The New York herald., 1878-09-16
TO RACE HORSES

REMEDIAL MEASURES RECOMMENDED WHY ga
spRAIN Is WORSE THAN A. BROKEN BONE"
The London Illustrated Sporting Nems In its i'm
u horse that has with accident the turf and
is beng led lImping from tho by his trainer
tho jockey, who has just dismounted, being ono Of
the group OF persons standing by The picture is
very faithful in all It's details and leads the Nsws
under the head OF 'Goodby to the Turf" remark
iollows:-
TO make a few remsrks on accidents TO
horses the turf from pounds, shiings and pence
point Of view. because 1t Is mostly by. thus standard
tney arc estimated
When an accident occurs to a race horse in racing
seriously incapacitatiog him. Il IS generally III his
harder tissues, such his igaments, hts tendons
his bones When 1t Is the last he ~ nearly always
Gisposed Of then and there. because his steal
formation, men know IRON experience, is not CAL
culated, even after perfect recovery, to make him
marketable generally serviceabe, and his special
education, it may 10 his temper and disposition,
and ~ may be, possibly, hts youtnal these tend TO
render him only very partially valuable. Another
disposal OF the unfortunate horse--a breakdown, as
II Is called, where the suspensary garents OF fore
leg snap and let the pad OF "a fstiock down TO the
ground, and the poor brute places his weight IL,
the loot Of that eg Is tilted upward and forward.
Excluding these two series of accidents we purpose
try show those present and Interested In these
accidents that they ought not TO be quite so ready 10
condemn the horse. Excluding broken bones ana
breakdowns nearly all tncse accidents occur TO The
part some where below the knee, and they arc usu.
ally sprains Of hard pirs, ligamcns or ,endons We
can carry our process of exclusion further and still
further locshze tho seat oil tho accident 10 the
bacx sinews, or the (2) ligaments OF tho fellock,
or tho 90 suspensary ligament The way we
arrive al lhis CONCLUSION Is as folows:-The
pasterns OF tho race horse are long and upright,
and when he bound forward In tho gaop aud aIg
the foot cannot bend, Of course, ana the psserns,
being straight transmit the weight TO the JOINT above
(tne fctockJ. which is tho place Of meeting of the
straight line formed by tho leg aud the straight line
iormea by the pastcrn. The fellock the place Of
yeiding, aud when IL descends IL renders the back
sInews tense and tho suspeIsary igamcnt also. Hav-
ing found that the great majority OF cases must
be sprain OF the back s1ews, suspensary lgaments,
or ganents binding tho ieiock Joint, we nov appeal
to experience, ana We hnd that We may exclude tho
hglnenls OF the fotock This being so, We nave Just
tne two structures romainas-to) The back sinews
(b) anu the suspensary ligamont Now II unfor-
tunatcy happens that both these structures are slow
to heal wnen once injured. The old saying, -
bad sprsn rs worse than broEen bonc.' rs very
true, because sprain involves hgament and
the broken bono OF course Involves bone.
While six weeks will nnd a boue healed
sixteen years may nnd a sprain not healed, but the
parts weak ana soon giving pam ana soon becoming
Tired. Tendons, or sinews MS they are popuury
Called are made up OF 1bres, tough and almost inc
lsstic. 30 fine are these nbrcs that many tens OF
thousands are required to form tendon or sincw OF
ordinary III bickness. When a tendon OF ligamcnt Is
sprancd great numbers oi these are actually rup-
tured-torn asunder--but tho majority Of ths
hbrcs are quite whole. THIS Ia spraio A
breakdown Is compicte severance OF all the hbrcs
going to make up a tendon OF n IigsmenI Now We
sns see Tny ~orso ss.a man broken
OF The ruptured nbro must be kept touching nearly
Tor many weeks, whom each ruptured cnd throws
out STICKY, gluey matter TO unite with that thrown
out by It's Ioow end Please 10 notice that IL ~ only
during the nrst week or two that this soft plastic
rnatler Of the two broken hbres VIII anal and
II Will only do so when the two ends OF
kept touching or nearly 80. Alter the 1rst week or
two this plastic matter Ia any case becomes
hardened and assumes all tho character OF
tue fibre which throws II out. IL becomes hard ami
tough and will unto with notnng. Here, then, is
the alicuuy; you have hundreds OF nbres completely
torn across winch wii heal ony py bav ng Their rup
turac ends Kept for somc weeks we'll together IL so
happens mat tho only efficient means OF keeping these
rupturei ends touching-namoy. by placing the ani.
mai In sings aod strappIDg the loot up well 70 the ol
bow, Will of itself renaef tho horse useless too ong
continued Ii you take hoalthy horse and sling
him aud tie up hts foot to MA elbow with strap aud
keep weeks, on IottiDg " down ou nnd that
you csnnot straignten his loot out agaiu, because
ms back tendon has grown TO the sheath
through which II gldes. rho seme Thing hap
pens IN the case OF sprain treated in this way,
only to stl greater extent, SO that our remedial
IN cas- ares reduced TO I'VE oxpedicnis. We must
either place In slinps for month"; and then let tho
loot down TO the ground or, without placing In sngs
must put on patten sboe--t e., q shoe raised al
tn heel, with bar OF iron connecting tho heels.
Whichever We adopt We are landed 10 ficulty,
So that Tor years We nave combined the Two iorms OF
treatment. We have pi~ceu IN s'ngs Ior iortnsnt,
amt strspied up the loot. ANA ,bcu We nave had "a
patten moe ready shd put - OBJ aud kept n on ior
the next mouth or more. 10 control the IN nsmma-
lion 10 necessary wnen the injury Is newly done W