The photo shows a heart bar plate on the left and a normal racing plate on the right. Bar plates were in the news again recently through Wonderful World winning two black type races with them on during the Melbourne Spring Carnival. Respected Toowoomba farrier and racehorse trainer Wayne Nugent has forwarded another educational article on the subject to readers.

Bar plates being put on horses is always a contentious issue at this website. In fairness, during the Melbourne Spring Carnival this year, Wonderful World won two black type races in Melbourne carrying bar plates, which raised the subject again.

Since Wonderful World’s success, respected Toowoomba farrier and racehorse trainer, Wayne Nugent, has put a further article together for readers on bar plates. Wayne trains the handy Toowoomba sprinter Forever Amen. I thank Wayne for his valuable contribution throughout the year and his latest submission reads:-

There are 3 different types of bar plates which are used on race day - they are : egg bar , straight bar & heart bar .

Bar shoe: This shoe is used to move the loading from one area of the hoof to another, the transference of load is dependant upon the type of shoe and individual hoof structure.

Eggbar: Normally are used on horses with long pastern and underrun heels. This particular type of shoe acts as an orthopaedic device to alter the heel pastern axis. The aim is to redirect the load bearing to the point of where the heels should be.

Straight Bar: This shoe is utilised to stabilise the hoof capsule eg, a straight bar reduces capsular movement. Horses with quarter cracks and weakness of the hoof capsule due to seedy toe, hoof abcessess etc.

Heart Bar: Unloads the hoof wall and makes more use of the frog for load bearing support utilised for horses with Caudal Heel Pain Syndrome (Navicular Disease, corns and bruising due to contracted heels). The main objective is to reduce hoof capsule loading and transference of some of the force to the frog, which becomes utilised as a part of the load- bearing surface.

You may have noticed that Forever Amen raced in Brisbane a few starts back with a gear change to Bar Shoes this is because he had a vertical quarter crack from the coronet down caused by uneven loading. This shoe greatly helped in his rehabilitation and we were able to race him whilst in shod this way and quite successfully without any problem. Since then he has returned to normal shoeing for his last start. As I have previously stated I do not believe Bar Shoes alone are the primary reason horses do not perform at their best.