THE horse's rescue. 171 



is certain. If this old mare was back in some swamp 

 dead I would give twenty-five dollars. I guess I have 

 come out of my bole too far this time. They have 

 got the whip row on me now, certainly. Well, the 

 world is as big as it ever was, and I have got lots of 

 time yet, and if I fail I can move to another place. 

 If the m.are is crooked, she is not lame ; and she 

 stands up good on her legs and has got good knee ac- 

 tion. I will spend five months on her A'et. If she 

 never gets well and straight, the principle is i-ight- 

 Reader, there are all degrees of deformed shoulders, 

 and they are not always deformed in pairs. It is seen 

 only by men of practical and experimental knowledge 

 unless they become very bad. Tliey ai-e all caused, 

 or nearly so, hy ironing the feet. These degrees of 

 deformity of the shoulders are regulated by the de- 

 grees of contraction of the feet. Expansion, that is, 

 settling down below flat, does not effect much. If the 

 horse is balanced up between contraction and lever- 

 age the shoulder is affected. If his feet are not con- 

 tracted alike, his shoulders are not affected alike. You 

 cannot iron a cup-foot horse and nail on his shoes as 

 it is usually done without these changes taking place. 

 In the fore part of this work I left two horse.s. The 

 first was badly thrown off his base by contraction on 

 all his legs. When, as a boy, I first commenced 

 working on the hoise, for several years I did not 

 know that cutting the heels too low and leaving the 

 toe too long would throw the horse off his base as this 

 horse is if no contraction had taken place. I was not 

 alone in this ignorance in that day, and as far as I can 

 see, nearly all are as ignorant now of this simple fact 



