WIND BROKEN
.—The disorder or malady so called, is (with the most experienced) discovered by a quick and irregular heaving of the flanks, accompanied by a great and palpable difficulty of respiration after brisk exertion. The usual mode of examination with dealers, is to try the perfect or imperfect state of the wind, by a cough compulsively excited: this is effected by forcibly pressing the gullet, just below the under jaw, at the junction of the head with the neck; from which pressure, if a strong, clear, healthy cough immediately proceeds, the wind may be considered sound, and naturally good; but, on the contrary, should it prove a wheezing husky attempt to cough, terminating with a kind of distant moan, or groan, the horse is asthmatic, and unsound, if not completely broken-winded; in which state most horses may be discovered, from the noise they make in their difficulty of respiration during either a sharp trot or moderate canter; from which they have acquired the common appellation of roarers, which is understood to imply a certainty of Broken Wind; which see.
WINDGALLS
—are soft and flatulent or fluctuating tumours, seated on one or both sides the back sinews, above the fetlock-joint of a horse, and principally upon the fore-legs; but with horses who have been immoderately worked, they frequently appear upon the hind-legs also. They generally make their appearance upon subjects who have been brought into labour too young, and before the vessels have acquired a proper strength and elasticity. Permitted to continue long, without counteraction, they soon possess a rigid inflexibility, which is never to be subdued. Whenever they are first perceived, early means should be adopted, to prevent a farther protrusion of the integument. Plentiful impregnations of the best white wine vinegar, followed by powerful repellents of camphorated spirits, incorporated with a sixth part of saturnine extract; or a strong solution of alum in water, assisted by a moderate woollen bandage; will sometimes obliterate them entirely, provided they are attacked in their infancy, and the mode thus adopted patiently persevered in.
WITHERS
.—The part of a horse so called, is the superior point of the shoulders, situate above the blades, precisely at the termination of the mane, from whence the back begins. Upon the good or ill formation of the withers, the symmetry, strength and value of the horse materially depend. If the subject is well made in the withers, with a gradually advancing forehand, long and proportionally erect, it produces a commanding majestic dignity in the fore quarters, generally accompanied with a corresponding uniformity behind. A horse of this description is almost invariably sure-footed, and an admirable goer in all his paces: on the contrary, if he is defective in this particular point, he is lower before than behind, and is proportionally reduced in estimation and intrinsic worth. A horse low in the withers, is mostly short in the forehand also; forcible indications of a deficiency in speedy action, an habitual tendency to the perfection of stumbling, and the equally mortifying memento of not being able to carry a saddle in its proper place, without the pleasing appendage called a crupper.
The withers are constantly liable to injury, from saddles being wide in the tree, or coming too far forward, which letting the internal part of the pummel come into contact with the projecting point of the withers, mischief (from the pinching, pressure, or friction) frequently ensues, terminating in inflammation, laceration, tumefaction, maturation, and sometimes fistula, which see. Injuries sustained in this part by either of the means before mentioned, should never remain unattended to: a repetition of the cause, from neglect or inattention, is likely to render that serious and severe, which might, by a contrary conduct, have proved only a slight and temporary inconvenience. When such a circumstance has unluckily taken place, and is attended to without delay, cool repellents, and mild astringents, will generally effect an early obliteration; but it should be retained in memory, that the part once bruised acquires an additional degree of tenderness and irritability, which will render the cure more tedious and difficult, should the bruise be inconsiderately or inattentively repeated.
WITHER-WRUNG
.—A horse is said to be wither-wrung, when he sustained the origin of the injuries described under the last head.