LOOSE-JOINTED
. A horse is said to be LOOSE-JOINTED, when his PASTERNS are so long as to let his HOOF come considerably from under the perpendicular position of the FORE LEG, so that the heel is exceedingly flat, and the hinder part of the FETLOCK joint, by a kind of elastic bend or drop, seems nearly to touch the ground. Horses of the blood kind have frequently this failure in their formation, and is the principal reason why so many of them are seen in common hands of little or no value, as properly appropriate to no particular purpose, or of the least general utility: most of this description have the first defect accompanied by a second, which is a long back, and consequent weakness of the loins; these, in the aggregate, constitute a complete loose-jointed horse; the purchase or possession of which will reflect no predominant RAYS of JUDGMENT upon the owner.
LOOSENESS
—is a laxity of habit, or debility of the intestines, which is constitutional with some horses; but in others is the effect of temporary disease; produced, probably, by an effervescent putrefaction of the excrements too long locked up in the intestinal canal, and at length suddenly and forcibly expelled by an effort of Nature, to relieve herself from the offending cause. This latter is the kind of looseness not to be immediately checked, or restrained, by the aid of aromatic restringents; but rather to be assisted, and promoted, by a free use of warm mashes, and gruel, till the disorder has run itself off, and effected its own cure. Some horses are habitually irritable, and begin to dung loose upon the most trifling occasions: young horses sometimes do so from a stranger's approaching them suddenly after coming from a DEALER'S stable; this must arise from the memory of the whip: others from being put into expeditious action upon the road too soon after their water in a morning. Horses fond of HOUNDS, and eager in the chase, will frequently begin to purge at the place of meeting, and continue so to do half a dozen times within an hour, when the superflux being thrown off, the excrements again become firm, and are evacuated with their usual solidity during the whole of the day. A warm cordial ball before the water, for two or three mornings in succession, is generally all that is necessary to be done upon such occasions.
LUNGS
.—The lungs of a horse are two elastic lobes, consisting of air vessels, blood vessels, lymphatics, nerves, and cellular membranes, possessing conjunctively the properties of contraction and expansion; nearly filling three parts of what is termed the CHEST, and may, without much deviation from the line of professional consistency, be pronounced the very mainspring of existence. It is the good or bad state of the LUNGS upon which the duration of life becomes in a proportional degree dependent; and by the perfect ease of inspiration, and respiration, health, and bodily strength, may in general be ascertained. The lungs are subject to inflammation, obstructions, tubercles, ulceration, and consumption; the cause of one and all originating in COLDS and COUGHS, produced by a sudden collapsion of the pores; when the perspirative matter being repelled, and thrown upon the circulation, the blood becomes sizey, viscid, and diseased; assuming some leading feature of the ills described, which, suffered to continue long without the proper means of counteraction, frequently attain a height too great for the power of medicine to subdue.
LURCHER
.—The dog so called is rough and wirey haired, with ears erect, but dropping a little at the points: they are above the middle size, of a yellowish or sandy red color; and of great speed, courage, and fidelity. They were originally produced from a cross between the SHEPHERD'S DOG and the GREYHOUND, which, from breeding in and in with the latter, has so refined upon the original cross, that very little of the shepherd's dog is retained in its stock, its docility and fidelity excepted. Thus bred, they are neither more or less than bastard greyhounds, retaining most of their perfections, but without their beauty. They are the favorite dogs of inferior or small FARMERS, as they act in the nominal capacity of a SHEEP DOG; but can occasionally trip up the heels of a LEVERET three parts grown. They are also the constant companions of the most professed and notorious POACHERS, being so admirably adapted to the universality of the service required: they equal, if not exceed, any other kind of dog in sagacity; and are easily taught any thing it is possible for an animal of this description to acquire by instruction. Some of them are very little inferior in speed to well-bred greyhounds: HARES they frequently run up to; RABBITS they kill to a certainty, if they are any distance from home: if near a WARREN, the dog invariably runs for the burrow, by doing which, he seldom fails in his attempt to secure his aim. His qualifications go still farther; in nocturnal excursions he becomes a PROFICIENT, and will easily pull down a FALLOW DEER, so soon as the signal is given for pursuit; which done, he will explore his way to his master, and conduct him to the GAME, wherever he may have left it. In poaching, they are individually instrumental to the destruction of hares; for when the wires are fixed at the meuses, and the nets at the gates, they are dispatched, by a single word of command, to scour the FIELD, PADDOCK, or PLANTATION; which, by their running mute, is effected so silently, that a harvest is obtained (according to the stock of the country) with very little fear of detection.
LURCHER
,—the name of a horse of some recent celebrity; he was the property of Mr. Rider; was got by Dungannon, dam by Vertumnus. In 1792, when three years old, he won a 50l. plate at Ascot Heath, beating seven others. At Stockbridge, a subscription of 20 guineas each, (ten subscribers,) beating Hamlet, St. George, and two others. At Winchester, a sweepstakes of 20 guineas each, eleven subscribers; and at Lewes, a sweepstakes of 10 guineas each, ten subscribers. He was then purchased by Mr. Wilson, in whose possession, 1793, when four years old, he won at Newmarket a sweepstakes of 500 guineas each from the Ditch in, beating Kitt Carr and Ormond. On the Saturday in the same week, he won a sweepstakes of 200 guineas each, half forfeit; beating Lord Clermont's Pipator. Lord Foley's Vermin paid. Second Spring Meeting, he beat Lord Clermont's Speculator, a match across the Flat, 200 guineas each. In 1794, at the Craven Meeting, Newmarket, he won the first class of the Oatlands Stakes, of 50 guineas each, (twenty-one subscribers,) half forfeit, beating thirteen others, with the odds of nine to one against him at starting. For the Main of the Oatlands, First Spring Meeting, he beat Lord Grosvenor's Druid, 200 guineas each, Ditch-in. Second Spring Meeting, he received 150 guineas forfeit from the Duke of Bedford's Teucer; after which he appeared no more upon the turf.