Veterinarians and researchers around the world have been seeking a cure for laminitis for decades. While a cure remains elusive at present, several treatment options have been developed to help make laminitic horses more comfortable despite their condition. A team of researchers from New Zealand recently put one of the most common treatment methods to the test using biomechanical models, however, and found that it might not be as effective in treating the clinical signs of the disease as once thought.

Laminitis is a disease that compromises the laminar junction, a 3-4 mm layer of soft tissue connecting the hoof wall to the coffin bone. In horses affected by laminitis, the coffin bone rotates within the hoof capsule, creating pain caused by abnormal pressure on some structures in the leg and foot.

In some cases, veterinarians and farriers raise a laminitic horse’s heels using therapeutic shoeing to increase the hoof angle based on the belief that the procedure relieves stress on the deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT) and laminae caused by rotation of the coffin bone.

A recent study led by Glenn Ramsey, a PhD candidate at New Zealand’s University of Auckland, examined how changes in hoof angles affect the load on the dorsal (forward-facing) laminar junction in the hoof