22 INDIAN TROOP HORSES IN STABLES AND ON THE LINE OF MARCH. 
a good stack of each, containing enough to take you through July, 
August, and September. 
The dry grass you are now forced to keep the horses going on is 
rauch improved by being mixed with lucerne or guinea-grass. Carrots, 
too, at any time when procurable, clear a horse’s blood. 
Our great enemies during the hot weather are (1) flies; (2) skin 
disease ; (3) lameness; and (4) colic. 
(1) Wiss. 
As regards (1) prevention is better than cure, so keep all tails uncut 
from the minute that your last cold weather inspection is done. This 
will, however, be useless for a horse’s chest, which we frequently see 
bitten, and with large lumps between the front legs from his hitting 
himself there with his hind feet in order to knock the flies off. 
A simple remedy for this is to get two old “ puggris” or a piece of 
thin cloth about 28 inches wide. Fasten one end to the jowl piece of 
the head-collar, the other passing between the legsto a roller. Let it 
be tolerably loose. A horse soon finds out that if a fly gets between 
his legs and he throws his nose up the fly is knocked off. Thin cotton 
jhools are good but require constant repairing. Lime spread on the 
floors of the stalls is an efficient preventive. 
(2) Sxin Diszase. 
I know of no better remedy than, directly you see the nuisance 
appearing give the horse a dose of salts, stop his gram, give him oats 
instead, or bran only if not requiring hard work from him, and let him 
do all the work you possibly can without his falling away. ‘Touch the 
sores with acetic acid, and have him washed with soft soap and water 
once a week, rubbing the soap well into the skin. 
(3) LAMENESS. 
Is too large a subject to enter into thoroughly here. I can only add 
to what I said before, that a horse’s foot was not made to be incessantly 
banged on to ground as hard as a macadamized road with the additional 
weight of a heavy iron shoe attached to it. Flies are at the bottom of 
half the lameness from kicks. 
(4) Coxte. 
An excellent preventive for colic is to put some nice clean clay mud 
into the water before the horses are allowed to drink, and stir well. 
The cases where horses, hitherto subject to it, never had it after this 
simple procedure, are legion. 
The usual cause of it is dirty grass or watering horses when they are 
hot, on coming in after the morning parade. 
A little thought so easily avoidsthis. If the parade is with the guns, 
or riding drill, nothing is simpler than to do all the trotting and 
galloping during the early period of the parade, leaving the remainder 
of the time for slow movements, during which time the horses all get 
cool. There are, however, always some which perspire more freely 
than others; these, a good horse-master will only permit to have 
