Page 22 - Speedhorse Canada Spring 2018

digital cushion
long pastern bone
pastern joint
short pastern bone
coffin joint coffin bone
navicular bursa
The Roller Motion Shoe supports the foot, reduces pain, and promotes blood flow and healing. The shoe is used in laminitis cases where laminae inflammation causes the hoof wall to detach from the coffin bone, and in cases of founder where the entire lamella is damaged so that the coffin bone sinks within the hoof. The shoe can also be used to help with normal hoof growth in horses with sheared heels, sore soles, weak walls or cracks, white line disease, and severe arthritis.
if desired,” he says.
Most laminitic cases can put more
weight on the sore feet after the ther- apeutic shoes are applied because of the pain reduction supplied by these shoes. “The entire circumference of the shoe is sloped to provide the roll- ing nature of the shoe, which helps facilitate movement and increases blood flow,” he says. The back of the shoe is sloped as well, to aid the horse when getting up from the ground.
Before applying the shoe, the hoof wall is carefully trimmed and usually lowered at the heels to redistribute weight off the sore toe. “For a custom fit, you can trough out the plywood between the foot and the wood if
the coffin bone has dropped and is sticking out the bottom of the foot to
give it some room.” Steward explains. “We paint the bottom of the foot with iodine, hold the wooden shoe on the sole, and then carve out the brown places on the shoe where there was pressure. The goal is to evenly disperse pressure and unload the painful areas by grinding the top of the shoe out.”
The shoe can be shaped to allow the protruding coffin bone to settle down in the top of the shoe, but you don’t want to make the space too deep or it gives the bone too much room. “When there is a prolapsed corium (the lining around the bone), it tends to grow and expand. It is designed to grow under pressure and if you don’t give it any pressure and instead give it an inch of space
to grow, it will fill up that space just like proud flesh. If this happens, the nerve endings will need to be cut off and subdued with chemical cau-
tery because it is very painful. The wooden shoe can then be modified so the protruding corium only has about 1/8th of an inch of space. Then, it will have the right amount of pressure and grow normally as it heals.
The shoe is applied with wood screws, without painful hammering, while the horse stands on the shoe. This way, the pain can be closely monitored. The horse will generally feel more comfortable immediately after shoeing.
“A laminitis case is similar to a broken bone and needs to be immo- bilized so it can heal. Excessive,
22 SPEEDHORSE CANADA, Spring 2018
laminae
navicular bone
hoof wall
navicular impar ligament
frog
sole