ow:

'A mare, which I have had in my possession since she was a foal, has always
had contracted feet, which were also unnaturally small.... Lately the mare
has been going very "short," and at length her action was quite crippled.
At times she was decidedly lame on the off fore-foot. At no time have I
been able to detect any sign of structural disease. I thereupon concluded
that the lameness was due to mechanical pressure on the sensitive
structures, and I determined to try the effects of the above treatment. As
this was my first experience of the process, I was careful to carry it out
in all its details, as described by Professor Smith. After the bar shoes
had been put on, the mare was very lame. I allowed her two days' rest, then
commenced regular walking exercise, and she daily improved. After fourteen
days there was no lameness, but still short action. I thereupon gave the
mare another week's walking exercise, at the expiration of which I drove
her a short turn of five miles, which she did quite well, and free from
lameness. For three months I kept the saw-cuts open to the coronet, and
continued the bar shoes, keeping the mare at exercise, and giving her
occasionally a drive. She never liked the bar shoes, and I was glad when I
could discontinue them, which I did in the fourth month. When shod with the
usual shoes the complete success of the treatment was shown. I have now had
her going with the ordinary shoes for the past two or three months, and the
improvement in the shape of the feet is very marked; there is no lameness;
the mare is free in movement, fast, and spirited, whereas previously she
was quite the reverse, and almost unfit to drive.'[A]

[Footnote A: W.S. Adams, M.R.C.V.S., _Veterinary Journal_, vol. xxx., p.
19.]

This method, though but recently introduced to the English veterinary
surgeon, is by no means new. According to Zundel, it was recently made
known on the Continent by Weber, but was previously known and mentioned by
Lagueriniere, Brognier, and Hurtrel d'Arboval.

When the grooving is in a horizontal direction, a single incision is
sufficient. This is made 3/4 inch below the coronary margin of the wall,
and parallel with it, extending from the point of the heel for 2 or 3
inches in a forward direction. As in the previous method, a bar shoe is
applied, and the animal daily exercised. Thus separated from the fixed
and contracted portion of the wall below, the more elastic coronet under
pressur