CASTRATION OF SOLIPEDS. 
481 
mine, (not original —vide Williams’ surgery), i. e., that it is 
tight tying up that breaks horses’ backs. Don’t tie up a horse 
any tighter than will allow you to do what you desire to him 
without injury to himself or your assistants. Don’t, with a 
big D, leave all the ieet locked together so as to give him a 
point to strain on. If you have a heavy weight to lift from 
the floor, your first move is to get your heels together so that 
you can use the muscles of your back and loins; put one foot six 
inches higher than the other and you must lift the weight 
through the agency of the muscles of your arms and 
shoulders, and you can’t well strain your back trying to do 
it. So with the horse, fix him 3 o he cant break his back. 
Have a good man at the head—the place for the operator 
is at the tail—bring the legs gradually together, keeping rope 
and chain taut so the legs do not become entangled in them ; 
let the assistant at the head push the horse gently backw'ard, 
when the legs are well together a tug on the tail throws him 
off his balance, and he comes down gently on the near hind 
quarter. When down let him kick—you can usually shorten 
this part of the Ceremony by lifting strongly upward on the 
tail—when the struggling ceases draw up the chain and snap 
on the lock (I have used the patent hobbles, i. e ., those hold¬ 
ing their own slack, in a friend’s practice, and if the makers 
would build them light enough for the castrator they would 
be useful). 
Loop a platlonge round the off hind fetlock, place a 
long hobble strap with D round the lower third of the tibia 
of the same side, pass the free end of the longe under the neck 
from above to below and through the D of the hobble on the 
tibia, release the leg from its casting hobble, draw it well for¬ 
ward onto the shoulder, and secure it with a turn round the 
fetlock, give the end to an assistant to hold telling him to pull 
well forward, and the horse is secured in position to castrate. 
The Operation .—If one testicle has fully descended and the 
other not, expose the hidden one first; if it is not possible to 
brfng it down without first incising the skin, see to it that the 
incision is made well forward parallel to the raphe and about 
three inches long. The proper way to go through the con- 
