FLEAM
, the well-known instrument used for BLEEDING HORSES. Lancets are preferred by some with thin-skinned and blood-horses. Different kinds of SPRING-FLEAMS have been invented also; but no one has been produced of sufficient merit or utility to entirely supersede the established custom.
FLESHY-FOOTED
.—A horse is said to be FLESHY FOOTED, when that part of the bottom of the foot on each side the FROG (called the OUTER SOLE) is preternaturally prominent, constituting a convexity above the wall or crust of the HOOF, where the shoe should have its proper bearing upon the FOOT of the HORSE. In feet of this description, the outer sole, from repeated bruising and battering in constant work upon hard roads, or from an injudicious and destructive paring away with the butteris, are so exceeding thin as to indent with the slightest impression, and being too weak to resist the membranous expansion within, compulsively submit to the internal propulsion, and are thrown into the projecting form already described. Great care is required in shoeing horses with this defect: the inner part of the web of the shoe should be so completely hollowed as not to admit the least chance of bearing upon the prominent part; if it does, tenderness and disquietude (if not lameness) must inevitably ensue. In cases of this kind, neither the butteris or drawing-knife, should be permitted in hand; they only render the REMEDY worse than the DISEASE.
FLORIZEL
—was a horse of much celebrity upon the TURF, beating most horses of his time; and was afterwards a stallion in great repute for many years. He was got by Herod, dam by Cygnet; bred by Mr. C. Blake, and foaled in 1768. He was the sire of Berwick, Crookshanks, Diomed, King William, Experiment, Fox, Ulysses, Bustler, Dash, Fidget, Fortunio, Hope, Lee Boo, May Fly, Mouse, Mulberry, Nimble, Pig, Prizefighter, Tongs, Hope, Spendthrift, Tick, Tickle, Wonder, Brother to Fidget, (who won 2000 guineas in 1791,) Eager, Hopeful, Lilliput, Nameless, Quick, Terror, Tartar, Hermia, and William; all winners; exclusive of others too numerous to recite.
FOAL
—is the produce of HORSE and MARE in a general sense, including both male and female; but when a more particular description is required, it is customary to say either a COLT, or a FILLY foal.
FOAM
.—See FROTH.