. THE horse's rescue. 191 



doT^vn as far as I wanted it. In all I have spread this 

 mare's feet one inch and three-eighths at different 

 times, and yet it is not more than five-eighths of an 

 inch wider than it was before I spread it at all. Every 

 time I spread this old mare's feet it threw her off of 

 her base on both feet and lamed her on this same foot 

 that she was lamest on when I bought her. She was 

 lame on both, and had been for many years. This 

 time she was not so lame on this foot, and recovered 

 sooner from the effects of the change. As she pro- 

 gressed toward natural by degrees she was easier to 

 get on her base ; the time lessened, and the effects les- 

 sened by degrees the nearer she approached natural. 

 This is encouraging, certainly. She does improve 

 slowly; her shoulders are not mates; she is very 

 crooked yet, and both badly deformed. She does not 

 look like the same horse now I have changed her; 

 this is certain, and the cause is removed. This long- 

 standing effect around these shoulders is stubborn and 

 touo^h. I know the bones are not broken : all else 

 will yield by degrees, but it must be slow. It has 

 yielded a little now ; and if it has yielded a little it 

 will yield a little more. This is the way I reasoned 

 with myself in the cold barn many cold winter nights 

 while others were sleeping or sitting by comfortable 

 fires. Days I v/as in my shop doing all I could to re- 

 lieve the suffering of horses for the same men that 

 were fighting me their level best in many ways. Some 

 of them were poor dupes, which I well knew, set on 

 and made so by a jealous, ignorant set of pretenders of 

 great knowledge of the horse. I well knew I could 

 out general them working on the horse. A man did 



