136 THE horse's rescue. 



on the inside of his legs, and there was danger of 

 cutting his legs off. Jack brought his horse home. 



•' I can beat those fellows myself," said he. " This 

 is the last time I send Star to school. Doan, what is 

 the matter with this horse? He never cut his legs be- 

 fore in his life. There must be some cause. He is 

 not right in some way. I can tell when my horse is 

 rio-ht by driving him five rods. I want you to fix 

 him." 



''All right." 



When Jack was around talking horse I had to stop. 

 I could not get a word in. He could talk louder and 

 faster than I about what was the cause of this horse's 

 trouble. They had shod him in this way on his for- 

 ward feet with fiat shoes. The shape was well enough. 

 The shoes were concave, but there was too much flat 

 rest on the shoes. The surface for the shell to rest 

 on was five-eighths of an inch. The shell is three- 

 eif^hths in this case. The way the foot was dressed; 

 one-quarter inch rest was off the shell and on the sensi- 

 tive part of his foot. It made his feet sore. They 

 were ironed down solid and dead ; not a particle of 

 give. The concussion soon caused soreness. Let us 

 fix his hind feet. The cause of his legs being cut 

 was they had been shod so they botli toed in; the 

 \veight was unequal on his heels. They had run over a 

 little — enough to cause him to hit his legs on the out- 

 side heels of his forward shoes. He did not spread 

 his hind legs enough to pass clear. He was out of 

 harmony of action all around, and that was the cause 

 of r.ll. After I had shod him, Jack said : 



