THE horse's rescue. 61 



weak. The coffin-joint is badly affected. The high toe- 

 cork, drawing in this fix, weight in center, completelv 

 dislocates the coffin-joint, and in this case the horse's 

 foot is almost useless. He rocks back on his heel ; the 

 toe turns up and has a rocking motion at every step. 

 And yet he is expected to draw heavy loads. That 

 lever works badlv on all kinds of feet. If it has not 

 broken down, it hurts at coronet where the ring-bone 

 comes and strains back tendons. 



This lever works both ways to a greater or less de- 

 gree, and I will show what power there is in it con- 

 nected with contraction. 



For fear the readers may think I have butchered 

 and mutilated these poor already tortured horses, I 

 will say right here I never did ; I have always known 

 it to be wrong, and I never believed horses were stiff- 

 ened .by anything they eat or drank ; and I know they 

 are not now. I lived at Talcot's Corners when I was 

 at work on the Kentucky hunter mare, which I have 

 not got through with yet. 



I will go back to the time I had worked at shoeing 

 the horse nine years in the village of Northville, 

 Cayuga Co., N. Y. Chauncey Hinman bought a pair 

 of dapple-cream mares, very nice, black legs, mane, 

 and tails. This place is two miles from Talcoi's Cor- 

 ners. At that time I had a good reputation as a shoer, 

 and did a large business in that line. I had taken my 

 old shop down to build larger, and things were all out 

 doors. These creams I shod the first time. They 

 had flat feet, thin shell. I had shod them, as near as I 

 can recollect about two years. Their owner was my 

 regular customer; his horses needed shoeing; he 



