Part 4 of 5 in our blog

Optimizing the Care and Management of Your Equine Athlete

Podiatry

Scott Morrison, DVM, has been a veterinarian specializing in equine podiatry at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., since 1999, bringing with him years of experience as a farrier. As the podiatry caseload increased, Rood & Riddle built a podiatry center that is staffed by veterinarians, technicians and farriers. Currently, Morrison's caseload is 100% podiatry. He has graciously provided the following information on the care and maintenance of the equine foot.

The foot as a distinct structure is designed for support, with limbs extremely dependent on the health of the entire foot for support. Structural collapse can occur due to disease (laminitis, white line), trauma, conformation, regional overloading (one area of the foot receives more than its share of the load), ratio of body weight to foot size, poor shoeing and foot care, and/or environmental conditions (overly wet).

For a foot to remain healthy and accommodate its basic functions, it needs to have proper form and structure. Balance is the term most widely used when describing the foot's form and structure. A balanced foot is believed to be functionally efficient and capable of providing support to the limb. A balanced foot is not necessarily perfectly symmetrical, but it does possess a degree of symmetry and is free of hoof capsule distortions such as flares, dishes, bull-nosed dorsal wall, crushed/collapsed wall, contracted heel, etc., which are all signs of imbalance.

For a foot to remain healthy and accommodate basic functions, it needs to be structurally strong and balanced. Characteristics of strong and healthy foot structures are:

• Strong, thick sole
• Strong, robust wall that is free of distortions (flares, dishes, underrun/collapsed heels, contracted heels)
• Well-developed bars
• Even wall growth

The heel of the equine foot functions primarily as shock absorption and houses such structures as the frog, digital cushion, collateral cartilage and an elaborate vascular system. The heel also contains various sensory receptors that allow the horse to feel and negotiate the ground surface and foot/limb position. The toe is basically designed to cut into the ground and stabilize the limb for traction. If one region of the foot is compromised or structurally unstable, it affects the foot's ability to support the weight of the horse.

Distortions, or shape changes, are a sign of over- or under-loading a particular region of the foot. These distortions are seen as collapsing or structural failure of an area of the hoof wall. These hooves do not respond well to normal loading forces and are more susceptible to trauma and injury. The point of ground contact affects the manner in which the foot and all the structures above it are loaded. This is the essential concept underlying the importance of dynamic balance and the ability of the horse's foot to provide support, shock absorption, traction, and proprioception (the perception of position and posture).

A preventative hoof care program can help ensure that foot structures are balanced and remain healthy. Keeping your horse on a short regular shoeing interval is one of the key management factors in keeping most athletes sound. As feet grow long, they become more out of balance, and when a foot is out of balance it puts all other anatomical structures at risk of injury (foot, limb, back, neck, etc).

Proper conditioning for the physical demands of specific athletic disciplines is important and goes hand-in-hand with attention to the foot.

Footing and shoe type should complement each other. When deciding what type of shoe your horse should wear, consider the type of footing your horse is on. This will dictate what kind of web width or traction devices might be appropriate. Also consider any pre-existing conditions such as conformational abnormalities, old injuries, degenerative joint disease, or chronic heel pain. There are some shoeing modifications that can help alleviate stress on these various conditions and prolong your horse's career. Foot problems or developing pain are usually indicated by performance-related issues such as jump-refusing, shortened gait, altered head carriage, tripping, forging, and overt lameness.

Signs that the hoof wall is unhealthy include cracks, shelly walls, and shoes that come loose frequently or fall off. To improve wall quality, first we evaluate the horse's nutrition to ensure that the diet is well balanced, because over- or under-supplementation can cause wall problems. Keeping the hooves painted with a pine tar-based product can help decrease the wet to dry cycles that often deteriorate the walls.

Intermittently, foot radiographs should be taken and reviewed for balance by your veterinarian and farrier.

Photo: Erica Larson

A podiatry exam and foot evaluation should be part of a routine examination of equine athletes. Intermittently, foot radiographs should be taken and reviewed for balance by your veterinarian and farrier. If needed, a plan can be devised to decrease wear and tear on the feet. Equine podiatry has been practiced by a few veterinarians over the past three or four decades and is a rapidly growing field. Many veterinarians have worked as farriers prior to going to veterinary school, and many of them have combined the two professions to advance foot care.

As we have learned more about equine podiatry, we have identified some areas of research needed in this field:

• Hoof wall quality studies. We need better diagnostics to determine why some walls are weak. Is it nutrition, mechanical, infection, management, or genetics? - More kinematic studies on how shoe modifications affect disease and what effect shoe modifications have on horses with different conformational deviations.
• What might be the role of stem cells in healing different foot diseases like laminitis, navicular apparatus disease, and soft tissue injuries in the hoof?
• Many conditions of the foot still are not completely understood such as canker and some forms of coronitis (irrritated, crusty, swollen coronary bands). Although many treatments may help alleviate these conditions, more research is needed to understand the cause of these conditions.

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