150 



DISEASES OF THE HORSE'S FOOT 



(/) By turning out to Grass. — Where the expense of keep 

 is no object, a return of contracted feet to the normal may 

 be brought about by removing the shoes and turning the 

 animal out to pasture, thus giving the feet the advantages 

 to be derived from a more or less continuous operation of 

 the normal movements of expansion and contraction. In 

 this case the treatment must extend from three to four, or 

 possibly six months. 



2. By the Use of Some Form of Expansion Shoe. 



(a) Smith's. — For many years past continental writers 

 have been practising this method. So far as we know, how- 



Fig. 73. — Smith's Expansion Shoe seen from its Ground Surface 

 and from the Side. 



a, The screw, with- a fine-cut thread ; b, nut which travels along it ; 

 c, ahollow thimble into which the screw passes at one end, the 

 other being cut out V-shaped to catch into a slot (d) on the 

 shoe ; e, e, the grip* for the bars, the length and direction of 

 which depend upon the shape of the foot ; /, f, the counter-sunk 

 rivets forming the hinge (/) ; g, the counter-sung rivet of the 

 expanding piece. 



ever, Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Smith was the first English 

 veterinarian to use a shoe of his own devising, and to report 

 on its effects. This shoe we will, therefore, give first men- 

 tion- 



The above figure, with its accompanying letterpress, 

 sufficiently explains the nature of the shoe. In fitting the 



* The inventor of this shoe uses the word ' grip ' to denote what, 

 in describing other expansion shoes, we term the 'clip' (H. C. R.). 



