Bar crack, sole bruising

[reillyshoe]

Here is a quick case to present. A five year old standardbred pacer presented with a complaint of a bar crack on the medial sole/bar junction. There was shoes or traditional pads, so we were looking for alternatives methods to protect and stabilize the back of the hoof.

[Dave Whitaker]

Very cool, Pat. Don't I love my carbon fiber. (I recently "acquired" some composite carbon/kevlar cloth from my local boat yard). One man's s**** is the next man's treasure!

Couple of questions.....

It looks like you may have "trapped" some active "leakage" under your package....... did you treat/medicate in any manner or do anything else to ward of possible abscess issues?

How long do you anticipate this to be able to stay on?

Also, don't you find it frustrating to be continually patching these guys up and instead of getting the lay up they need, they start getting worked right away because they are now "sound", only to end up back on your mats all beat to hell again? I quit working at a lay up barn on my books a few years back for this very reason.

Nice pics, Pat. Thanks.

I was disappointed that your weren't at IHCS.

Dave

[calshoer]

It has to be frustrating when the trainers/owners won't let them truly heal and instead rely on the patch to get them through more training.

Like you said there a lot of way to handle something like this and having them insist on maintaining training puts some limits on your choices.
I like what you did. Personally I would have trimmed those heels back quite a bit further, given that the run forward heels likely caused the crack in the first place. Then I would have done something similar to what you did but would have added added a bar wedge pad too, if he needed it to land heel first after taking the heels down.

[Julie Plaster]

Originally Posted by reillyshoe

I opted to protect the back of the hoof using fibers and PMMA's (no big surprise that I like polymers). One layer of linear carbon fiber for stability, and a second layer of Vectran on the ground side for abrasion resistance. I draped the material over the sole and up the medial and lateral wall, covered with stretch wrap and wrapped a piece of foam under the hoof to conform the fabric to the concavity of the sole.

Great Post!

Would you elaborate on the "how to" with these products, please?

What about removing when it comes time for a reset? Hoof knife? Dremel?

Where do you buy them?

Dave,

"...frustrating to be continually patching these guys up and instead of getting the lay up they need, they start getting worked right away because they are now "sound", only to end up back on your mats all beat to hell again? I quit working at a lay up barn on my books a few years back for this very reason."

Very frustrating. I've quit clients for the same type non team component.



Thank you,
Julie :-)

[reillyshoe]

Originally Posted by Dave Whitaker

Very cool, Pat. Don't I love my carbon fiber. (I recently "acquired" some composite carbon/kevlar cloth from my local boat yard). One man's s**** is the next man's treasure!

Couple of questions.....

It looks like you may have "trapped" some active "leakage" under your package....... did you treat/medicate in any manner or do anything else to ward of possible abscess issues?

How long do you anticipate this to be able to stay on?

Also, don't you find it frustrating to be continually patching these guys up and instead of getting the lay up they need, they start getting worked right away because they are now "sound", only to end up back on your mats all beat to hell again? I quit working at a lay up barn on my books a few years back for this very reason.

Nice pics, Pat. Thanks.

I was disappointed that your weren't at IHCS.

Dave

In this case, I am not upset about the lack of time off. The cause is known (the track is rock hard to begin with, and then frozen). If you had a foot sore horse that became sound immediately after pads went on, would you lay them up anyway? The trainer assured me no NSAIDs were used, and they would back off at the first sign of trouble.

I understand your concern about creating a site for infection, but there was nothing draining. If there was drainage, I would have cut out a couple of small pieces from a Vettec foam board to cover the suspect areas and then repair over the foam (creating a little area with no pressure).
I expect it to last a normal shoeing interval (4-5 weeks). A bar wedge wasn't an option on this horse for the same reasoning as the bar shoe- too much drag.
I really wanted to go to the IHCS, but I was traveling the prior two weeks and it was my wife's turn for a weekend away (Wellington). Hopefully next year.

[reillyshoe]

Originally Posted by Julie Plaster

Great Post!

Would you elaborate on the "how to" with these products, please?

What about removing when it comes time for a reset? Hoof knife? Dremel?

Where do you buy them?

Dave,

"...frustrating to be continually patching these guys up and instead of getting the lay up they need, they start getting worked right away because they are now "sound", only to end up back on your mats all beat to hell again? I quit working at a lay up barn on my books a few years back for this very reason."

Very frustrating. I've quit clients for the same type non team component.



Thank you,
Julie :-)

The fabrics are available from a bunch of sources, from farrier suppliers to McMaster Carr. The trick is picking the right fabric for the desired effect (strength in compression, strength in tension, abrasion resistance). Acrylic adhesives (EquiBond, Equilox, etc.) are preferrable for fabric reinforced repair.
The fabric is cut out to size and then the adhesive is mixed in with a tongue blade.


