The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

200 The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
horse's back. The constant friction sets up inflammation
of the cuticle, which closes the pores of the true skin,
and prevents a healthy perspiration, and causes small
pustules. These are aggravated by continual pressure,
and the irritation is kept up by the rocking of the
saddle. An abscess forms, breaks, and ultimately
becomes a bad back. Here want of cleanliness becomes
a tyrant ; as no attention is paid to the lining of the
saddles, sweat accumulates, and the lining becomes as
hard as a board. Some horses are more liable to sore
backs than others ; but a little care will always prevent
them becoming ulcerated. The first thing which should
be done when a horse has chafed his back is to wash it
clean with warm water and soda, not soft soap, and after-
wards apply strong salt and water, or, what is far better,
a strong decoction of oak bark. This, with a day or
two of rest, will be all that is required. But should the
sore be of a deep nature, it will be necessary to dress the
parts with carbolic acid one part, sweet oil seven parts,
which, with rest to the part afflicted, will cure it in a
few days. Sore shoulders are caused by the same
neglect of cleanlines and badly fitting collars, and require
the same treatment.
KOARING.
This is a disease that is too well known in this
country, yet, strange as it may appear, the Arab does not
know of it in his stud ; and of the thousands of horses
of that class that came under my observation, when
buying horses for the Spanish Government, during the
Don Carlos war, I do not recollect one that was affected
as a roarer ; and the author is of opinion that the Arab