CARE OE THE TROOP HORSE. 605 
least fifty per cent, of ordinary people will, when a horse is lame in 
front, fix the lameness on the wrong leg, but it is not so easy to find 
the cause of lameness in many cases. 
A horse lame in front will, when trotted, drop his head to the side of 
the sound leg, most beginners think the lame leg. Lameness behind 
may generally be detected by trotting the horse directly away and 
watching the carriage of the hips. 
When you have fixed on the leg, and you have neither heat or swelling 
to guide you and show you where the injury is, examine at once the 
foot most carefully, especially if lame in front. If the horse has been 
shod but a few days, in five cases out of ten the lameness arises from 
the shoeing, a tight shoe, a nail driven into or too near the sensitive 
foot, or a too free use of the knife. Take the shoe off, and try with 
pincers all round to see if and where the animal flinches; if there be heat 
in the foot and pain on pressure, put the foot in a bucket of hot water 
for an hour or so; if you find that the horse has been pricked, open 
out the nail hole to allow any pus to escape. Search also for corns at 
the same time, have them cut out, many horses are subject to them. 
You will probably be able to re-shoe the same day or the next; if the 
sole has been thinned by the knife or bruised, it would be wise to use 
a leather sole for a* few days when in the field; if in barracks, you could 
afford to leave the horse in without a shoe for a day or two. Farriers 
and shoeing-smiths will never acknowledge that a horse has been 
injured shoeing, and will try to make you believe that the lameness is 
in the shoulder or elsewhere, do not listen to them. Of course, the 
lameness may arise from many other causes that are hard to detect at 
once, ringbone, sidebone, navicular, etc., all of which diseases are 
common, especially among draught horses. Ringbone is a bony deposit 
round one of the joints of the pastern, and may often be detected by 
feeling and comparing the joints ; navicular you may suspect if the feet 
be uneven, and if at first the lameness is intermittent; navicular cases 
generally also point the toe of the lame foot in stable. 
If a horse is lame behind and there is nothing to give a clue, in the 
way of swelling or heat, to a kick, a strain, or a rope gall, the lame¬ 
ness is most probably in the hocks and arises from spavin. Curbs are 
more rare and noticeable, as the swelling shows itself below the point of 
the hock behind. Many horses are more or less spavined, especially 
Arabs, but these spavins are not always noticeable, as the unevenness of 
the hocks is often too small for the casual observer to see, a horse that is 
spavined carries its hock stiffly and cannot move it freely, therefore if 
you notice that the horse drags its toes or toe, and wears its shoes at the 
toe, it will often be a sign of spavin. You cannot cure, rest and hot 
fomentations may alleviate. 
For ordinary bruises, slight sprains, or blows, hot fomentations 
should be at once applied, two or three times a day, one to two hours 
at a time. The ordinary fomentations in troop stables last about ten 
minutes and are useless, between times wrap a woollen bandage loosely 
round the limb. 
There is but one cure for sprains and that is rest; fomentations, 
blisters and embrocations, only assist the cure. Massage is a most 
80 
Spavin, 
Sprains. 
