Laminitis guide: Part 2 - how farriery can help laminitic horses

Laminitis is an inflammation and breakdown of the soft tissue laminae that join the pedal bone within the hoof capsule to the hoof wall, and can cause devastating changes to your horse’s hooves. Thankfully, there are ways to manage it and keep your horse comfortable with special remedial farriery. 

In these situations, it’s really important that the horse’s vet and farrier work as a team; the vet will use pain medication to help make the horse comfortable during the acute stages of the disease as well as discuss ways to help prevent further laminitic attacks through weight loss and insulin regulation, while the farrier will work on the mechanical issues happening inside the hoof to stop the development of the disease.

Assessment

When assessing a laminitic for the first time, it’s important that your farrier has x-rays of the horse’s feet to help ascertain the damage inside the hoof and assess how rotated the pedal bone is. These will act as a guide on how they can improve the trimming and shoeing mechanics to prevent any further damage and help to return the pedal bone back to its rightful place. Your farrier will also look at the sole of the foot to look for stretching of the laminae and possible blood staining. 

Once the farrier has worked out which trim will best suit your horse, he will look at other ways to support and cushion the horse’s feet using special shoes and compression material or even boots. Cushioning the hoof will help to make the horse more comfortable. A thick shavings bed will also help to make your horse more comfortable while he is in the acute stages of the disease.

Helping your horse through the acute stages of laminitis isn’t a quick fix and your horse may need to be on box rest for at least six weeks, even when they start feeling more comfortable. It’s important for an owner to hold their nerve and stay on the prescribed course of treatment and management, even if the horse looks like they are getting better and feeling more comfortable. Although the horse isn’t in as much pain as they were, there is still a vast amount of healing within the hoof to be done, and the last thing you want to do is relax your management too early and undo all the healing that has begun. 

In mild cases of laminitis, a suitable trim might be just enough to help realign the pedal bone. This is often in the form of lowering the heels and rasping the toe to reduce ground pressure and improve breakover. Mechanical laminitis can be caused by poor hoof balance where the toes are too long, which is why it is vital for a horse’s foot balance to be frequently and regularly assessed by a farrier. 

It might be a few weeks before your farrier will use any remedial shoes and this is mainly because the act of shoeing – holding up one foot for several minutes at a time –will be too painful for the horse. It can also make the tearing of the laminae worse. 

A horse recovering from laminitis can sometimes experience uneven and rapid hoof growth, and in these cases, it’s often better for the farrier to make small tweaks every few days rather than wait and do too much in one go. 

Shoes for every occasion

There’s a large number of different remedial shoes designed to help laminitics including the heart bar and frog bar and even glue-on plastic shoes, but they all have the same aim of supporting the heels and relieving pressure at the toe (where the tip of the pedal bone might be pointing and creating pain and inflammation), and support the sole. The ideal arrangement is one that allows some flex at the toe and helps support the horse’s weight as he rocks it to the back of the foot.

Depending upon the severity of the laminitis, farriers may choose to avoid nailing on a shoe altogether and instead cast a shoe onto the hoof using a fibreglass tape that is wrapped around the foot and the shoe, similar to a broken arm being cast. 

Often a horse wearing remedial shoes will benefit from some kind of pad or sole packing, which is thought to take pressure off the hoof wall and support the pedal bone. There’s a variety of products that can be used. 

The next steps

Going forward, your farrier might ask for repeat x-rays so they can see how the hoof is adapting to the remedial farriery work and ensure it is going in the right direction.

It’s important to keep talking to your farrier about your horse’s feet, and let them know if you notice any issues, such as a change in shape or your horse’s way of going. Similarly, don’t hesitate to call your vet if you have any concerns of laminitis – the earlier laminitis is spotted, the better the chance of treating it. 

The key to managing a laminitic horse’s feet effectively is to treat each case as an individual – what works for one might not work for another. It’s also vital that you find a vet and a farrier whom you trust, and follow their advice to the letter.This is the best way to help bring your horse back to soundness. It’s also important that your vet and farrier work together throughout the entire process including during the review stages. 

Thank you to farrier and author, Ben Benson, for providing this advice.

More laminitis guides:

Laminitis causes, treatment and prevention

Feeding a horse with laminitis