In his quest to understand the disease of laminitis, Australian researcher Chris Pollitt had to start with the normal foot, and learn how it functioned so he could find out what was amiss with laminitis. For anyone who has not seen the videotape, it will increase your understanding of current theory in hoof physiology better than any number of readings will. Both the video and the book are available through Hoofcare and Lameness and many veterinary college libraries. Dr. Pollitt's research on the normal foot shows us how and why some things go wrong. When the pastern is only 50 percent extended, blood reaches the toe by its alternate route through the dorsal branch.
Sole pressure compromises the circumflex artery's function, so no blood reaches the toe.
This is compounded when a wide-web shoe is applied with pressure. Balance remains an elusive concept for definition, but Dr. Balch feels that isolating one balance factor at a time can reveal its role in the overall picture and that the ideal combination of external conditions of the hoof capsule means balance for all the structures of the foot. David Duckett FWCF on the other hand, is lecturing around America from the converse point of view. Duckett sees the external factors as indicators of the balance of the center. He begins there and works out, while Balch implies that the center will work if the externals are balanced.