THE horse's rescue. 37 



poor horse must be helped to-night. I must have two 

 quarts of whisky. That is uot to be had short of twr> 

 miles. I got it. I did not drive this cripple, and 

 told short stories. I am home now, but before I com- 

 mence I will tell you where the cause of this poor 

 horse's suffering was located, and what the effect was, 

 and where and how I removed it, and that is what you 

 want to know and I want you to know. This is what 

 this long story is told for, and it is wdiat they are all 

 told for. This mare had a small, round, thin-shelled, 

 flat foot, when natural ; low heels. Let us take a peek 

 at those shoes. Golly I that is all wrong ; that shoe is 

 not the shape of the foot ; not wide enough across the 

 quarter. It is too wide at the heels. It is a long, 

 clevis-shape; yes; and it's too long. So is the foot; 

 and the toe is too peaked, and the toe-cork is too high 

 for the heels. "Can't you find a little more fault?" 

 Yes. The web is too narrow and too thick for such 

 feet. "Is that all?" No; let us take this shoe off 

 and look on the other side and see what we find there. 

 It's not concave; it's dishing clear around to heel — 

 bent instead of being hammered, and no flat rest; and 

 yet it sits hard on the sole. Let us examine these 

 feet. The toe is one inch and a quarter too long. 

 That should be cut off. It is nothing but useless 

 shell ; it needs paring some. Let uslook at the heels. 

 These heels are too low. They are all mutihited and 

 break down, caused by the shoe not resting on the 

 heel ani not having a flat rest on the shoe at heel. 

 What else? Being to ) wide, it formed a lever i)urchase 

 across the quarter and warps the foot. Let us look 

 and see if the heels are contrGCted. Not much. We 



