422


EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION / AE / AUGUST 2020


a)


b)


Fig 12: a) A radiograph of a foot with unilateral displacement without laminitis. Red line is the tilt of the bone, yellow arrow is widened joint space, circle is decreased sole thickness and white arrows are position of coronet noting proximally displaced heel on affected side. b) A radiograph of unilateral displacement with laminitis. Note the difference in hoof wall thickness with the affected side increased.


a)


b)


Fig 13: a) The biomechanical concept of moving the COP (Image courtesy of Andrew Parks). b) The extension of the wooden shoe on the unaffected side of the foot.


disease, distal phalanx fractures and improving the structures of the hoof capsule using the wooden shoe in a large number of cases showed consistent improvement which was considered a success (Table 1). The magnitude of the bevel of the wooden shoe


decreases the stress on the entire circumference of the lamellae and soft tissues at breakover, an effect which is often difficult to produce with traditional shoes. Cutting the perimeter of the wooden shoe at a 45-degree angle or bevel around the circumference of the shoe appears to decrease the dorsal/lateral/medial torque on the lamellae, especially when the horse turns. The flat firm plane of the wooden shoe, combined with the impression material in the palmar section of the foot, allows load sharing across the ground surface of the foot which further decreases the load borne by the dorsal hoof wall. This concept of load sharing is very helpful in a horse with compromised foot conformation that has limited viable hoof structures in a given section of the foot. Furthermore, therapeutic shoes are often deficient in providing sufficient breakover and heel elevation due to the


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TABLE 1: Foot cases treated with a wooden shoe over 5 years Acute laminitis


Chronic laminitis White line disease


Distal phalanx fractures


Improvement of hoof capsule structures 70% success rate


>10 cases >200 cases >30 cases 3 cases


>50 cases


physical limits of the particular shoe, whereas increasing the height of the wooden shoe allows the desired biomechanics to be fabricated into the shoe. For this author, the wooden shoe has been a very effective farriery option for treating a variety of conditions. Given that the principles behind the application of any shoeing technique are more important than the technique itself, clearly there is more than one way to accomplish many of the intended goals. The simplicity of construction, ease of adaptation, combined with the light weight in relation to height provides advantages that are often hard to match with a traditional steel or aluminum


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