Heart bar shoes are shaped like hearts. They are versatile shoes that can be used for many different foot ailments.

When a horse requires protection from excessive foot abrasion, a simple horseshoe can do the trick. However, sometimes, a regular horseshoe is not enough to treat specific foot ailments. The “heart bar shoe” or “frog support shoe” is a versatile therapeutic application that offers relief to afflicted horses from a variety of conditions. Heart bar shoes are used to treat several different diseases of the foot.

Heart bar shoes have been used for many years. John Dollar mentions and illustrates the shoe in his horseshoeing book (1898) as a “shoe with a frog plate” used for harness horses. The shoe was used successfully by skilled farriers that applied them correctly, but there was some controversy as to whether the shoe had any merit from other equine professionals (most of whom were not farriers and/or were not able to correctly apply the shoe).

The shoe became more “mainstream” in 1984 when Burney Chapman and Dr. George Platt, DVM presented at the AAEP meeting. Burney Chapman used the term “heart bar” shoe because the shoe resembles a heart when turned upside down. Chapman and Platt helped a lot of laminitic/foundered horses with their combined farrier/veterinarian approach. Professional farriers and veterinarians have seen great success with the shoe as a therapeutic treatment since. What was once considered “radical” by some is now widely used as an acceptable and successful treatment.

Heart bar shoes work on the principle of shifting the weight from affected areas to the frog. The hoof wall is designed to bear the weight of the heavy horse, but in some instances, the hoof wall can become damaged so much that it is painful for the horse to stand on it. Some examples of this include: laminitis, founder, quarter cracks, contracted heels and corns. A horse with laminitis hurts in the front half of the foot where the connecting laminae from bone to hoof wall is inflamed. Applying a heart bar shoe so that the frog takes some of the weight instead of the affected hoof wall at the toe causes a horse to feel better so that the injured area can heal. The frog plate can also stabilize the bone column within the foot and prevent further sinking of the coffin bone (in cases of founder).

Quarter cracks may be so severe that when the horse puts weight on the foot, the two areas on either side of the crack rub together or come apart and cause discomfort. The heart bar shoe transfers weight to the frog and the farrier will often rasp the heel (called “floating the heel”) down so that the injured part of the hoof doesn’t come in contact with the shoe. Polyurethane patches to stabilize the crack usually also accompany this treatment.

A horse with corns can be treated with a heart bar shoe by “floating” both afflicted heels so that the shoe rests on the front half of the foot and on the frog in the back half of the foot. The shoe acts as a protective barrier between the afflicted heels and the ground. Now the injured area is allowed to repair itself without interruption of further damage caused by weight bearing. Horses with contracted heels (that may not even be in pain) can benefit from this same type of treatment as well, but the objective is to allow the foot to expand.

The heart bar shoe should be used as part of a larger treatment plan. In many cases, the veterinarian should be involved to treat the horse medically at the same time that the farrier treats the horse mechanically. Most of the time, the heart bar shoe is a temporary treatment. It is used to transfer weight until the horse can grow a stronger, healthier hoof. The only time this may not be true is if the crack that is irritating the horse originates in the coronary band—the source of new growth. If the coronary band is affected, the hoof will likely never grow back to normal and in these rare cases, a heart bar shoe may be needed for the duration of the horse’s life (or as long as the ailment bothers the horse).

Heart bars are a useful treatment plan that any competent farrier should learn to make and apply. They can be made from straight bar stock or by welding an insert into a machine made shoe. Both methods of building the shoe are acceptable, but care must be taken to get the fit just right. To learn more about how to fit heart bar shoes, read our blog, “Fitting Heart-bar Shoes”.

The late Dr. George Platt, DVM was a strong advocate for the heart bar shoe. He and Burney Chapman successfully helped a lot of sick horses. At one of our Farrier Focus conferences, Dr. Platt advised to use the heart bar for several different cases. A farrier would ask a question and Dr. Platt would say, “I’d use a heart bar shoe for that…” After about the third or fourth consultation, he added, “I love the heart bar shoe. I sleep with one under my pillow!”