CORONET
—is the part surrounding the foot of the horse just above the junction of hair and hoof: the bone from which the name is derived, bears great affinity in form to a ducal coronet, and is situate between the lower part of the fetlock-bone and the coffin, into which it is inserted, jointly supported by the nut-bone behind. Ligamentary twists, or distortions, sustained at the superior junction of the coronary bone, frequently occasion a prominence upon the coronet, which becoming first callous, and then ossified, is termed A RINGBONE.
COVEY of Partridges
—consists of the cock, hen, and their produce of that year before they are broken, and so continue to be termed till killed down too thin to bear the appellation: they are then distinguished by the small numbers they are found in; as, a leash, (three;) two brace, (four;) &c.
COURSE of Medicine
,—so called where the case is chronic, requiring a rectification in the animal œconomy, or an alteration in the property of the blood. Chronic cases are disorders of some continuance, (producing symptoms of disquietude more than of danger,) and are thus called to distinguish them from those which, proceeding rapidly, terminate sooner, and with more alarm. Cholic, STRANGURY, FEVER, &c. in horses, are acute diseases: on the contrary, grease, surfeit, and some others, may with propriety be termed CHRONIC, and can only be completely eradicated by such course of medicine as shall be considered applicable to the state of the frame, and the origin of the disease.
COURSING
—is a species of sport that a celebrated writer has traced to great antiquity; "it having been treated on by Arrian, who flourished A. D. 150." The same author, the Rev. Mr. Daniel, in his elegant and truly entertaining publication upon "Rural Sports," says,
"In our country, during the reign of King John, greyhounds were frequently received by him as payment in lieu of money, for the renewal of grants, fines, and forfeitures, belonging to the Crown. The following extracts prove this Monarch to have been exceedingly partial to this kind of dogs. A fine paid A. D. 1203, mentions five hundred marks, ten horses, and ten leashes of greyhounds. Another, in 1210, one swift running horse, and six greyhounds."
"In the days of Elizabeth, when she was not disposed herself to hunt, she was so stationed as to see the coursing of deer with greyhounds. At Cowdrey, in Sussex, the seat of Lord Montecute, (now Lady Montague's,) A. D. 1591, one day after dinner, the Queen saw from a turret sixteen bucks, all having fair law, pulled down with greyhounds in a lawn before the house."