THE HORSE’S FOOT. 
149 
many other improvements which we cannot mention for lack of 
space. 
Instead of applying the dilatation upon the hoof, and after¬ 
wards using a shoe which is closely adapted to the dilatation thus 
obtained, spreading shoes have been used. In the method of 
Jarrier, the shoe has to maintain the hoof in the condition of 
dilatation which has been accomplished by the instruments of 
expansion. It is a very delicate and difficult operation, so far as 
the proper dilatation of the foot is concerned, requiring the 
closest adaptation between the clips of the shoe and the parts of 
the wall upon which they rest. An error of a few millimetres 
only is sufficient to defeat the desired result; and the shoe, 
moreover, must be taken off at each operation. To avoid this, 
special shoes, which would act also as dilators, were invented. It 
was not, however, a new idea; Lagueriniere had as early as 1733 
prepared a shoe composed of three pieces—one median, corres¬ 
ponding to the toe, and two laterals, in connection with the 
quarters; these latter are respectively articulated with the first, 
and have each three nail-holes. When this shoe was fixed upon 
a foot, whether unsoled or not, its branches were spread apart by 
a plate left in place, and by increasing by degrees the length of 
the plate, a gradual and increasing dilatation of the hoof was ob¬ 
tained. Gaspard Saunier improved upon this shoe by placing 
on the internal border of the branches, cranks, with a plate placed 
crosswise and resting upon them (fig. 16). The objection to this 
shoe is that it cannot remain on the foot except when the animal 
