THE hoese's rescue. 207 



from the effect but very little, if any, in the time I 

 was driving them this journey. It would not be done 

 • in the way it usually is done and ordered to be done. 

 To begin this job I should want the horse's feet all 

 natural as tlie creator made them or intended them to 

 be ; that is, the structure of the foot internally in har- 

 mony of action. I would cut away all useless growth 

 of hoof and true up the feet. This dressing the bot- 

 tom of a horse's feet, heel and toe, if it is nearly nat- 

 ural, is or should be the finest piece of mechanical 

 work ever done on any machine. The horse is a ma- 

 chine. If this dressing is not done nearly right you 

 will spoil this machine, and not know how you did it. 

 If you cut the heel too low, and leave the toe too high, 

 if only one-eighth of an inch each, it will make the 

 heel one-quarter too low, and leave the toe a quarter 

 of an inch too long. Shoe all around in this way with 

 bungling, heavy shoes; start on your journey with lit- 

 tle changed off their base, your horses will tell you of 

 it in this way; if you will notice them, by showing 

 soreness, if they are not very stiff and lame. This is 

 not a very botched job compared with some. This 

 same principle doubled will slaughter the best pair of 

 horses, if the shoes are allowed to remain on two 

 months, that ever lived, if they are driven on hard 

 roads. I do not mean it would kill them ; it would 

 make them stiE and sore until the cause was removed. 

 It serves all the same, according to the degrees of 

 botching, on all feet, singly or collectively. 



Now, reader, whoever you may be that is interested 

 in this work on the horse enough to give your atten- 

 tion, I will try, as near as I can in this work, to tell 



