Equine Fusion's Unique Rubber Sole

Why is this SO important?
Hooves are designed to absorb shock. This prevents concussion injuries to the rest of the horse. The way the hoof does this is by expanding on impact with the ground. The structures inside the hoof that enable it to expand and contract are known as the digital cushion and lateral cartilages. They give the hoof it’s flexibility and it’s the expansion of the hoof that absorbs the impact shock. They also help with blood flow in the hoof and lower leg as it’s when the hoof contracts (in the flight phase of the gait when the hoof is off the ground) that the blood gets pumped out of the hoof and back up to the heart. There aren’t any muscles in the lower leg so proper hoof function (expansion and contraction) ensures that the blood flows as it should. For more information on the structure of hooves visit our sister website www.anatomy-of-the-equine.com

When the hoof expands, it gets wider at the sides and back. The Equine Fusions are designed to also expand from side to side to allow them to function hand-in-hand with the hoof. They do not restrict this movement like metal horseshoes and so many of the boots that are made of plastic do. (Some plastic boots also require a super tight fit to stay on and this exacerbates the problem as the hoof is literally cast in it’s contracted state.)

The rubber sole also has a second benefit. If the hoof isn’t 100% healthy, the digital cushion, lateral cartilages, frog and sole can all be weak. In cases like that, the hooves aren’t able to fully absorb the impact of the shock on their own and this makes the horse lame. When these hooves have Equine Fusions on, the rubber sole supports those weak structures by allowing the hoof to sink down into it, and that’s why so many horses with navicular syndrome love the Equine Fusions.

The following series of photos show how much the hoof flexes when under load (you can click on each photo to see the full-size image).

	The first photo (left) shows the hoof just placed in the Equine Jogging Shoe with no load on it. The green dotted lines show the starting point of the hoof. The vertical dotted green line marks the unloaded width, and the horizontal dotted green line marks the sole compression starting point. The yellow line is the baseline reference for where the bottom of the boot meets the ground surface.
	This photo shows the hoof under a load equivalent to the load a hoof would experience at a walk. The blue dotted lines show how the hoof both expands outwards as well as sinks down into the rubber sole.
	This photo shows the hoof under a load equivalent to that of a trot. Again, the blue dotted lines show how the hoof both expands outwards as well as sinks down into and starts to compress the rubber sole. As the load increases so do the amount of expansion and compression of the sole.
	This photo shows the hoof under a load equivalent to the load it would experience at a canter. Again, the blue dotted lines show how the hoof both expands outwards as well as sinks down into and compresses the rubber sole. The distance between the blue dotted line and the yellow baseline has become much shorter as the rubber sole is much more compressed.
	And the final photo shows the hoof under a load equivalent to the load it would experience on landing after a jump. The amount of expansion and compression is quite mind-blowing in this photo and really highlights how important it is to not restrict our horse’s hooves!

These photos clearly show how much the All Terrain sole (which is used in the Actives, All Terrain Ultras and 24/7 Glue-ons) is able to expand with the hoof. They also show how the hoof is able to sink down into the rubber sole and that has been proven to absorb 43% more impact forces compared to a shod hoof, and 26-30% more impact forces compared to a hoof in a plastic-soled boot (see the scientific studies on that here).

Below is the video these images were taken from. It shows in real time, how the hoof expands as the load increases. It also shows how the hoof is able to glide forwards in the Jogging Shoes, which is an important part of the landing phase of the horse’s gait.