THE horse's rescue. 117 



looks fine ; his hair begins to look bright and glossy, 

 and yet he has been traveling out of harmony some, 

 for this i-eason, that the lever on his fore feet has been 

 tlie longest. If it had been the longest on h:s hind 

 feet the effect would have been more serious, which I 

 well knew wiien I set him sailing. Mike always had 

 a good friend peeking around, watching and caring 

 for his feet, to see they did net dry up hard. Mike, 

 we will put the polish on you this time. 



Header, I have laid down the principles for expand- 

 ing the foot by shoeing a little on the Kentucky 

 hunter mare. That principle is right, and all there is, 

 except to spread it out at once. We will make the 

 lever on all of Mike's feet equal length. The colt's 

 f >ot he must have. All is nearl}" in harmonj' of ac- 

 tion ; structure is nearlj' right. We will shorten the 

 lever a little shorter than natural ; his feet are grow- 

 ins: all the time. It will wear the toe of shoes off* 

 some if we do not put on corks, which we will not do. 

 In this wa}^ we can fix him so he can go six weeks 

 very well, with good care taken of his feet. Then he 

 will want to be changed back again. 



Reader, how wn)ukl y^n like to follow this business 

 for forty-one 3^ ears ? I will tell 3-()U about the pay 

 before I get through this sail. Perhaps ^^ou will like 

 it, better. That is what all seem to be after. I have 

 an iron-gra}^ in my barn. I always, or nearly always, 

 had from one to four, seldom more than four, at one 

 time. This grriy is five years old. It was stiff v hen 

 I took it to cure. It is not mine. I have forgotten 

 the owner's name. It is no loss to me, hov/evei'." I 

 took his horse to cure. The bargain was this way : I 



