Just wondering, since adding that much support will increase tension to the sl, has anyone tried anything different than chopping the toe off and adding lots of support? I've alway had the idea that adding tensioin to the dft would be benificial. But in order to do that seems a little crazy.

I don't think it's possible to alleviate the strain on the sl in such a severe case of run down. The tearing of the tissue and loss of elasticity negates the function of the sl (which is, as we know, to absorb shock and reverse the down force of the mass of the horse while accepting load, among other things). The rundown shoe, in theory, places a base under the down force of the limb, providing some degree of mechanical support. These feet will take on a stumpy appearance with a degree of bull-nosing in the toe, but also wear the dorsal wall, sometimes into the white line. This is caused because the sl's dorsal branches have attachments to the main extensor tendon. The loss of elasticity and rebound in the sl will pull the extensor tendon tight. Due to this fact, the extensor tendon is never fully released and allowed to function properly. The horse has a very difficult time extending the leg forward.

My goal in shoeing such horses is to provide as much mechanical support under the fetlock joint as possible, protect the integrity of the dorsal wall, and allow the horse's limb to stride forward as easily as possible. This is accomplished by a perimeter fit rocker toe. The "stubby" or "dumped" appearance of this foot, imo, is due to the above phenomena and possibly remodeling in the capsule to accomodate the sl changes. I simply trimmed the foot as normally as possible, removed the flares, the fit the shoe to protect and support the capsule and limb. I would not dump a foot or square a shoe on a foot that suffered from this abnormality.

Jason

A few more pics on the foot