The Sporting Dictionary, and Rural Repository, Volume 1 (of 2) / Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field

by William Taplin

GORGED

;—the common and vulgar term for swelled legs, when their enlarged and distended state has been occasioned more by severe and hard work, than the effect of HUMOURS originating in a fizey or morbid state of the blood. A horse having his back sinews flushed, and legs thickened, so as to go short and stiff in action, but not broken down, is said to be gorged. Having the same appearances from humours, or a viscidity of the blood, he is then said to be foul, and must be relieved by PURGATIVES or DIURETICS, assisted by a great deal of hand-rubbing and regular friction. Gorged horses should be blistered, and turned out in time, by which they frequently get fresh again: continued at work too long, they break down, and become cripples.