STRING-HALT.—This defect in a horse is a kind of spasmodic jerk, or sudden twitching of one or other of the hind-legs in action, and has been, in different opinions, attributed to various causes, and probably by none to the right; as there is no one disorder, disease, defect, or imperfection, to which the horse is liable, upon the origin, progress, or cure of which so little has been introduced. It is conjecturally said by some "to be brought on by sudden colds, after severe riding or hard labour, particularly by washing a horse when hot with cold water; a practice too common, and erroneously ridiculous; and that it may also be produced by blows or bruises near the hock." All this may be well upon the score of speculative amusement, but it forms no feature of scientific disquisition. The string-halt, from its appearance, must palpably originate in a previous distortion of some part of the ligamentary junction; or a preternatural contraction, (or partial rupture,) of its muscular appendages; in either or both of which, no regular road to relief can be adverted to without a much greater probability of repentant trouble and mortifying disappointment.
STUBBED.—A horse is said to have sustained this injury, when in hunting amongst the stumps of newly cut coverts and underwood, he is punctured, cut, or bruised, in any part of the foot, coronet, or fetlock, by some of the infinity of stubs with which newly cut copses so plentifully abound. When accidents of this kind happen, the applications must depend entirely upon the magnitude of the injury received. In all slight cases, amounting to little more than simple laceration, Friar's balsam, tincture of myrrh, or even common vinegar, may soon close the mouths of the vessels, harden the surface, and effect a cure. Where swelling and inflammation ensue, poultices must follow; and WOUNDS must of course be treated as _such_. Although misfortunes may frequently occur, and cannot, even by the most circumspect, be always avoided, yet it is certain, more horses are stubbed by the folly and indiscretion of those who ride them, than by any casual or inevitable occurrences of the chase.
STUD—is a term applicable to three distinct meanings, and is so used in its different significations. A stud, in its more extended acceptation, applies to an aggregate collection of horses, without giving priority to any particular sort; as the person having a great number of horses, is said to have _a very large stud_; but the term, in its divided and sub-divided state, proves more extensively comprehensive. One is in possession of a very expensive RACING STUD; another has a numerous STUD of HUNTERS; and a third, still more opulent, or still more _fashionable_, shall have a BREEDING STUD, to produce an annual supply for the two preceding. The management of each _individually_, is now so perfectly understood, by those perpetually engaged in the practice, that no information can be derived from literary or theoretic inculcation.