Anatomy & histology

Being a prey animal the horse is highly dependent on the quality of its hooves. A horse with bad hooves can not move well and therefore will be short-lived in the wild. Horse hooves have proven to be true biomechanical miracles of evolution. To be able to understand laminitis it is necessary to know some properties of the hoof’s structure (anatomy) and its tissues (histology).

Anatomy & histology

Shock dissipation and vibration damping

It is impressive how many different structures of the hoof contribute to shock dissipation and attenuation and vibration damping when the horse’s hoof strikes the ground. The sole and the soft tissues in the heel region (frog, digital cushion, hoof…
Anatomy & histologyDefinition

Subclinical and low-grade laminitis

A subclinical condition has no recognizable or measurable clinical manifestations. Oddly enough the term ‘subclinical laminitis’ is often being used to describe clearly visible, diagnosable signs of laminitis such as a stretched white line, a flaring hoof wall and laminitic…
Anatomy & histology

Hoof wall growth

Hoof wall growth is an amazing process. The hoof wall continues to grow throughout the horse's life without the close connection with the coffin bone suffering from it. The hoof wall slides down over the coffin bone. There are two complementary theories…