Echoes of the Hunting Horn 



were removed and she was turned-out to grass. About 

 two months later she went lame on a hind leg : gravel 

 in her hoof proved the cause. This is a fairly common 

 complaint when horses are barefooted at grass; it 

 seldom has very serious consequences, although it 

 necessitates frequent dressings with antiseptics, and 

 complete recovery is often very tedious. Her hoof was 

 probed with a lance, poultices applied, and in about 

 three weeks' time the opening was plugged with 

 cotton-wool and iodine, and she was turned-out to grass 

 again. 



All went well for some days, and then one evening, 

 when the flies had tired of their day-long pestering, and 

 the other horses were grazing contentedly, I noticed 

 Lipstick standing aloof by a hedge. Her attitude struck 

 me as being unusual. Her fore-legs were well out of the 

 perpendicular, being propped in front of her as though 

 she were afraid of falling on top of her head. Her neck 

 was outstretched, her coat staring, and her eyes held a 

 fixed and rather extraordinary gleam. When I ap- 

 proached her she gave a startled tremor, but made no 

 attempt to elude me. Handling her, her muscles were 

 quite rigid, especially those about her neck, and I said 

 from the depths of my heart : " My God, Lipstick, 

 you're paralysed." Then another thought struck me; 

 a thought too ghastly to put into words. Could it be 

 possible ? . . . . And yet, the drawn appearance of the 

 mouth, the slight slavering and suckage of wind through 

 the teeth lent confirmation to my suspicions. Even 

 when I tried to open the jaws and failed to do so I 

 prayed that my diagnosis might be wrong. But when 



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