When given the opportunity to write about shoeing a normal foot, my first move was to discuss the topic with a well-respected colleague, who quickly asked me “Jeffrey, what is a normal foot?” Naturally, I began to reflect on my daily work, thinking that most of my feet were fairly “normal.” But then I thought about the question more and came to the realization that almost all of my so-called “normal” horses present me with some type of a conformational or structural challenge that I am constantly striving to improve.

The heart bar shoe, as analyzed by Burney Chapman and Dr. George Platt at the 1984 American Association of Equine Practitioners meeting, was said by Dr. James Coffman of Manhattan, Kan., to be “a major advance in the management of laminitis...because it is based soundly upon the vascular anatomy of the foot.”