Heart Bar Shoes For Horses

The heart bar shoe or frog support shoe is a versatile therapeutic application that offers relief to afflicted horses from a variety of conditions.

Heart bar shoes for horses. These shoes are designed to apply pressure to the frog which in turn applies pressure to the pedal bone which will then push the pedal bone back up into position. A serious affliction of horses today is laminitis and founder. Heart bar shoes have been used for many years. A properly fit heart bar shoe should transfer weight to the back of the horse s foot.

When the foot is off the ground there should be little to no pressure between the shoe at the toe illustrated here by sliding a ruler between the shoe and foot. When the duo of burney chapman and george platt popularized the use of heart bar shoes for foundered and laminitic horses in the late 1960s it set off a firestorm of innovations and design styles for therapeutic horseshoes that reinvigorated the hoof care industry. As for heart bar shoes zizian says they have a few specific applications. Heart bars can be used for underrun heels laminitis road founder mechanical founder hoof wall avulsions white line disease and pedal osteitis he says.

Heart bar shoes are used to treat several different diseases of the foot. With heart bar shoes frog support and the transference of weight bearing pressures are key components for successfully using the shoe as a therapeutic device.