Still in its early stages, the 3D horseshoe printing project will soon focus on evaluating the shoes’ effects on horses’ gaits with the help of an objective gait analysis system, de Zwaan said. | Photo: Courtesy Pascaline van der Linden

To home in on healing in the most precise, individualized way possible, Dutch scientists are creating custom therapeutic shoes through 3D printing.

“This is personalized hoof care we’re developing, because every horse is unique and has unique problems with unique challenges,” said Harold Brommer, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ECVS, professor and chair of Equine Surgery and Orthopaedics at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Utrecht University, in the Netherlands.

Modeling after personalized foot care in human medicine, Brommer and his associates, who include master farriers Jan de Zwaan and Gerben Bronkhorst, have carried out pilot testing of their high-tech, custom-designed shoes on two horses for two consecutive shoeing