more- 

 over, this irregularity causes a deviation from the vertical 

 through the lateral movement at the coronet, pastern, and 

 fetlock, and it is conceivable that in excess this lateral 

 movement may lead to sprain of the lateral ligaments, 

 especially with a tired horse. 



We do not urge this cause as a prominent one in lame- 

 ness, for there are certain joints like the hock where there 

 is practically no lateral movement, and yet it is a frequent 

 seat of lameness. Dissection reveals the fact that in the 

 case of ringbone the ligamentous structures around the 

 coronet are implicated, and that a great deal of the early 

 enlargement of the coronets is ligamentous and not 

 osseous. A very large coronet during life, leading one to 

 believe in the existence of considerable bony deposits, may 

 prove on dissection that the parts show little or no bony 

 swelling, the enlargement being ligamentous. It is not 



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