Page 20 - Speedhorse Canada Spring 2018

Alleviating Laminitis & Founder With A Wooden Roller Shoe
Laminitis, the inflammation of the Velcro-like laminae that attaches the hoof wall
to the coffin bone, can be devastat- ing if enough of the attachments give way and allow the tip of the coffin bone to rotate downward and come through the sole of the foot. Even worse is a foundered horse, in which the entire coffin bone sinks—like a foundered ship. The entire lamella apparatus has been damaged and overloaded to the point the entire circumference of the laminae are tearing and letting the coffin bone sink within the hoof capsule. These feet are often called “sinkers”.
About 30 years ago, Michael L. Steward, DVM of Shawnee Animal Hospital in Shawnee, Oklahoma, created a wooden rocker shoe to help horses with laminitis. Steward wanted to develop a safe, easy, effective and affordable therapeutic shoe that would support the foot, reduce pain, and promote blood
by Heather Smith Thomas
Mike Steward DVM, inventor of The Roller Motion Shoe
flow and healing. The Roller Motion Shoe, also called the Steward Clog, is an orthopedic shoe that helps stabilize and de-rotate the coffin bone, promotes sole growth, and relieves pressure and pain. At one of Steward’s presentations, the person who introduced him said, “This is a guy who thinks outside the box. In fact, he takes the box apart and puts it on the bottom of the horse’s foot!” It’s a great invention.
“Actually, I didn’t develop it,” Steward claims, “A horse did. When
I was a young veterinarian, one of my high school classmates brought in a foundered mare that looked really bad with the coffin bone starting
to come out the bottom of the foot. There wasn’t a farrier around and
I was desperate and didn’t know what to do, so I simply put a piece of plywood on the bottom of the foot. I cut out the plywood in the shape of the foot and screwed that plywood onto the foot. The horse actually designed it over a three month period due to wear on the shoe.” Steward attached the wood to the foot with a few deck screws and wrapped Vetrap around the hoof wall for good mea- sure. Jokingly, he said it looked like a wooden clog.
“About three months later, my classmate came back in with a nice, fat mare that needed a Coggins test. She was going to go barrel racing. I asked what happened to the horse we put the wooden shoes on and she told me this was the same mare. I
20 SPEEDHORSE CANADA, Spring 2018