About

The methodology behind the tool.

Laminitis Tool is built around a published biomechanical model. The maths is not heuristic, not a black box, and not a marketing claim. This page introduces the people, the references, and the verification process that keeps the tool honest.

The peer-reviewed model. The framework behind the tool is set out in full in A Centre-of-Rotation Referenced Biomechanical Model for Prescriptive Farriery in Equine Laminitis (Caldwell, Madden & Yxklinten, Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 2026) and developed across The Equine Foot, Volumes 1–2. The centre-of-rotation datum at the heart of it was validated in a blinded MRI trial of 155 equine feet (Caldwell PhD, 2017). For the equations, constants and citations behind every output, see the Calculations page →

Note for review: publication status and a couple of source attributions are still being finalised with Mark — see the flagged items on the Calculations page and in the reference list below.

Directors

Founder · Clinical Director

Dr Mark Caldwell, FWCF

Mark is a Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (FWCF), the senior earned credential awarded by the UK's Royal-Chartered professional body for the trade. He spent more than two decades working laminitis cases at the side of the horse before formalising the compound palmar angle model with Neil and setting it down as a coherent biomechanical framework.

He is the founder of Scientific Horseshoeing Limited, the principal voice on HoofFlix, and the clinical authority behind every output this tool generates. His written work is referenced below; if you have studied equine podiatry in the UK in the last fifteen years, you have probably read it.

Founding Director · Co-author, biomechanical model

Neil Madden, FWCF

Neil is also a Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (FWCF) and a co-developer of the compound palmar angle model and its prescription pathways. His clinical work focuses on the mechanical chain from ground contact through P3 to the deep digital flexor tendon, the relationship that drives the F9 heel-elevation protocol and the rim-pad specification logic this tool computes.

Between them, Mark and Neil represent two of a small cohort of UK farriers holding the Fellowship — a research-led qualification that requires an original written thesis and a defended viva, and is awarded sparingly.

Director · Technology and Platform

Sam Fowler, DipWCF

Sam is a qualified farrier and holds the Diploma of the Worshipful Company of Farriers (DipWCF), the professional qualification required to practise farriery in the United Kingdom. His clinical background sits alongside an engineering practice in web platforms, offline-first architectures, and applied AI.

Together with Mark and Neil, he is responsible for the design of the digital platform that brings together the clinical methodologies of the cited clinicians and the physics of the forces acting on the foot: the offline-capable PWA, the maths-gate verification process that guarantees every release is byte-identical to the reference engine, the case persistence layer, the audit infrastructure, and the publishing systems that run HoofFlix and Laminitis Tool. The mathematics is real; the tool you hold is the bridge between published scientific data and your daily caseload.

Acknowledgements

No clinical tool is built in isolation. The methodology behind Laminitis Tool sits on decades of published work by clinicians and researchers whose contributions to equine podiatry shape every prescription this tool generates. We are grateful for the conversations, the published papers, and the willingness to teach.

Professor Christopher C. Pollitt, BVSc, PhD: Honorary Professor and founder of the Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit at the University of Queensland. Chris Pollitt's foundational research into the lamellar pathophysiology of laminitis, the carbohydrate-overload induction model, and the cellular mechanisms of failure established the modern scientific basis for understanding how laminitis happens. His textbooks The Illustrated Horse's Foot and Equine Laminitis: Managing the Crisis and the Aftermath are core references in the field. The clinical framing this tool operates under, what is going on inside the foot when we measure rotation and sinking, rests on his work.
Ric F. Redden, DVM: Founder of the International Equine Podiatry Center (Versailles, Kentucky). Ric Redden is the figure most responsible for the mechanical-treatment paradigm in equine podiatry: the heart-bar shoe, the four-point shoe, the rocker concepts, and the language of breakover. His AAEP proceedings papers across three decades inform the prescription pathways this tool generates. The 1992 paper on the "Modified Ultimate" and his rotation-management work are particularly relevant to what the tool computes for advanced rotation cases.
Stephen E. O'Grady, DVM, MRCVS: Founder of Northern Virginia Equine and one of the few practitioners who is both a veterinary surgeon and a qualified farrier. The F9 heel-elevation protocol he developed with Michael Steward (AAEP Proceedings 2007 and 2009) is the backbone of this tool's elevation logic; it is implemented byte-for-byte against the published procedure. His textbook contributions and ongoing clinical writing are essential reading for anyone working on laminitis cases.
Michael Steward, DVM: Veterinary surgeon from Oklahoma and the originator of the wooden clog for laminitis. Co-author of the F9 heel-elevation protocol with Steve O'Grady, his mechanical thinking around heel elevation, breakover geometry and clog support is inseparable from the published procedure this tool implements. The two AAEP papers establish the protocol; the field application is something he has continued to teach and refine.
Robert A. Eustace, BVSc, PhD, MRCVS: Founder of The Laminitis Trust. Robert Eustace's clinical work established laminitis as a treatable condition rather than a death sentence, and his 1999 epidemiological paper with Peter Cripps (in Equine Veterinary Journal) gave the profession the first robust set of outcome statistics. The return-to-use and survival percentages this tool surfaces come from that work.
Peter J. Cripps: Equine epidemiologist and co-author of the 1999 prognosis paper. Peter Cripps's statistical framing of laminitis outcomes is what makes the tool's prognosis component defensible rather than anecdotal.
Karen R. French et al.: Survival-to-discharge outcomes for laminitis cases (Equine Veterinary Journal, 2007). The tool's clinical prognosis pathway combines these findings with Cripps and Eustace to produce both a return-to-use percentage and a survival percentage for cases at the more severe end of the rotation and sinking thresholds.
Mohammed Al Naem et al.: Rocker-toe placement methodology (2020). The breakover-from-heel measurement this tool computes for advanced rotation cases follows their published procedure. A relatively recent contribution that codifies what experienced clinicians had been doing intuitively for years.
Burney Chapman, CJF: The late Burney Chapman, Certified Journeyman Farrier of Lubbock, Texas, was an inspirational figure in the resurgence of interest in laminitis farriery and the heart-bar shoe, and a direct inspiration to many of the distinguished researchers and clinicians listed here. We acknowledge his foundational influence on the field this tool serves.

