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Bar Shoes

• Egg bar

• Straight bar

• Heart bar

• Open toe bar (reverse shoe)

Generally speaking, egg bar shoes provide support to the heels (palmar aspect).  This reduces stress on the suspension system of the lower leg.  They can be a great preventative maintenance for high stress performance horses. 

It is my opinion that bar shoes should be applied with clips hot fit to add mechanical stability to the hoof.  The extra torque can be a lot for the nails alone to handle, especially if the hoof wall does not have great integrity.  Another consideration is that with the additional material placed rear-ward, often the toe should be "set back" also.  Algebra comes to mind.

Egg bar

This a draft cross w/ navicular syndrome and arthritis.  The bar shoes and the pads seem to really help this guy.  In this case the bar shoes are important for protection more than the typical palmer support.  Both reasons are good and valid.

This horse has "typical Thoroughbred feet".  They are thin walled, thin soled, brittle, and tender.  When I started working on him he had a history of being tender especially when freshly shod.  I have left him a little longer and the problem is history. 

	This horse is a preliminary eventer. Notice the under-run heels and the medial heel imbalance.  The medial heel is particularly weak and under-run here and need ample support.
	He'll never know he has a problem now.  The shoe balances his hoof.
	This is the inside of the hoof and notice there is some shoe exposed.  Because he is well balanced, shoe pulling is not a problem here.  Often times, more shoe is better for keeping shoes on when it helps balance the performance horse.  It is sometimes hard to convince clients this is true until time proves itself.
	The other hoof.  An example of a good fit. Notice how the shoe nicely matches the shape of the heels.
Aluminum heart bar
	This is a handmade aluminum heartbar shoe.  Aluminum is the choice of material because steel is just too heavy when built to these dimensions.  This shoe is extremely useful for navicular syndrome, crushed or asymmetrical heels, laminitis, compensatory lameness, etc.  This is a very difficult shoe to make and fit properly.  A lot of experience and education is necessary to do it right.

Savana:     Aluminum heartbar