Page 21 - Speedhorse Canada Spring 2018

“The cast has a very beneficial effect all by itself . . . it also helps stabilize the foot and enhance healing.”
Steward attaches plywood to the horse’s hoof using screws – no painful hammering. These shoes, ready to be cast, helps secure the hoof and reduces shear forces to the lamellar apparatus by over 40%. The angled toe helps relieve pressure on the toe and moves break over from the front to the mid-foot region and the rolling nature of the shoe facilitates movement and increases blood flow.
Steward either wraps the foot in Vetrap or casts the hoof up to the hairline to help with stability.
some fingers off; I didn’t want to damage my right hand!” he joked. Manufacture of these wooden shoes has progressed since then, and they are commercially available in some places. Steward still makes some himself and modifies them to cus- tom fit each horse’s specific needs.
Generally, the wood is cut at a 35-degree angle across the perimeter of the shoe to relieve pressure in the toe region of the sole, which helps the typical laminitic horse. “This also moves break-over back from
the toe toward the mid-foot region, which aids the hoof during locomo- tion. Increasing thickness by adding additional layers of wood or impres- sion material can further enhance break-over and transfer more weight from the front to the back of the hoof. The shoe height can be stacked three to six inches to help transfer weight to the hind end of the horse,
asked what happened to the wooden shoes? And she said, ‘The mare was still wearing them!’ I was surprised that the horse recovered. I picked her feet up and was amazed. I looked at the wood and the unusual shape and got to thinking about it,” he says.
The relatively soft plywood had worn away where the foot wanted to break over and the horse could walk more easily. The base of the platform at the ground was smaller than the top where it was attached to the hoof, which enabled the mare to pivot on the shoe in any direction. She could move comfortably, especially while turning, which is something most horses with laminitis find difficult until complete healing has occurred.
Steward began experimenting with this idea on other horses. Over time, this innovation proved to be very beneficial in the rehabilitation of horses’ feet for a variety of reasons.
It took Steward about 10 years to figure out how to keep the wooden shoes on for an extended length of time. “The horse would be doing great and then the shoe would come off. The owner might not call me if it was a weekend and then three days later, the horse would be very sore and lame again,” says Steward.
He started putting casts on the feet below the hairline to hold the shoe on. “The cast has a very benefi- cial effect all by itself. There’s been research done in which they just
put casts on the feet and reduced the shear forces by 49% on the hoof wall. Initially, I just used the cast to keep the shoe on, but it also helps stabilize the foot and enhance heal- ing,” he explains.
At first, he cut out the plywood shoes with a table saw because that was all he had to work with. “I used my left hand, in case I cut
SPEEDHORSE CANADA, Spring 2018 21