AGRICULTURE AND THE HORSE. 415 



the horse himself will find his way out. I hardly know 

 any calamity, large or small, in which delay is so tempt- 

 ing, and hope so strong, as the misfortunes which befall 

 our favorite horses, and that special colt so full of 

 promise. 



If your horse is lame, then, realize the fact as quickly 

 as possible, and attend to it. Locate the lameness 

 where it manifestly is, or where it is most likely to be, 

 even if there is a hopelessness about it ; and allow no 

 friend or surgeon to flatter you with the suggestion that 

 the trouble is temporary, trivial, confined to some com- 

 paratively unimportant point, and, in your horse at 

 least, is not what it would be in every other horse about 

 you. If the lameness is " forward," you may, in nine 

 cases out of ten, infer that the trouble is in the foot, un- 

 less you can discover some manifest enlargement of the 

 bones or sinews. Shoulders are seldom' lame. It is the 

 foot which is most exposed : it is the foot which is most 

 affected by the action of the shoulder and leg above it ; 

 so that many wise observers have insisted upon it that 

 any foot will stand, if rightly managed by the muscles 

 which move it : and it is the foot whose diseases are most 

 difficult to cure. There is no lameness so perplexing, 

 annoying, and discouraging. It puts an end very effect- 

 ually to a horse's fast work, and enrolls his name among 

 the slow movers on the farm or in the family-carriage. 

 Rest, cold water, Miles's tar-ointment (to stimulate the 

 growth around the coronet), a cool brick floor, with 

 perhaps a blister or two, will almost always relieve the 



