176 THE horse's rescue. 



it. That I can do. I understand this whole business. 

 As complicated as it may appear to you, it is as easy 

 for me now to tell you the cause that threw this liorse 

 in this position, and the principle to work on to get him 

 out of this fix, as it is for you to pick up a basket of 

 chips; but to get him out of it is quite another thing. 

 It is a hard job, and yet it can be done. I have 

 learned something since I balanced this horse. That 

 was the best I could do with the cup foot at that time 

 on him and all others. I have novv^ got to hj master 

 of the horse's foot. I can do as I like with it. I can 

 expand the foot on the right principle. Contraction 

 is the great cause of this horse's first trouble. Then 

 to divide between contraction and levernge, the best 

 that could be done at the time when I shod him last. 

 He has been shod many times since, and they have 

 left him too high on the heels by not dressing his feet 

 properly, or the fault is in the shoe partly; in both 

 perhaps. They have thrown him forward off his base 

 by this work, and he has been so so long it will be a 

 hard job to change him back. I have tackled horses 

 that are harder, to cure than this. This horse's shoul- 

 ders are not half as bad as they would have been if 

 he had not been balanced up in this way. His shoul- 

 ders are badly out of harmony. He will not be 

 as bad to get on his base. The way to go to work is 

 at the feet. This cannot be done at once ; it will take 

 time. It will have to be done by degrees, the same 

 way I am working on this old gray mare ; but he is 

 difTerent. She is thrown back off her base; he is 

 thrown forward. He has more ailments than she. 

 His knees and ankles have all gone forward, and yet 



