.—A horse is said to have a scouring, when the body labours under a continued LOOSENESS, similar to a course of purgation, without any perceptible cause. Some, called fluey carcased horses, are liable to this disorder from a variety of trifling causes, explained more largely under the head Looseness, which see.
SCRATCHES
—are cracks in the heels of horses, which are originally produced by the changes of weather, and their being left with wet heels in the winter season. These, when long neglected, assume a degree of virulence, and, from small, and almost imperceptible cracks, become clefts with ragged edges, acquiring, by degrees, a kind of fungous callosity. From these a fœtid oily ichor is discharged, attended with an inflamed tension of the fetlock-joints, and so much constant pain, that the horse is unwilling to move in his stall, unless compelled so to do; and when a leg is lifted from the ground, he suspends it for some time, in a seeming state of misery, from the fear of putting it again to the ground. The cure consists solely in daily fomentations of warm, well-boiled, gelatinous gruel, with a sponge; followed by linseed poultices; dressings of digestive ointment; a few DIURETIC BALLS, given three days apart; and, lastly, a course of ALTERATIVE POWDERS, to obtund and correct the acrimony in the blood. If they have been permitted, by neglect and inattention, to reach their most inveterate state, displaying prominent fungous warts, or small tetters, mild escharotics, or instrumental scarifications, must be brought into use; without one or both of which, an early or certain cure will not be obtained.
SCUT
.—The tail of either HARE or RABBIT is so called.
SEAMS
—was a term formerly in use to signify the re-union of divided parts in the hoof of a horse, as a cured SANDCRACK; or the cleft at the junction of a FALSE QUARTER, with the uninjured part of the foot.
SEAT
,—the position on horseback. A person once mounted, and sitting at his ease, free from every seeming constraint, with his body pliably erect, his thighs and knees adhering closely to the skirts of the saddle, an easy freedom in his legs, and a personal motion corresponding with the action of the horse, is said to have a GOOD SEAT. Those who are always changing their position, throwing about their arms, swinging their legs, looking every way but the right, with stirrups too long, too short, or probably one shorter than the other, are horsemen of a very different description, having a very bad seat, or rather no seat at all.