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SURE FOOT pads for equine physiotherapy?

I have been using these pads about 3 months. I put her on them 2-3 x per week. Frankly, I don’t know if they are helping her proprioception but they have done fantastic things for her feet. She was moving well and working well before the pads and has continued to work well. I often put her on the pads while tacking up. I figured they would be something to help with her core muscling during the winter when I am not riding as much.

She has a small foot. Her front heels have always been contracted and her frogs pretty skinny and her central sulcus deep. This horse is barefoot. She has been trimmed well and very regularly since I’ve had her (17 years). She has always been sound. I do work her in boots to compensate for the rocks we have locally. She hated being shod…to the point of needing sedation so the boots have been a compromise with her. She doesn’t need them in good footing.

To the Surefoot pads…her heels have expanded quite a bit. The central sulcus is filling in. Even my trimmer that has been impressed with the progress in such a short time. She is usually on them for only 1-2 minutes at a time.

They are pricey. They get damaged easily (top cracked, foam gouged) but thus far none of it is extensive enough to affect the function of the pads.

One of my barn mates that is on a shoestring budget bought a gym pad (Amazon has ton). Many are about $60 so about 1/2 the price of a pair of Surefoot. They have some that are a bit firmer foam. Hers has held up well. The nice thing about them is you can get the whole horse on it instead of futzing around trying to get each foot on a separate pad. One can also fold the pad to get multiple layers and change the effect. I am going to order one soon and compare the effect.

My experience so far.
Susan

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I have been curious about the pads for a while. I attended a January zoom Dave Thind sponsored symposium where one of the presenters was Dr. Suzan Oakley, a Wellington Equine Sports Medicine Clinic vet. She recommended the use of the pads to wake up the small stability muscles so the big global muscles stop doing the work of stabilizing the spine. She also talk about rewiring the nervous system to break compensation patterns the body employs when hurt and in pain that remain the go to even when the injury is healed. I’m happy that I decided to buy the firm and medium pads. All 4 horses have had improvements to their posture and movement. They feel unstuck in their chests,withers and shoulders. We do single foot, double front feet, double hind feet, all four feet, diagonal feet, and same side feet, plus have done single foot stacked 2 pads. Interestingly each horse has shown different preferences to the pad arrangements offered to them. I’m going to be buying the firm slant and the squishy half rounds to experiment further.

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Thank you both for the information. I’ve been watching the videos and I find the horses’ responses to the pads very interesting. I ordered pads and will report back my own observations as well.

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Since this thread just got revived, I’ll chime in that I decided to buy some pads to experiment with on my horse. I bought the hard regular and slant pads, as recommended to start with for my horse (22 y/o with high and low ringbone, rehabbing a hind suspensory ligament injury). I’ve only had them for a few weeks and used them less than a dozen times at this point, so I can’t say if they’re doing anything substantive yet. My horse seemed unimpressed the first time I put him on them (no releases), though he did promptly fall asleep. After a few sessions I got him on both firm pads up front while it was quiet in the barn, and just let him stand in the aisle. He started licking and chewing, head drooping, and got to the point where his knees were buckling a bit (not normal for him). He does seem to walk off nicely after he’s been on them. This is a horse that has some odd postural issues going on due to a combination of conformation and on-off front end lameness from osteoarthritis, so I’m hoping to help mitigate a little bit of those at least.

I’d appreciate any tips/insights from others using these! I’m not sold on the slants yet…he doesn’t seem to care for them at all. I am thinking of buying the firm (regular) pads next, to go “down” on squishiness level to see how he responds to those.

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LOVE surefoot pads. I use them in rehab and with the training horses. I’ve noticed increased symmetry since using them.
My friend had a mare with EPM. They really helped the mare recover and relearn how to use her body. They are fabulous and well worth the investment.

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I do think they have preferences, which can include none of the pads, to the detriment of our wallet! If you get the blue ones (medium?), you can sort of create a slant effect in how you position the foot–go more towards one end of the pad versus in the center.

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yes

Mine is still terrified of them but I’m hopeful we can get over that. The second her foot touches them she panics hard. Not surprising given her background and other challenges but there is a special type of irony watching a horse implode over standing on something designed to increase mind-body connection and create relaxation.

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Has anyone used the sure foot pads in rehabilitation for a collateral ligament injury in front hoof?

I have not, but I’ve seen them used for other low soft tissue problems. If the horse is at a place where they can at least hand walk on some variety of surfaces, I think the firm ones would probably be ok to use.