a sequel to pink-eye--can be got rid of much more promptly by
judicious exercise than by allowing the horse to stand; and much time
can thus be saved. Keeping in a box stall facilitates and hastens the
process, but half an hour’s walking exercise should be given twice a
day. When the horse is not being walked, his legs should be properly
bandaged with cotton batting and in the majority of instances the
swelling will be practically gone in a few days.
For sale horses and for show horses, walking exercise is a most
important factor in enabling those in charge of them to attain their
objects. A sale horse must be fleshy to attract most purchasers.
Dealers all over the world recognize this fact, as well as the one
that good, fresh-looking legs contribute in a marked degree to a
horse’s saleableness.
Walking exercise does not to any appreciable extent take the flesh
off a horse, nor does it make the legs stale. Flesh put on under
walking exercise is harder and gives a more finished appearance to a
horse. This form of exercise also stimulates the circulation of the
legs, keeps them clean and renders them hard, so that when a horse so
treated is put to more violent work the tissues of the legs can stand
it without showing wear and tear.
In the case of show horses, plenty of walking exercise is of even
more importance than in sale horses. Show horses must be fit to do
themselves and their handlers credit. In many of the rings the going
is heavy and horses that are likely to be in the ribbons should
be in shape to stand a severe test. If they are not fit when they
are called upon to make a final effort, they will not be equal to
doing their best. Many a ribbon is lost through a horse becoming
fatigued and losing his action and brilliancy in consequence. This
is particularly the case in heavy harness horse classes. Walking
exercise will do for a good deal more than half of it. After a show
horse is well broken, three times a week is plenty to hitch him, and
the day he is hitched he should also be walked once, and all other
days twice. This plan will get him fit, allow him to keep in flesh,
keep his mouth fresh, and his legs from getting stale, all of which
are important points to consider in a show horse. Exercise twice
a day contributes in a large measure to good manners. This is not
an important point in some well broken horses of easy disposition,
but in others that are apt to “get above themselves” if not well
exercised, it is an important one. Nothing helps to improve a
half-broken horse more than to go out twice a day.
THE HORSE’S COAT IN SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN AND WINTER
The state of a horse’s coat indicates, in a considerable measure,
the general condition of the individual. If the coat gets into bad
condition in a horse that is worked, it will soon injuriously affect
his general health, which will show itself by loss of flesh, life
and vigor. The care of the coat then, outside of the question of
appearance, has an important influence in contributing to a horse’s
well-being.
If we had summer-like weather all the year round, with its genial
warmth to encourage the activity of the skin, we should have very
little trouble with the coat, as it would then remain short and
sleek, with very little care. With the changes of season, however,
and great variations of temperature, we find marked alterations
in it. The horse’s skin, and its appendage, the coat, are very
sensitive to climatic conditions, and nature makes an effort to
change the coat to suit altered states. Nature is very successful
in this while a horse is roaming about under natural conditions,
and a horse so circumstanced can stand great extremes of temperature
without suffering; but as soon as he is put to work and exerted to a
sufficient extent to heat him up, he then requires artificial care,
in order to maintain good condition.
As has been already stated, the coat is more easily kept in a
satisfactory state during the summer than at any other season of the
year. The heat of summer encourages sweating, and this is beneficial
rather than injurious, within certain limits, so long as the horse
“cools out” and dries up in a normal manner. This is more readily
accomplished in the summer than at any other time, owing to the
shortness of the coat, and the little danger from drafts at this
season of the year. Nothing is more injurious to a horse in this
connection than allowing his coat to remain wet. At certain times
of the year, when it is long, some horses will remain wet for hours
after having been exerted, unless they receive great attention. The
frequent occurrence of this will soon cause unthriftiness. Standing
with a wet coat in this way frequently has a most relaxing effect
upon the system, and must be guarded against. In summer time there is
very little difficulty about this, but there is one form of treatment
very much neglected in hot weather, which is of great benefit if
properly applied. The coats of horses that are frequently warmed
up in hot weather get sticky, greasy and stained, and it is almost
impossible to get them perfectly clean and glossy without giving
them a good washing at intervals. Some horsemen are afraid to adopt
this treatment, but it is not at all dangerous, and most beneficial
if properly carried out. As a rule it is only necessary on very hot
days, and if it is done on cool ones, care must be taken to “dry out”
carefully to avoid chills. When a horse comes in on a hot day, having
sweated more or less profusely, water that has been warmed in the sun
should be freely sponged over him. This should then be thoroughly
scraped off, and a woolen cooler put over him; then he should be
walked for a while, if possible, until he cools out. As soon as the
coat is dry, grooming will make him look and feel fresh and well. It
is not always necessary to use a cooler in “cooling out” when it is
very warm.
