Page 23 - Speedhorse Canada Spring 2018

“A laminitis case . . . needs to be immobilized so it
can heal. Excessive, overloading movement will keep
tearing the injured laminar attachment until healing
has occurred. The less damaging/overloading
movement the coffin bone encounters, the better
off the foot will be.”
overloading movement will keep tearing the injured laminar attach- ment until healing has occurred. The less damaging/overloading move- ment the coffin bone encounters,
the better off the foot will be,” says Steward.
He recommends the horse be re-shod every four weeks because the foot is growing rapidly and the angles must be maintained to re- establish normal coffin bone align- ment. Average time in wooden shoes is about 60 days. Successful recovery depends upon the severity of the damage, the amount of coffin bone degeneration, and cooperation from both owner and horse.
Wooden shoes can also be used to enhance normal hoof growth in horses with sheared heels, sore soles, weak walls and wall cracks, and in advanced cases of white line disease, navicular syndrome, and severe arthritis.
There have been many suc-
cess stories with the use of wooden shoes. 1986 Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Ronas Ryon was treated for a severe case of laminitis after he won the 1986 All American Futurity and went on to win the 1987 All American Derby following his treat- ment by Dr. Steward.
Steward likes to use at least two screws to hold the wood motion shoe in place. Screws make the adjustment of shoe placement very simple and
fast when they are put on. “When applying these shoes, we rarely twitch these horses and hardly ever tranquilize them and we never nerve block them, even though these are standard practices that most people used to do. I want to custom-fit these shoes to maximize the comfort of the horse, so I need to know if he’s comfortable. If I put these shoes on a typical laminitic horse and he hasn’t improved in soundness and comfort, I pull them off and start over. We need the horse to be able to tell us
if he’s not comfortable. Don’t be a horse whisperer, be a horse listener,” he says.
“I want the horses to tell us
how much they are hurting, but historically we tranquilized them and blocked their feet when we put special shoes on these cases. We were telling the horse to shut up because we think we know better than he does and we’re going to nail these shoes on his feet no matter how he feels about it!” Steward says.
“I have done this, and the next day the horse was much worse and telling us that if we don’t get those shoes off his feet he’s going to die soon. One such case was an expensive horse
(the owners had just turned down $200,000 for the horse) and it was decided he needed to have a pair
of heart bar shoes. The heart bar shoes were applied by an experienced person, yet the next day the horse
was even more painful and could not stand up. Laminitis is painful enough and you don’t want to add more pain and more stress to the system by nailing on shoes,” he says.
“The problem I often encounter is that after I put on the wooden shoes, the horse feels better and feels like running around. You can’t let him do that without careful consider- ation. You may have to put the horse in a smaller stall or more confined area to prevent that. If he runs up and down the fence and the next day he’s better, that’s okay, but it’s usually best to have exercise in moderation. I want the horse to just mosey around with gentle non-injurious exercise
on soft footing like a lawn,” says Steward.
Some movement is often benefi- cial except when there’s been too much damage to the laminae. “In these cases, any weighted movement can damage the laminae. That’s when we need to use something like a counterbalance sling to prevent more damage,” he says.
“Often I am frustrated with our professions—both farrier and vet- erinarian—because we are letting these animals suffer greatly without giving them a good chance for heal- ing. Some horses are euthanized that could recover with minimal treat- ment. One of the reasons I came
up with this shoeing system was economics. All the other systems
SPEEDHORSE CANADA, Spring 2018 23