The United Kingdom Horse Shoers Union
The voice of the farrier.
The Rolled Toe Shoe: its dynamic effect on the front foot of the horse.
Peter N Baker.
The 1980's saw a great leap forwards farriery awareness and an increased understanding of balance and anatomy. Balance as it is thought of today was not considered in any depth ten years ago. The forces that are transmitted through, around and into the equine foot are only now beginning to be thought about and, as yet, little attempt has been made to write or talk about them.
Some years ago, an ongoing study was undertaken of the effect of the rolled toe upon the structure of the equine athlete's foot. Some quite interesting observations were noted and supported those seen by Duckett (Newmarket 2nd International Farriery and Lameness seminar, 15 - 16 September 1990), although a somewhat different interpretation is placed upon their meaning.
Firstly, this study was undertaken in an attempt to find a sequel to the run forwards heel syndrome. At the time, this was a serious problem with high performance horses.
The author changed his style of shoeing and converted 200 horses in his
care to rolled toe front shoes. The response was dramatic. Within a month
the heels of 95 % of the horses feet stabilised and the run forwards heel
was no longer seen as a problem. Traditionally defined corns ceased to
be present in 100% of the horses, acute angled bar buckles were no longer
seen, and the lameness associated with this condition was no longer evident.
Linear bruising of the solar junction of the bars completely disappeared
and "Baileys dorsal depression" in 95% of the horse so affected
went away. The horses were generally sounder, tracked up in a far straighter
line and they undoubtedly began to move more freely. Posterior third lameness
became a thing of the past, except in those horses which suffered attributable
physical injury, disease to their feet, or those suspected of having surgical
intervention in their pre training lives.
The type of rolled toe used was the "Charlie Double" toe, as
recommended and demonstrated by Colin Smith, FWCF. The roll is produced
by rolling the toe of the shoe over the beck of the anvil. The toes of
the first shoes used were rolled first toe nail hole to the opposing first
nail hole on the other side of the shoe. The shoes were made of wide section,
light steel and were fitted long and full at the heels. This type of shoe
and toe immediately stabilised the animals run-forwards feet.
There were however, four quite serious complications:
Firstly, a black spot of necrotic matter formed under the shoe at the centre of the toe in the white zone.
Secondly, a ridge of solar horn developed which corresponded with the widest part of the foot. This ridge sometimes bridged the lateral clefts between the frog and the bars.
Thirdly, and these observations are most probably related to the second
point, the dorsal wall appeared to shunt backwards and two shallow grooves
(Duckett's Dimples) appeared proximo/distally in the dorsal wall, one
on either side of the common digital extensor tendon, starting just proximal
to its insertion on the extensor process the distal phalanx.
These grooves did not seem to be formed as the horn grew downwards from
the coronary band. One must conclude that they formed as a result of horn
shunting.
The second and third complication's are possibly linked by the fact the
dorsal wall shunts backwards. This dorsal wall shunting descends the wall
only as far as the upper solar plate wall junction, as the wall below
this point is held in place by the horny sole. Such action causes the
distal 3/4 of an inch of the dorsal wall to turn upwards and exaggerate
the
formation of the dip in the dorsal wall. The wall expands medially and
laterally and unless care is taken this bilateral flaring will develop
to a point of sole wall cavitation and wall laminae shearing. The minor
posterior displacement of the sole causes the ridge and bridging effect
previously indicated. It appears the horse's physiology is forming the
bridge to
stabilise and strengthen the solar plate in an attempt to counteract weakness.
A fourth problem is seen when using this type of shoe on horses with flattish feet, when in order to remove sufficient horn to allow the rolled toe to seat properly the blood line can easily be breached.
As can be seen from the above, the removal of one set of problems by fitting a rolled toe shoe from first toe nail hole to first toe nail hole was immediately replaced by a second set of problems which were potentially just as injurious as the first.
Four months into the trial the amount of toe roll used was reduced. The production method remained the same, but the amount rolled was reduced to half. Great care was taken to relieve the pressure on the sole directly behind the centre of the toe.
The complications ceased and nothing detrimental was seen afterwards. The feet remained stable.
In 1990, a similar trial was carried out by a fellow farrier in my area,
with equally dramatic results. Three of the horses in his care won two
European Derby's, French and Epsom, the third horse only just got beaten
into second place in the Irish Derby by Salsibil probably the filly of
that decade, a triple crown winner herself. The farrier made the following
comments: “Rolled toes make it just a little bit easier to get the
work into the horses” and “I have also
noticed since using rolled toes that sore shins seem to have disappeared,
even during this exceptionally dry season.” (survey late1989 - 1991).
Copyright P N Baker, first published forge magazine August 1997.