How to cure founder according to Jordanus Rufus

British Library add. Ms. 15097, fol. 73r

Since I am publishing a translation (coming out on Halloween) of a fourteenth-century French version of Jordanus Rufus's De medicina equorum (c. 1250), the most influential veterinary treatise of its time in Europe, I thought I would share some extracts in the weeks leading up to publication.

The following one describes how to cure founder, in what seems today like outlandish ways, except for the use of hydrotherapy (Rufus describes immerging the horse's legs in cold, running water), that would likely lead to notable results, perhaps even compensating for the bleeding and the walking on stones, which would be excruciating (though, depending on the severity, movement could help).

I was especially interested to read this passage as my two ponies, Topaze and Diamant, have been suffering from laminitis since last April. But don't worry, I haven't tried any of those remedies on them, despite my interest in experimental archaeology. 

On the foundered horse.

Another disease comes to the horse due to excessive food or drink and sometimes labour, because when he eats too much, the humours and blood grow too much and then they go down to the horse’s legs. Because of that, the horse cannot walk anymore and is lame on one foot, or two, or he is incapacitated on all four feet. And when he walks, he moves the legs very peculiarly and turns with much difficulty. Sometimes, like I have said, this disease comes from excessive work, because the overabundance of humours and blood easily go to the horse’s feet or hooves if you do not quickly give an effective remedy. Sometimes this disease comes when one of the aforementioned pains affects and overheats the horse, because those humours easily spread on the limbs and go down to the limbs, and this disease is commonly called founder. 

Remedy.

Against the aforementioned disease, you must give the following treatment. If the horse is fat and an adult, first you must give him as much to drink as he wants, then he must be bled from both cheeks and both thighs from the usual veins, until he has been thoroughly weakened, completely removing the humours that were attracted there and had descended to the legs. Then, you must put the horse in cold, fast running water, without drinking or eating, until he is completely cured. If the horse is young or thin, you must not give him anything to drink but you must tie him with his bit, high up, in the cold air, so that his head and neck are extended and held high against the air, as much as possible. 

Then, round stones, as big as a thumb, must be put in sufficient numbers under the feet of the horse, as if you wanted to make his bedding. Because as he will continuously walk on the round stones, his legs will always be moving and thanks to that, the nerves of the legs which are lazy due to the humours that have descended upon them, will become lighter. And it must be done so that the horse always walks on those stones. First, he must be covered with a woollen blanket soaked in water, and you must prevent the horse from drinking and eating, and he must not be put in the sun, and he must be nursed in that manner until he has been cured. You should be aware that founder is not damaging to young horses, but on the contrary is beneficial, because due to the humours that rush to the legs, the legs become bigger. 

However, men from Provence give another remedy to that disease: they take barley cooked in water and put it still warm inside pieces of cloth, then put those under the four feet of the foundered horse and give the horse as much barley as he can eat.