Part 7

After attacks of influenza, strangles, laryngitis or pneumonia, and as soon as the temperature has regained its normal condition, the question of exercise should be considered, and judgment should be used in determining how soon the patient can stand exercise. Sometimes a couple of days after the temperature has become normal and the appetite is regained in a measure, the patient shows strength enough in movement to justify one in concluding that he can stand a short walk. He may be only able to stand a few minutes’ or he may be able to stand ten minutes’ gentle leading, but usually each succeeding day it will be found he can stand a little more. If he can stand ten minutes a day, it is better, if possible, to divide it into two periods of five minutes each. In my opinion this applies to all exercise, whether that given during convalescence or conditioning for market, for the show ring, or for the race track. Exercise rouses the circulation, and in fact all the activities of the organism, with beneficial results.

Much better results can be attained by stimulating the functional activity of all the organs of the body twice in the twenty-four hours, than once. The period of convalescence is very much shortened by pursuing this plan, and the horse can be put to work much sooner, and with less danger of relapse. Those in charge of horses will often keep a convalescent one in a box stall until he gets full of life, then hitch him up. He will be for a few minutes full of vim and go, but will soon begin to sweat from the too violent exertion he gives himself. Violent exertion abruptly given is very apt to be followed by a relapse after the weakening effects of illness and the consequent inactivity.

Plenty of walking exercise during convalescence from affections of the breathing organs is the only course likely to ward off defective wind, which so frequently occurs as a sequel to these affections. One often hears it advised to turn a horse out for a few weeks after attacks such as referred to. This means a run at grass in the summer, and in the winter turning in to a box stall. In either case too much bulky food is apt to be consumed to be favorable to good wind, and systematic exercise is not given. Of the two courses, turning out to grass is the better, as the food is of a laxative character, and the animal takes some exercise. But the best of all is to keep the horse up so that the amount and character of the food can be regulated and a definite amount of exercise given. Walking exercise during convalescence from acute affections of the breathing organs brings these organs gently into play, rouses mildly their functional activity, and is the only safe way to tone them up, and prepare them by degrees for more violent exertion, which they can then perform without showing any unsoundness of wind.

Swelling of the legs occurring from any cause--for instance, as 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.