Shoeing for the Roses: Girvin's Kentucky Derby Quarter Crack and New Horseshoe Details

Photos and text © Fran Jurga and Dr. Raul Bras

Note: This story was updated to reflect the latest changes made on May 3.

There can be speed bumps on the road to the Kentucky Derby. There can be detours. And there can be road blocks.

The trick is being able to tell which one you're facing when a problem threatens to disrupt your colt's chances to run for glory on the first Saturday in May.

Sometimes a little detour can actually pay off, and one of this year's runners is out to prove that it pays off to take the scenic route.

All for Want of a Shoe: Lost Horseshoes Subject of Nine-Hour Irish Turf Tribunal and Australian Rule Change

One of horse sports' great wild cards has always been the lost shoe. Some horses lose a shoe and stop in their tracks. Some keep running and jumping--even winning. Sometimes the shoe sparkles in the sun. Sometimes it's never found.

Some people just shrug it off. Some people want to do something about it. And sometimes it's just a mystery. 

Breeders Cup Classic: Will It Be a Battle of the Specialist Horseshoes?

Will it be 3/4 shoes by a head? Nailed on glue-ons by three lengths? Or tabbed glue-on shoes in an exciting photo finish?

Shoeless in Lexington: Polytrack Podiatry at Keeneland's Last Artificial Surface Meet

An interesting experiment was available to bettors Sunday at Kentucky's Keeneland racecourse as trainer Wayne Rice prepared to send no less than six horses to the post in five races. None of them would be wearing shoes.

3D Printing in the Forge and Clinic: Hoof Anatomy Models, Veterinary Applications, and Horseshoes

3D printing in the horseshoe world probably was done first in some high-tech factory in Asia, but let's give some credit to Curtis Burns in the United States, who has been using 3D printing in the design of Polyflex glue-on shoes. Watch for Mucho Macho Man to run in the Breeders Cup Classic wearing shoes derived from this 3D printing technology on Saturday. (photo courtesy of Curtis Burns/Polyflex Horseshoes)

On the Case with Rood and Riddle's Dr. Scott Morrison: Glue-on Spring Shoe for a Contracted, Club-Footed Cutting Horse

Give the video time to buffer, and hit the "play" icon to begin. Thanks to Saginaw Valley Equine Clinic and Dr. Morrison for this video.

Here's an interesting case that complements an article in the Hoof Blog archives. Watch Dr. Morrison literally put a spring in a clinic horse's step.

Shoes for Thought: Burns Polyflex Synthetic Glue-on Prototypes Put to the Test at Major Racetracks

The new Burns Polyflex shoe is made of polyurethane with a wire core (Fran Jurga © photo)

Have you seen one of these before? Probably not. You're looking at the prototype of a new glue-on shoe made entirely of polyurethane. What makes it different from most plastic shoes is that these are made with a steel core, so the shoe is somewhere shapeable, and it has a steel toe grab. The shoes are made in molds.

This shoe is the brainchild of Florida-to-New-York farrier Curtis Burns. I ran into him at Keeneland back in April, and then again at Saratoga. The shoes are underneath some very good horses--this is the foot of a top stakes-winning filly.

People talk about the eternal quest for a better mousetrap...for me, the quest is for a better horseshoe. And as long as there are farriers out there, they will never stop trying to come up with a better design and a safer way to keep a horse's feet in perpetual motion.

Curtis deserves a big pat on the back, as does his wife Diane, who does a lot of the molding. I think you'll all be hearing a lot more from them, but for now it is one horse at a time.

Will there be a special shoe design needed for the new Polytrack surfaces being installed at the California tracks and Woodbine in Ontario, among others? I'm sure there is one on a drawing board somewhere right now!

Laminitis Prevention for Barbaro: Copper Sulfate Silicon Hoof Packing and Sigafoos Glue-On Shoe on “The Good Foot”

Barbaro's "good" foot is shod with a glue-on double hospital-plate support device. Photo © Rob Sigafoos.


Photos by Susan Hankin, JD, MPH

Many thanks to Upenn Chief of Farrier Services Rob Sigafoos for sharing with us the first official release of photos and information on the shoe designed for Barbaro’s “good” foot. The good foot must be supported in an effort to prevent what is called “support limb laminitis”, caused by over-stressing the good leg during recovery from an injury in the opposite limb.

