172 THE hobse's rescue. 



as they were thirty-five years ago. I just saw one 

 pass, with a man on his back, so stiff from this cause 

 that he could hardly go ; completely off hi« base ; back 

 settled down, and in no shape to hold up weight. I 

 should think this man, by his looks, would weigh 

 about two hundred pounds. His knowledge of the 

 horse must be very slight. Horses thrown off their 

 base in this way, and worked for many years, or even 

 if they are not worked, get in the same fix as this old 

 white mare I am working on now, and from the same 

 cause, contraction and leverage, which become chronic 

 and seated, and the longer standing the harder to 

 change back. 



Let us look at the hind legs of this horse. It has 

 been a long time since I have seen him. He was 

 young when I left him, and is well along in years now. 

 He has two spavins. They are called by the veterina- 

 rians and professors of great wisdom of the horse, 

 " blood " or "bog" spavins. These doctors tell about 

 curing these spavins. They burn, blister, and daub 

 on all kinds of trash, and charge for doing it, and yet 

 the horse is lame and so stiff I can hardly raise his 

 feet from the floor to shoe him, it hurts him so. He 

 cannot bend his leg, and I have many times been 

 obliged to raise the whole hind parts of these cured 

 spavined horses clear from the floor before they could 

 stand, and yet they were all cured. They did not 

 limp because they were stiff and lame in both legs. 

 Let us see if we can trace from cause to effect and see 

 what we can find. All horsemen and thinking men 

 will and do allow that what is called spavin is caused 

 by a strain or sprain in some way, and that is what I 



