•96 THE horse's rescue. 



foot is all in harmony inside and out. His body goes 

 forward on its base with weight in center of the foot. 



It will be well to more minutely explain this process 

 of preparing feet of this kind for operation. This 

 horse's feet were badly rolled up in at the base of heels. 

 Expanding raises the heels until the wall gets perpen- 

 dicular. "When it passes the line it lowers. In order 

 to have it come in perfect harmony when expanding, 

 you must use all the judgment you can command. If 

 you leave the heels too high you will tip his knee; if 

 too low, it will strain the cords, and either will throw 

 the horse off his base to a greater or less degree. He 

 will not move well, though it will not kill him. After 

 the foot ,has been expanded, the shoe should not be 

 taken off again in any case until the hoof has had time 

 to grow and settle. Then it may be removed. If 

 you should take the shoe off before, the foot would go 

 back, which would create great heat, and cause great 

 suffering to the horse; to get him out of which the 

 same work would liave to be done over again. 



But we will finij^h this horse. As I said, he has got to 

 go on the road to-morrow. Spreading this horse's feet 

 did not seem to effect him much at first. He tried 

 them by stepping first upon one, then the other. For 

 a while I watched him. His head went up. I moved 

 him moderately around the barn floor. At first he did 

 not seem to have full control of his legs. I was in 

 danger of being hit with his feet, and yet it was no 

 fault of his, the change being so great. Let us give 

 liim a chance to recover; he is changed in many ways. 

 Let us take him outdoors and lead him around. In 

 no case at first get on the horse ; he has all he can do, 