The autumn is the most trying time of the year to keep the coat in a
satisfactory state, for several reasons. A partial moult takes place
at this time, rendering the skin irritable to some extent. Besides,
there are the extremes of cool nights and warm days. The cool nights
cause the coat to grow and increase the tendency to sweating when
the animal is exerted during the heat of the day. From the increased
length of coat it becomes much more difficult to dry a horse after
work, and he is apt to suffer unless great care is taken to protect
him from the ill-consequences of standing with a wet coat. This
difficulty becomes so marked in some horses at the end of September
and throughout October that those in charge of them begin to discuss
the advisability of clipping.
As a general rule, clipping should be deferred as late into the
autumn as possible, or until the temperature of the day and night
are not so much at variance; then the growth of the coat lessens
considerably. A horse clipped on the 10th of November may not require
clipping again for two months or more, while one clipped on the 10th
of October may need it again in two or three weeks. Horses clipped
early in the autumn usually have very dry-looking coats, and it
seldom improves their appearance, though it does in a measure relieve
them from the ill-results of standing with wet coats, especially if
it is repeated several times during that season.
Every reasonable effort should be made to put off clipping until
November, and the necessity for it may be avoided in nearly all
cases until then. This can be accomplished in most instances by care
in proper blanketing. A light sheet may be all that the horse can
stand in the day time without sweating, but at night he should be
kept fairly warmly blanketed to check the growth of the coat. It
is usually necessary to begin this the end of August. Discretion,
of course, must be used, so that the covering is not heavy enough
to cause sweating. Some horses have naturally fine short coats, and
with ordinary care will not need clipping, even in winter, which is
so much the better; but the majority of them need it, and are much
benefited by it.
Under certain circumstances, as in the case of horses having been
turned out and brought up for work, say in April, it will be
beneficial to clip them, for otherwise they look badly and will not
thrive well on account of sweating too freely when worked.
Clipping at this season of the year retards the shedding of the
roots of the coat, and it is better to let it shed naturally in case
the conditions are such as will admit of it, without injury to the
horse’s condition and working ability.
In a horse that is not too ambitious and has not to be exerted
violently, it is better to wait for him to shed naturally, which he
will do rapidly at this season of the year if he gets regular work,
good grooming and is well fed. Horses that are fed warmed boiled
feed for the evening meal will shed much earlier in the season than
those kept on dry feed. Some horses, however, will not stand this
without becoming too relaxed in the bowels, especially if worked
hard more than once or twice a week; others will not stand it at all
without scouring. Care in all instances must be exercised not to
feed an excessive quantity. In clipping saddle horses the mistake is
usually made of including the part covered by the saddle, and a great
deal of trouble frequently results in consequence. Newly clipped
horses, particularly if they are not thoroughly used to the pressure
and friction of the saddle, are very apt to develop an eczematous
eruption under it, and even horses regularly used for saddle work are
not immune to such injury after clipping.
The layman is apt to assume that an attack of eczema coming on under
the conditions described is due to derangement of the blood or the
digestive organs. While derangement of the blood or the digestive
organs may predispose to an attack of this nature, some local
irritation is usually needed to determine its development. It is
obvious that a considerable amount of local irritation must result
when the skin, divested of its coat, is, for an hour or two daily,
subjected to the pressure and rubbing of the saddle. The rubbing
action is further intensified by the sweating that almost always
takes place under the saddle. Another contributing cause is the rapid
drying and cooling of the skin when the saddle is removed from a
clipped horse’s back. The rapid drying and cooling is apt to have a
deranging effect upon the circulation of the skin at this part, and
consequently conduces to inflammation of that covering.
Eczema under the saddle is more apt to occur in cold than in warm
weather. More than fifteen per cent. of the saddle horses clipped in
midwinter develop this affection under the saddle, while not more
than one per cent. with backs unclipped show it.
When harness horses develop it, it is on the parts subjected to most
pressure that it first shows itself, as under the collar and back
pad. The eruption has a great tendency to spread, and beginning on
the skin covered by the saddle, often extends over the whole of the
back and side.
Occurring, as it frequently does, with a number of clipped horses
in a large stable, it is thought by stablemen and owners to be
contagious, but it is not so. It is apparent, then, that clipping the
coat under the saddle is a bad practice. Even in cases in which an
eruption does not take place, the rubbing is apt to cause temporary
baldness and troublesome abrasions, particularly if the skin has not
been toughened by long and continual pressure and rubbing of the
saddle, the result of steady saddlework.
