14:8 THE HOESE's BESCUE. 



prepared right for the operation. The colt's foot in 

 shape is the object structure of the foot — all iu har- 

 mony of action — when done on all feet of horses and 

 mules this is the point to aina at. After spreading 

 the foot, as I have above written, I waited six hours; 

 the horse was. not lame. I had spread both of his feet 

 the same; he was doing well: no heat in his feet un- 

 natural. I closed or contracted his foot one-eighth of 

 an inch bv measure by pressing the shoe and foot to- 

 gether to see if there would be any heat caused by 

 tills opeiation unnatural ; and how long it would be 

 before it would take place, and what degree of heat 

 would take place by this sudden change toward the 

 ur.iiatural. The horse pointed his foot out instantly, 

 and was lame. I was shut up alone iu my shop. I 

 put my hand on his foot ; I could feel the heat arise; 

 the horse's suffering seemed to increase with the heat, 

 and did, I left him in this condition about fifteen 

 minutes; I had learned all I wanted to on that change 

 toward the unnatural. This was a sudden change the 

 wrong way. Unwilling to see the horse suffer any 

 longer, I put it back to its original place, one-eighth of 

 an inch, put his foot in the tub of warm water a short 

 time, then moved him around the shop; in less than 

 fifteen minutes the heat was all gone, the horse stood 

 up straight with his weight on the center of his foot. 

 The man that allowed Dave Townsend to fool him b\^ 

 letting him pull the spreading shoes off from that iron- 

 gra}^ got in this hot business; if they had been long 

 enough on to get settled and grov; more they could 

 have been taken off and no trouble would have arisen 

 from so doing. He drove her home over the hubs, 



