Don’t panic! Laminitis and Founder are terrifying, I know, but there is hope, and you can help your foundered horse. In this article I’m going to focus on understanding pedal bone rotation and how you can help your horse using a non-invasive method called Equine Hanna Somatics®.
When a horse has laminitis, the velcro-like tissue inside the hoof loses it’s ability to connect the hoof wall to the pedal bone. The normal pressures on the hoof from both inside and outside cause the inflamed or damaged lamina to stretch and tear. The more compromised the lamina inside the hoof becomes, and the more shear pressure is affecting the hoof, the more likely it is that the horse will develop pedal bone rotation or sinking, aka founder.
If your horse is suddenly dead-lame, you haven’t called your vet yet and you are googling to get answers, first do the following:
Acute Laminitis First Aid
- Put your horse in a stall or small paddock alone with only hay, water and free choice salt. Tie them up if you have nowhere to confine them – movement is the enemy in acute laminitis.
- Give your horse plenty of fluffy clean bedding and/or make a cold mud puddle for them to stand in. If your horse is lying down but not rolling around, let them stay down – they are taking care of their painful feet!
- Call the vet to get professional advice and/or care. Then come right back because I’m going to teach you a simple, gentle somatic exercise that can help to ease the symptoms of an acute attack of Laminitis, help in the recovery from Founder, and are also valuable as Preventative Care for any horse.
Equine Hanna Somatics to help a Foundered Horse
In the video below, I demonstrate a modified Equine Hanna Somatics Initial Pick-Up. This gentle movement done in cooperation with the horse targets tension in the Deep Digital Flexor Muscles and Tendons of the forelimbs.
In addition to reducing tension on the pedal/coffin bone, this exercise also helps the horse to flex and extend all the joints of the leg more easily. It’s a wonderful way to optimize the function and fitness of your horses leg muscles and overall mind-body connection.
*Please note: I am using a very gentle invitation and guiding touch.
I am not pulling or forcing any part of the movement, and am using all my skill and feel to keep the movement and flexion within the easy range-of-motion for the horse.
The height of the pick-up and the degree of flexion of the knee and fetlock joints will vary greatly, so please use YOUR feel to modify the movement to work for the horse you are with.
In EHS, the horse must do all the work, and the slow return to neutral is the most important part of each pick-up. Avoid stretching! This is just a gentle movement within the horse’s current comfortable range of motion.
To understand why this simple exercise can be so profoundly helpful for a foundered horse or one with laminitis, we must understand what causes P3 to rotate in the first place.
What causes a rotated pedal bone?
From the outside of the hoof, an enormous amount of shear pressure comes from the simple act of standing or walking. As the weight of the horse comes down onto the foot with each step, the ground pushes upward on the hoof walls, creating shearing forces on the lamina inside the hoof.
With each step, depending on the length of the hoof wall at the toe, there is additional shear force on the front of the hoof wall. For a horse with healthy lamina, this isn’t a problem – but it can be extremely painful for a horse suffering from laminitis.
From the inside of the horse’s body, there is a constant pull on the bottom of the pedal bone where the deep digital flexor tendon attaches. This tendon is connected to the strong flexor muscles of the limb. When the lamina loses it’s ability to hold the hoof wall and the coffin bone together, the steady pull from the DDFT can contribute to pedal bone rotation.
Rotation occurs due to the impairment of the ability of the laminae to translate movement of the pedal bone into movement of the hoof. Force applied to the pedal bone by the deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT) therefore moves the bone within the hoof, rather than the bone and hoof together. (from https://equine-vets.com/health/l/laminitis-is-one-of-the-most-common-causes-of-lameness-in-horses-and-ponies/ )
Can pedal bone rotation be corrected in a foundered horse?
It’s possible, but treatment does not always result in a full recovery. Many horses are euthanized due to chronic laminitis and founder.
There are generally two approaches to “treating” founder and coffin bone rotation in addition to offering NSAIDS (non-steriodal anti-inflammatory drugs like Bute or Banamine).
The first and immediate treatment should be a balanced hoof trim with a rolled toe to ease breakover to minimize shearing pressure on the hoof wall. The hooves also need support and cushioning from hoof boots or corrective shoes with pads. Personally, I like SoftRide boots. Corrective shoes will typically include wedges to lift the heels to relieve the pull from the Deep Digital Flexor Tendon (DDFT).
Other treatments mostly focus on methods for further decreasing the pull from the DDFT. These can range from a Botox injection into DDF muscle to temporarily paralyze it (this lasts about 6 months) to a surgical Tenotomy of the DDF tendon.
What is a DDFT Tenotomy?
A vet will partially sever the DDFT to immediately stop it from pulling on the coffin bone. This gives the vet and farrier more time to treat the horse, because is slows the progression of coffin bone rotation. Horses who have this procedure are not expected to return to high-level work or competition. In some cases the tendon heals and is able to return to some level of it’s original function.
The goal of all these treatments is to correct the rotation so the horse can grow a new hoof down around it in proper alignment/connection.
Equine Hanna Somatics is alternative treatment for reducing tension from the DDFT
As I demonstrate in the video above, Equine Hanna Somatics offers us a non-invasive alternative treatment for reducing the pull on the coffin bone from the deep digital flexor tendon.
Using this simple exercise, you can give a foot-sore horse some relief, speed up recovery from laminitis, and/or reduce the degree of rotation in a foundering horse. This same exercise may give a sound horse a better chance at recovering quickly if they ever do develop laminitis, so its great for prevention and maintenance.
Equine Hanna Somatics works by getting the horse’s own nervous system to reduce the resting tension levels in the affected muscles. In this case, we are working with the digital flexor muscles. To LEARN MORE about Equine Hanna Somatics® and how it works, hop over to this post.
Signs a horse has overly tight digital flexor muscles
- over at the knee
- camped under
- girthy
- back of the upper leg feels hard and tight when palpated
- short-strided in front
- cannot stand still for the trimmer/farrier
- snaps hoof up when asked to lift the limb
- pawing
- yanks hoof back and down off a hoof stand or when the limb is protracted
Even horses who aren’t foundering and do not show any of the symptoms listed above may have some sneaky tension hiding in their digital flexor muscles. All horses can benefit from this simple exercise.
I would love for every horse owner and hoof-worker to see this video – if you know someone who could benefit from this information, please share this post with them!
If you want to learn the 3 essential EHS exercises I teach every client to easily and quickly help a horse release chronic tension in more than 60 muscles, grab your FREE 35-page PDF Guide by clicking HERE!