THE CAUSES OF DIGESTIVE DISORDERS--I
The breeder and horse owner have not the time or opportunity to
acquire expert knowledge of the diseases of the horse, but it will
well repay them to give a little thought and study to the causes of
preventive disorders, particularly to those of the digestive organs.
The exercise of a little thought and judgment in the management
of a stable of horses will lessen to almost nil the occurrence of
digestive ailments among its inmates. There are certain affections to
which horseflesh is heir which it is impossible to prevent under some
circumstances, but those of the digestive organs can be very largely
prevented.
We must study these causes under a number of heads. First of all
there is the condition of the individual at time of feeding, the
quantity of the food, the character of the food, and the form in
which it is given. Under the foregoing heads I have not included the
natural predisposition of some animals to digestive troubles, for
the inherent tendency to some affections cannot be classed among
the preventable causes, but, nevertheless, a little extra care may
neutralize the tendency to them. Take, for instance, a horse of a
nervous temperament, with a light middle-piece. Such an individual is
very liable to scour when first taken out, and in some horses this
cannot be prevented; but careful attention in giving non-laxative
and easily digestible food in properly regulated quantities, with
care about watering and the avoidance of violent and overtaxing work,
especially when first taken out, will often control this tendency. If
nervous, light-middled horses can once be made fat by proper dieting,
and are kept in health by light, slow work, the inclination to scour
will be much lessened. The accumulation of fat in the abdomen has a
tendency to lessen the violence of the action of the bowels and thus
to counteract scouring. Horses of the temperament just referred to
are better fed on corn than oats, as corn is more fattening and less
stimulating to the nervous system, so that horses fed on it are less
inclined to be excitable. Greedy, voracious feeders are predisposed
to digestive ailments from their tendency to overtax the digestive
organs by the consumption of too large quantities of food too hastily
eaten. The means of prevention of such a cause is apparent and easy
of application. These are examples of two inherent predisposing
causes.
A feed that an animal can take with impunity and possibly with
benefit under some circumstances, may prove an exciting cause of
that very serious trouble in horses, acute indigestion, under other
conditions. Take, for instance, a horse that is to be called on to
do an unusually long and hard day’s work. The anxious, over-zealous
and well-meaning driver will, in some instances, give an extra-sized
morning meal, with the idea of buoying the horse up for the ordeal of
the day. As soon as the horse has had time to consume it, he starts
on his journey; it may be to pull a heavy load, or for faster work.
The more violent the work, the more will the digestive process be
interfered with. As soon as the course of digestion is arrested,
fermentation begins and it may go on to such a degree that the horse
soon begins to show signs of something being amiss. He most likely
came out of the stable showing life and energy, and went at his work
with spirit, but after going a few miles, however, he begins to
sweat more than he should, to lag, to drop his head and to bloat.
As soon as he is allowed to stand he shows restlessness and becomes
demonstrative in his exhibition of pain. He has acute indigestion,
due to mistaken kindness on the part of his attendant. Instead of
having been given a full feed or rather more than usual, he should
have had less, and the first opportunity taken of giving him another
small feed.
We have the same thing occurring under different conditions, as, for
example, when a horse has had an unusually hard day’s work and is
very tired. He is put in the stable and given his usual meal, which
he eats. After an hour or so he begins to show signs of abdominal
pain. His attendant cannot understand the reason for this, as the
horse has only had his usual feed. He does not realize that the
horse’s vital powers have become very much lowered, the result of
unusual fatigue, and that the stomach participates in this temporary
inability and becomes, for a time, unequal to exerting its full
digestive powers, and that indigestion has resulted in consequence.
Had the horse been allowed to rest for a time, given a little water
and allowed to nibble hay, he might have been fed with impunity,
although it is usually a wise plan to lessen the feed if a horse is
unusually fatigued. The condition, then, of the individual has to be
considered in determining the amount of food he should get. Horses
that are in good condition, having regular hard work and full feed,
are much less liable to be affected by unusual fatigue and full feed
than those that are irregularly worked.
In addition to the necessity for caution in feeding when a horse is
fatigued from hard work, long abstinence also necessitates care.
A horse that has had his stomach empty for a long time, whether
fatigued or not, is usually ravenous for his food, and is apt to
consume a full allowance of concentrated food too hurriedly to
permit digestion to go on satisfactorily. The old plan of giving a
little thin warm gruel to a fatigued fasting horse is a good one, in
order to prepare him for his full meal later on. It is not always
convenient to furnish this, however, and the next best plan is to
give a couple of quarts of water and a little hay, to get the stomach
into working order before the full meal of concentrated food is
given, preceded by more water.
