Years ago, Myron McLane realized that many farriers had difficulty applying heart bar shoes or lacked the necessary experience or equipment to effectively make them. And since a misapplied heart bar shoe can have potentially dangerous ramifications, the International Horseshoeing Hall Of Fame farrier from Somerset, Mass., spent years developing an easy-to-work pad that performs the same weightdistributing functions as a heart bar shoe, yet works with open or egg bar shoes.

On the market for 3 years, the Myron McLane Full Support Pad supports the bony column of the hoof, redistributing the weight from the hoof wall to the frog.

“There have been a lot of other so-called frog support pads on the market. But I don’t call this pad a frog support pad — it’s a full support pad, because it actually supports the bony column, much in the same fashion as a heart bar shoe,” says McLane. “Frog support pads do not provide the same type of support — in other words, the pads do not bring the frog in contact with the ground.”

The pads, available in small, medium and large sizes, are also designed to treat horses with quarter cracks, laminitis, road founder, pedal osteitis, underrun heels and white line disease.

“The reason I designed the pad is because it’s much more user-friendly and handy than making or modifying a heart bar shoe,” says McLane. “Anyone who knows how to shoe horses can put a pad on, but few people in the overall big scheme…