While support limb laminitis is more of a risk in horses who injure the front legs, which bear more weight than the hind, there is still a risk of developing laminitis in the hind limb.

According to Rob, who granted Hoofcare & Lameness his first interview on the case today, Barbaro was laid down on the surgical table around noon on Sunday, after being admitted on Saturday following his injury in the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland.

All the colt's race plates were pulled off by Rob and his feet were trimmed. Rob traced the left hind at this time, and went to work building a shoe to fit the tracing while Dr Dean Richardson moved the horse into the sterile surgical suite to begin surgery.

Later that night, when the operation was finally complete, Rob returned to the surgical suite and met up with Barbaro again when he was removed from the sterile setting and the cast was applied to his injured leg. Rob glued the shoe on the left hind (“the good foot”) at that time, while the horse was laying down. The horse was then lowered via hydraulic sling into the recovery pool, where he emerged safely from anesthesia.

The shoe is a double hospital-plate device. It is quite possible that blog viewers will not be able to read the fine lettering on the art that accompanies the official statement from the vet school about the device, so I will describe it to the best of my ability:

The bottom layer is what is called by farriers a hospital plate. It is a 1/8” thick sheet of aluminum, cut in the shape of the foot, and is held on with four bolts that are threaded into the two bottom layers of the device.

The “sandwich” layer is high-density polyethelene used as a spacer, followed by the second plate, also made from 1/8” high-grade aluminum, which attaches to the shoe, which is made from 3/16” high-grade aluminum, and is bonded to high-performance polyurethane, which is in turn bonded to Vectran/polyester braided fabric, which forms the “cuff” of the shoe. Thickened with adhesive, the Vectran becomes an artificial outer wall for most of the hoof and holds the shoe in place. A PMMA-type adhesive is used; in this case the commercial name is EquAcrylic.

The spacer plate (white polyethelene) is used to equalize the horse’s limbs, so that they will be the same length and increase the probability that the horse will easily shift weight from one leg to the other and bear weight normally while standing in the stall.

Rob’s secret weapon is the use of copper sulfate-impregnated silicon hoof packing. While no one is predicting that the horse will develop laminitis (according to Rob, the foot looked normal in conformation, with no visible evidence of past hoof disease), it is important to be pro-active. The hoof packing will keep the sole clean, in the event of laminitis.

The hospital plates can be unscrewed and removed to check the bottom of the foot. If the horse does develop laminitis, the sole and frog will be accessible for medication and treatment without removing the shoe.

“This copper sulfate silicon packing is the closest thing I have seen to a silver bullet in laminitis treatment,” Rob told me today. “In this case, of course, the use is prophylactic and we certainly hope that this horse does not develop laminitis.”

The wad of blue hoof packing will pop out of the foot once the hospital plate is removed. In addition to keeping the sole clean, the copper sulfate will toughen the sole as well. It will be carefully monitored.

Shoeing to prevent support-limb laminitis in orthopedics cases is often a “Catch 22” situation, according to Rob. If the horse does not get laminitis, the shoe will not get the credit, the horse will, for standing on both legs. If the horse does get laminitis, the shoe design will be blamed—-it should be have shorter, taller, more support, different configuration, etc.

Rob didn’t mention it, but the horse is probably also wearing support wraps on the good leg.

In closing, both Rob and New Bolton Center farrier Laura Florence remarked on the media frenzy and the outpouring of support from the public. Delivery trucks are bringing cases of apples and carrots, and a wall of get-well wishes lines the highway outside the campus.

Sigafoos shoes link (Sound Horse Technologies in Pennsylvania):  http://www.soundhorse.com Copper sulfate silicon link:  http://www.soundhorse.com/copper_sulfate.htm

Text and photos © 2006 Hoofcare Publishing. Text and photos posted on “The HoofBlog”, a casual news source for subscribers and friends of Hoofcare & Lameness: The Journal of Equine Foot Science. Learn more (and subscribe online using our secure server) at http://www.hoofcare.com or write to Hoofcare Publishing, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930 USA. Tel USA 978 281 3222; Fax 978 283 8775, or email hoofblog@hoofcare.com

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