The quantity of food to be allowed a horse is not only an
important matter of study from the standpoint of economy, but is
a very material one to consider in connection with the question
of preventing digestive disorders. The statement can hardly be
gainsaid that decidedly the most prolific source of ailments of the
digestive tract is overfeeding. Farmers who raise their own feed are
possibly the worst offenders in this respect, and particularly in
the overfeeding of bulky food, or what is called by some roughage.
An enormous amount of hay is thus wasted throughout the country,
and injury done to many horses. It is really not an exaggeration to
state that fully half the amount of hay fed to horses in the rural
districts of this country is wasted. Not only is this so, but a
positive injury is inflicted on the horses that consume it. It is,
of course, true that horses, for the purposes of perfect digestion,
require a certain amount of bulky food. Sufficient nutritious matter
can be supplied in concentrated form, but digestion would not go
on properly without a certain amount of bulk. Volume of feed is
essential to insure the proper activity of the digestive tract.
There is a limit, however, to the bulk required, and if this limit
is much exceeded, there is not only a waste of food, but injury is
done. If a horse is constantly being fed too large a volume of feed,
it overworks and overtaxes the digestive organs, soon weakening these
organs and consequently rendering them more liable to indigestion,
colic, stoppage and diarrhœa. Even if no such evidence of acute
disorder shows itself, as the affections named, the unnecessarily
distended bowels encroach upon the chest capacity and interfere with
the action of the lungs; so that the horse cannot stand as much
exertion as he might otherwise. One likes to see a horse with a good
depth of rib, and well ribbed-up and not presenting a tucked-up
condition, all of which is evidence of a good feeder. But no horse,
unless it is a mare in foal, or one running at grass, should show
what is called a “pot-belly,” as that is a sign that too much bulky
food is being consumed. Too much bulky food is also a cause of that
very serious trouble, called heaves, especially if the food happens
to be of defective quality, and consequently difficult of digestion.
One often hears it said that clover hay is apt to cause heaves. The
reason is that horses are very fond of it, and if they are allowed
all they want, will eat an excessive quantity of it. If the quality
of clover hay is good, and only a proper ration of it is fed, it is
no more likely to cause heaves than any other kind of hay.
Fully one-half the horses one sees in country districts are
pot-bellied, especially in the winter. In many farm stables you
see racks kept full of hay constantly in front of the horses,
and the less work they do the more hay they eat, most of them
eating certainly twice as much as is good for them. In cities it
is different. Hay being high-priced, the quantity fed is usually
limited, with the result that digestive troubles are very much
rarer than in country districts. It is directly the opposite with
regard to the diseases of the breathing organs. In the large,
crowded stables of the cities, with breathing space limited, the air
becomes charged with impurities, with the result that diseases of
the breathing organs are very prevalent, while in the country they
are comparatively rare. The relative prevalence of digestive and
respiratory troubles in city and country affords a good illustration
of cause and effect, but the country horse owner has the advantage,
as he has to encounter chiefly diseases that are largely preventable.
It is a difficult matter to successfully cope with the prevention of
respiratory ailments in cities.
It has been already stated and emphasized that the feeding of too
much bulky food to horses is one of the most prolific causes of
digestive disorders. The question naturally follows: How much is
sufficient for a horse to attain the best results? As far as the
supply of nourishment is concerned, it can be supplied amply in
concentrated form, as in oats or corn; but a certain amount of bulk
is necessary. If there is not a certain amount of bulk in the food
material in the bowels, the coats of these organs have not sufficient
contents to contract on, so that these organs may be able to move
along in proper time substances that should be excreted. The bowels
become torpid, as far as excretion is concerned, and the proper
digestion and absorption of nutritive material is not carried on.
Under these circumstances, health and condition cannot be long
maintained, and there will be a waste of food fed in concentrated
form. Of course, the amount of bulky food necessary varies according
to the size of the horse, and it is approximately correct to put it
at about one pound per hundred-weight of the animal’s weight. This
may be exceeded in some cases with impunity, to the extent of a few
pounds, particularly in horses used for slow work; but it will be
found sufficient in the majority of cases. While horses are being
used for very fast work, or are in training, a less quantity will
suffice. The usual plan in large cities is to feed the allowance of
hay all at one time, in the evening, after the horse has finished his
day’s work, and it works very well. People used to seeing a horse get
all the hay he can eat, think, when they see him restricted, that he
is being starved, but they will find he thrives if adequately fed
with grain, has better wind, more endurance, particularly for fast
work, and is much less liable to digestive ills.
THE CAUSES OF DIGESTIVE DISORDERS--II