Page 27 of Master of Netherfield
“How do you know Jane?” asked Elizabeth.
“I have checked their feet myself, but Mr Jones agrees with me. I always pay attention to our horses and visit the blacksmith when we walk into Meryton,” Jane replied. “Mr Taylor will need four buckets and all the ice we have.”
“Ice?” Mrs Bennet replied. “I am not certain we have any ice in the cellar. Our icehouse is certainly empty.”
“Papa, send for ice!” Jane exclaimed.
“We shall wait for Mr Taylor’s arrival and confirmation of your diagnosis,” Mr Bennet told his eldest daughter. “You are not an apprentice to the blacksmith.”
Mrs Bennet fussed, “Mr Bennet! Such a notion! Girls are not apprenticed. Jane’s fascination with horses has gone quite far enough when she is spending time with the blacksmith!”
“She is always chaperoned by Mr Taylor at the livery,” Mr Bennet told his wife. “I know of each of Jane’s visits to the livery and her knowledge. She will have to marry a man with horses someday.”
When Taylor arrived at Longbourn shortly thereafter, he came with several large buckets of ice buried in sawdust and covered with burlap bags.
“Mr Bennet, Mr Hill says you have taken in four horses that have foundered,” Taylor said walking into the stable.
“Good evening, Mrs Bennet,” the man said as he bowed before he smiled at his favourite pupil, Jane Bennet. “Ah, Miss Bennet, tell me how you find the horseflesh this evening.”
Moving with Mr Taylor to the first stall where the team waited patiently, Jane summarized her discoveries for the blacksmith in her gentle voice that seemed to sooth the distressed horses. “This team has problems with their front hooves. The mare on the right; both front hooves are in trouble. The mare on the left; only her right hoof appears to be in pain. All hind hooves are good.”
“And the other team?” he asked.
“I think they are in poor condition, but their hooves are not injured.”
When Mr Taylor attempted to look at the hooves, the horses stamped their hooves, so he stood aside and allowed Jane with her gentle touch to raise the hooves for his inspection.
Outside the stalls, Mr Taylor made his proscription, “For the next three days, we want the horse to move as little as possible. The soft dirt in the stalls helps. Tonight, we put all four front hooves of this pair in ice buckets for a half hour at a time.”
“Even the good hoof of the second mare?” asked Elizabeth.
As he and the stable boys set to work with buckets and ice, Mr Taylor nodded and explained, “If both front hooves are cold, she’s more likely to stand still.”
Then he looked at Jane and asked, “What else should we do to treat foundering?”
“We don’t feed them for two or three days. They can have water but no feed,” the young lady replied. “I would probably keep the second team without feed for at least one day and then move them out into the yard to feed them away from their teammates but not put them in the pasture.”
“Good,” Mr Taylor agreed. “And I shall check their shoes and hooves then. If the swelling has gone down, we’ll give them new shoes and allowthe mares to rest in the stalls for at least another week with moderate amounts of oats and a little well-dried hay.”
Taylor went into the second stall to check the second team of bays and returned, satisfied with Miss Bennet’s evaluation of the horses.
“Not in the pasture?” Mr Bennet asked. “Oats are expensive this early in the summer.”
“Pasture grass and too much travel is what brought these horses to founder today. I would say their owner has skimped on oats and hay all spring leaving them to gorge on pasture grass without enough exercise.”
Mr Bennet frowned. “And then to drive them without rest of over fifty miles in two days’ time, I am not surprised they foundered.”
“Who did you say these horses belonged to?” Mr Taylor asked. “They are expensive horses that have been sorely mistreated.”
“It was a noble lady who was lost on her roads,” Mr Bennet explained, catching the eyes of wife and daughters. “I loaned my carriage and team to take her back to London. I sent young Tolliver with them to drive the team back from town tomorrow after taking the lady to her brother’s home in London.”
Mr Taylor grimaced and shook his head, “I hope your team comes home in good shape, Mr Bennet. No telling what noble folk’ll do when you’re not watching ‘em.”
Mrs Bennet cleared her throat and said, “Girls, let us return to the house.”
“I would like to stay and help Mamma,” Jane replied, and Elizabeth echoed the sentiment. But Mary was ready to return to the house, so she and her mother disappeared into the darkness with one of the lanterns while Mr Bennet and Elizabeth watched Jane and Mr Taylor care for the horses.
It was midnight before Mr Bennet forced his two girls to return to the house and it was not many minutes after following them up the stairs that they were all abed.
