STIRRUP
—is the well-known polished iron convenience suspended from each side of the saddle; of a proper shape, make, and size, to receive and support the foot, for the joint promotion of ease and safety. Upon the length of the leather strap (called stirrup-leather) entirely depends the graceful position of the rider, and his command of the horse; if which is too short, he is in danger, upon any start or sudden exertion of the horse, of being thrown over his head: if they are too long, he is in an equally aukward predicament; for having then no assisting support, but the internal part of the knees, they must, if the horse is a rough goer, be soon in a state of laceration. The proper length of the stirrup-leathers, for either field or road, is so as to be able, when sitting firm upon the saddle, to disengage the foot from the stirrup with one action of drawing back, and to receive it again with the reverse. In racing, the stirrups are required a degree shorter; as it is by the joint and corresponding support of the knees, and the strength of the arms and shoulders, that the horse is held to his stroke.
STONE
.—This is a sporting term upon the TURF, and used in matches, plates, and sweepstakes, to denote or imply what weight each horse is to carry; that is, so many STONE, so many POUNDS. Every stone is fourteen pounds, and this is called "horseman's weight," in contra-distinction to a common stone, of eight pounds, by which meat, and other articles in trade, are sold.
STOAT
.—The stoat is a most mischievous little animal, very much resembling the weasel, and at a small distance, when running, not to be readily distinguished from each other. They abound near large farms surrounded with corn-ricks and faggot-piles, under each of which they ensure to a certainty never-failing protection. This diminutive pest, though but from two to three inches in heighth, (ten inches long, the tail half the length of its body, disgustingly hairy, and pointed with black, the edges of the ears and the toes both of a cream-coloured white,) is a most indefatigable, determined, and destructive enemy to GAME in all its forms, and POULTRY in all its branches.
STRAIN
.—See Sprain.
STRANGLES
—is a disorder to which young horses in general are always liable, and few or none escape, any more than children escape the small-pox, hooping-cough, or measles. It first displays itself in a heaviness of the head, a dulness of the eyes, a reluctance to action, a heat in the mouth, and a gradually declining appetite: this is followed by a swelling in the concavity beneath the under jaw, which being centrical, is sometimes surrounded by two or three tumefactions of smaller formation. These, in their progress to maturation, are frequently slow, and require patient perseverance in external application; for in all cases of suppuration, NATURE may be led, but will never be driven. During the time the matter is forming, and progressively getting into a state of concoction, an internal soreness of the throat correspondingly comes on, and is followed by an almost or total refusal of food. When it is ascertained that STRANGLES is the true face of the disorder, care must be taken to avoid bleeding, and every kind of medical evacuants, which would tend to embarrass Nature in her own efforts, and protract the crisis of disease; upon which the very safety of the horse, and his expeditious cure, entirely depend.