I position the fabric (saturated with adhesive) on the foot, and wrap lightly with stretch wrap. Setting the foot on a block of soft foam makes sure it is pressed into the sole as it sets up.
The shoes (Sigafoos are available through Sound Horse Technologies.
The repiar will be removed by grabbing one end with some nippers and peeling it off of the hoof. It usually comes off pretty easily.

[dave murray]

Nice post Patrick, i don't do standardbreds anymore,but i shoe TB's for a living. as it is frustrating to patch one up and then get it back after a coulpe of races or so the main reasons they don't like to give them the required time to heal is , most of them are claimers and they hope to win a race or two and have them claimed from them and move on to other horses. the other problem is they don't want to lose the fitness level the horse is at once there racing fit they like to keep them going as they find when you give them time off by the time they go through the hard training to get racing fit again the same problems seem to resurface.

[Julie Plaster]

Originally Posted by reillyshoe

...The trick is picking the right fabric for the desired effect (strength in compression, strength in tension, abrasion resistance). Acrylic adhesives (EquiBond, Equilox, etc.) are preferrable for fabric reinforced repair.

Tricky. Yes. I've been looking into learning more about using the fabrics. I really like the way you used it here.

Originally Posted by reillyshoe

...The fabric is cut out to size and then the adhesive is mixed in with a tongue blade.

My first instinct would be, yes, however, do you turn the fabric over to apply the adhesive to both sides before going to the foot? Or is that necessary?

If, you really wanted to get the angles up on one, and wanting to avoid drag, would you consider a degree shoe set up like this?

Thank you very much!

Julie :-)

[Phil Armitage]

Thanks Pat, I think that is a great idea. Adds stability and protection without applying pressure. Nice job.

[reillyshoe]

A couple of people have contacted me regarding Vectran and its properties, so..

Vectran is a fabric referred to as a liquid Crystal Polymer, and I believe it related to a polyester braid. It is the same fabric used on the Sigafoos series shoes. It has very good strangth characteristics, but also resists abrasion very well (which is why I used it on the ground surface of this repair).

This Vectran is in braided form, which also makes it stronger than woven material. Woven or braided material passes over the fibers moving in opposite directions. This is stron, but it also has some give as the fibers pull together (if you pull on braided material, it acts like a Chinese finger trap. It has some elasticity due to the arrangment).

The carbon fiber in the layer underneath is linear. There are no braids or weaves - just a straight shot of CF strands. If you pull on the ends of this, there is no give. I wanted to impart some stability to the foot, so that was the thinking in picking these fibers in this arrangment.

I hope this clarifies things (instead of making it more confusing).

[Jake Whitman]

Originally Posted by reillyshoe

The fabrics are available from a bunch of sources, from farrier suppliers to McMaster Carr. The trick is picking the right fabric for the desired effect (strength in compression, strength in tension, abrasion resistance). Acrylic adhesives (EquiBond, Equilox, etc.) are preferrable for fabric reinforced repair.
The fabric is cut out to size and then the adhesive is mixed in with a tongue blade.


I position the fabric (saturated with adhesive) on the foot, and wrap lightly with stretch wrap. Setting the foot on a block of soft foam makes sure it is pressed into the sole as it sets up.
The shoes (Sigafoos are available through Sound Horse Technologies.
The repiar will be removed by grabbing one end with some nippers and peeling it off of the hoof. It usually comes off pretty easily.

It's good to see you working on that Quarter Crack before it blows up

[Julie Plaster]

Originally Posted by reillyshoe

...I hope this clarifies things (instead of making it more confusing).

It does. I appreciate it.

Thanks,

Julie :-)

[Joey Aczon]

Was a set-down bar considered, or would that still be too much interaction? Could you have used equi-pak to counteract that or would it have been too much weight?

Also, is there a reason why you opted to use a glue-on other than the fact that you are Pat Reilly? I mean, you could have nailed one up without a problem right, were you just trying to preserve hoofwall?

Nice job, looks like a creative use of fibers.

[reillyshoe]

Originally Posted by Joey Aczon

Was a set-down bar considered, or would that still be too much interaction?

Also, is there a reason why you opted to use a glue-on other than the fact that you are Pat Reilly? I mean, you could have nailed one up without a problem right, were you just trying to preserve hoofwall?

That's funny! On reason I prefer to glue in cases of traumatic lamness is the rim pad. It deforms by 50% under load, and horses with bruising or pedal osteitis really seem to like the soft concaved pad. Also, in this case, it was easy to remove some of the rim pad to float the heels.

[tbloomer]

Originally Posted by reillyshoe

The fabric is cut out to size and then the adhesive is mixed in with a tongue blade.

Might want to try out the flexible plastic or rubber squeegees sold at body shop supply houses. They are self cleaning and reuseable. Allows you to spread the adhesive over the entire fabric at a controlled thickness in one swipe. Also allows you to apply the fabric to the hoof in a similar manner.

Of course I always forget that I have these very convenient tools tucked away in a drawer on my rig until I am actually in the process of applying the adhesive to the fabric with a tongue depressor.