Nine years after he first treated a lame Appaloosa mare with mismatched feet, Andrew Poynton was called in again to repeat the remedial farriery that had previously restored her to soundness. In this case report, he describes the approach he used, which included the application of thermoplastic Imprint shoes.

Many horses have less-than-ideal hoof/limb conformation yet perform well for years with little or no attention paid to these discrepancies. This is not a reason to justify this approach as it could be argued that performance might have been better, and longevity of athletic function prolonged, if an effort had been made to correct the conformational deficiencies. The Appaloosa mare in this case study to some degree bears this view out.

Clinical description

When presented to me in 2021, the mare was 24 years old, with dissimilar feet that had caused her poblems over time (Fig 1). I had first treated her in 2012, when she presented with broken, poor-quality hooves.
She was 3/10 lame on her left fore (LF), which was a club foot and had led to a broken-forward hoof-pastern axis (HPA) in the left forelimb. The sole was prominent (Fig 2) and the dorsal hoof wall deviated, with laminal stretching across the toe. Heel growth was accelerated compared to the toe. The foot was tight, approximately 10 mm narrower than the right. Growth in the medial aspect was stunted in comparison to the lateral hoof wall and so the mediolateral balance was also poor. Shoe wear was heavy in the lateral toe quarter.

In contrast, the right fore (RF) (1/10 lame) had a brokenback HPA, a flat, thin sole and a prominent, fleshy frog. The heels were close to non-existent. The white line had lesions in the heel quarters.

Although the forelimbs will be the focus of this article, as horses have four feet, it is relevant to briefly describe the mare’s hindlimbs. The issues were similar to the RF but of lesser magnitude and it was possible to maintain soundness in the hindlimbs by careful conventional shoeing.

Approach to treatment

The method of treatment described here is the one I used when I first worked on the mare back in 2012. This led to soundness and then conventional steel shoeing (7/8 x 3/8 concave). An initial total of five shoeings were carried out, of which four were funded by insurance. The mare then returned to her regular farrier until early 2021 when, due to the recurring issues, it was deemed sensible to revert to the remedial farriery treatment even without insurance funding.
Farriers and vets frequently want to discuss what style of shoe and pads should be applied to a patient to procure a sound horse. While this is right and proper, before any shoes and pads are even considered, think back a step – what if the hoof is deformed, cracked, asymmetrical or depleted in some way? The old adage, ‘No foot, no horse’, is a true but negative statement. Try turning it on its head and beginning
with the solution – ‘Optimise hoof structure and function: give the horse the hoof it wants’ – and you’ll be well on the way to reinstating soundness before any shoe or pads are applied. The trim, therefore, is all-important.

Trimming

Once the patient had been observed moving, it was possible to see the range of movement afforded to each limb. It is important to remember that walking the horse on a bare, prominent and painful sole will likely give a false representation of the normal range of movement – only when the sole is protected or local anaesthesia is used can a fair assessment be made.
At the first shoeing treatment the heels were the only part on the solar plane that needed trimming; the horn was broken through the nailing area and at the toe there was little horn to sit a shoe on. In time the nailing damage grew out, while the deviated dorsal wall improved more slowly.

Shoe fitting

Once the adhesive was hardened (about five minutes), an Imprint Sport Shoe, oval in shape and of the size of the hoof was fitted (see www.imprintshoes.co.uk/resources/fitting-instructions/sport-shoe-fitting/), but with a twist. As the lower hoof wall was now plastic and securely attached to the hoof, the surface could be reheated to above 65°C using a butane torch to make it sticky so that it would then weld perfectly with the rim of the Imprint Sport Shoe. The rim was then rapidly cooled using an aerosol refrigerant, making the hoof and shoe one entity, strong, light and flexible (Fig 4). The frog plate on the shoe maintained frog support, similar to the unshod hoof but with more sole protection. Care was taken to keep seating clearance around the sole at the toe.

Shoe fitting

A shoe a size larger than that for the LF was fitted to this wider and longer hoof, ensuring shoe bearing to the length of the foot (Figs 14, 15). As the balancing and graduation were already complete the shoe was fitted in the normal way via hoof keying and adhesive, as much of the lower hoof wall was still exposed and only the heel quarters had some plastic covering.
The shoe was placed with the toe under the bevelled wall, the point of break over below the point of the third phalanx. At final finishing of the fitting, the shoe rim was filed to blend to the hoof wall. Sole clearance around the toe of the shoe was checked on both feet. (If any adhesive or plastic is found to be filling this area, then a heated metal spatula or similar can be used to create clearance to allow the sole and shoe room to flex.)