b'STEP BY STEPtype may work better than another for a certain horse and be better suited for problems with that particular foot.OrthoticsOrthotics are another new technol-ogy in hoof care. FormaHoof molds, for instance, create a mold around the outside and bottom of the properly trimmed and balanced foot. The farrier injects a urethane product that adheres to the foot and creates a thin layer around it, providing comfort and support to the hoof without need for nails or glue. It is designed to allow a damaged foot to heal and regrow within a protective layer of COURTESY TRAVIS BURNSflexible material.Its an interesting concept, but I havent used it personally, says Reilly. It es-sentially becomes a prosthetic/addition to the footaround the outside and bottom surface. One of the downsides is that youThis wide-webbed and flexible glue-on shoe is designed to offer maximum support across the sole.need different molds for different types and styles of shoes and different-size feet.on it. They allow owners to keep somevery beneficial when treating laminitis or They are all expensive, so this entails a bighorses barefoot, using boots on an as- horses with thin soles, says Burns. They investment (for the farrier) up front. needed basis, such as when riding. Thecan also aid in managing a horse with a boots can also help owners treat certainhoof abscess. Hoof Boots hoof problems.These types of boots are designed to be Todays hoof boots provide protectionThe Soft-Ride hoof boots and thesecured around the pastern and flexible for the foot when you dont want a shoeEasyboot Cloud, for instance, can beuntil they get down to the bottom of the Glue-Ons: Theyre Not Without Fault on new shoes and methods before they are put on the market, says Reilly. You dont really know how some of them will or wont hold up Though glue-on shoeing ideas work well for many purposes, theyover time when the horse does a lot of work. do have their downsides. The biggest downside is costexpense toHe explains that the equine hoof care industry is not like the phar-the owner or farrier is much more than a steel shoe, says Travis Burns,maceutical industry that must do years of tests before being allowed CJF, TE, EE, FWCF, associate professor of practice and chief of farrierto put products on the market. Farriery materials are often put on services at Virginia Techs Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinarythe market without any evidence to substantiate their use, he says. Medicine. Also, if the shoes are applied inappropriately with any ofTheres a buyer beware approach that farriers must take before mak-the adhesives, they can put too much pressure on the sole and resulting a big investment in expensive products. Im not going to start using in abscesses or exacerbate white line disease. If applied correctly,something new until theres some good evidence to support it.however, they work well. He describes one study out of Japan in which researchers found There are pluses and downsides to all shoeswhether nail-on orthat direct glue-on aluminum shoes on the bottom of the foot change glue-on, says Pat Reilly, chief of farrier services at the University ofhow the hooves expand and contractmore than a nail-on shoe. Is Pennsylvanias New Bolton Center School of Veterinary Medicine. Withthis a problem? Reilly asks. How do the other (glue-on) shoes differ? glue-on shoes, for instance, we worry about sealing infection in theWe dont know, because theres not enough research. So were back bottom of the foot. The trick is to find ways to minimize likelihood ofto what we can learn from our own experiences with these shoes, and creating adverse reactions/problems. what we see. We all have our own style of shoeing and what we prefer Glue-ons also mean reduced traction for the horse on wet grass.to use.They do well on gravel, rocks, arena footing, etc., but I would notThis is important because some owners and veterinarians may want an event horse to try to run cross-country in them without studs,hear or read about a certain shoe and ask their farrier to use it, he Burns says. Its always important to shoe for footing conditions andadds. They need to realize there are downsides to this. They might traction needs, and these shoes arent the answer for everything; theybe better off to use a method their farrier is very familiar with and are just another tool in the farriers toolbox. good at. Many farriers will eventually try some of the newer shoes Further, little evidence-based literature exists to support theseand techniques, but you maybe dont want your horse to be their first products benefits or downsides. Theres not much rigorous testingexperiment.Heather Smith Thomas56March 2020The Horse|TheHorse.comStepByStep_Mar USE.indd 56 2/4/20 9:04 AM'