If we have credited a contribution incompletely or missed someone whose work belongs here, please tell us at [email protected]. This page is meant as a sincere homage, not a closed list.

References

Formal citation list for the papers and textbooks the tool builds on. Each is implemented in the engine and verified against the reference scenarios on every release.

Caldwell, M.N., Madden, N. & Yxklinten, U. (2026). A Centre-of-Rotation Referenced Biomechanical Model for Prescriptive Farriery in Equine Laminitis. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science.
Caldwell, M. & Madden, N. (2025). The compound palmar angle model. The Equine Foot, Vols 1–2. Scientific Horseshoeing Limited.
O'Grady, S.E. & Steward, M.L. (2007). Treatment of acute laminitis: the F9 heel-elevation procedure. Proceedings of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, 53.
O'Grady, S.E. & Steward, M.L. (2009). Follow-up clinical application of the F9 protocol. Proceedings of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, 55.
Pollitt, C.C. (2008). Equine Laminitis: Managing the Crisis and the Aftermath. Saunders/Elsevier.
Pollitt, C.C. (1995). The Illustrated Horse's Foot: A Comprehensive Guide. Mosby-Wolfe.
Cripps, P.J. & Eustace, R.A. (1999). Factors associated with the prognosis for laminitis in horses. Equine Veterinary Journal, 31(5), 433–442.
French, K.R., Pollitt, C.C. et al. (2007). Equine laminitis: survival to discharge. Equine Veterinary Journal, 39(3).
Al Naem, M. et al. (2020). Mechanical principles of rocker-toe shoeing in equine podiatry.
Redden, R.F. (Various AAEP proceedings, 1990s onwards). Mechanical treatment of laminitis and rotation. Proceedings of the American Association of Equine Practitioners.
Obel, N. (1948). Studies on the histopathology of acute laminitis. Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri AB, Uppsala. The original Obel grading scale.

Citations marked with TODO comments are awaiting final confirmation of edition, page, or volume details. The clinical implementation in the tool is verified against the source procedure on every release regardless; the formatting here is being refined.

The methodology lineage

Every clinical value the tool returns is traceable to a published source. The full validation document lists every formula, every threshold, and every assertion against five engine-verified test scenarios. Here is the short version.

F9 heel elevation: Steward and O'Grady, AAEP Proceedings (2007, 2009). Heel-elevation prescription driven by palmar angle, sole depth, and rotation thresholds.
Compound PA model: Caldwell and Madden (2025). The compound palmar angle treatment combines the radiographic palmar angle with the conformation angle to derive a clinically actionable angle for prescription.
Prognosis: Cripps and Eustace (1999); French et al. (2007). Return-to-use and survival percentages derived from rotation, sole depth, and sinking thresholds.
Obel grading: Original Obel scale (1948), with the modified five-criterion (MOB) grading used by the tool's auto-computed Obel grade.
Rocker toe placement: Al Naem et al. (2020). Rocker and bevel placement at a measured distance from heel based on dorsal hoof wall angle and rotation.
Shore-A surface hardness: Derived from the Turner ratio (body weight over solar area), calibrated against the rim-pad and shoeing-surface combinations used in field practice.

How the tool stays honest

The clinical maths is the value. Every release goes through a maths-gate verification before deployment, which compares fifteen calculation and rendering functions against a frozen reference implementation. If any function drifts by a single byte, the release is blocked.

Why it matters: a clinician using this tool to inform a prescription for a real horse needs to know the maths today is the same maths yesterday. If a refactor introduces a one-character bug in calcF9, the gate catches it. If a developer well-meaningly tries to "improve" a threshold, the gate catches it.

The gate is reproducible: the script is in the repo, the reference HTML is in the repo, and anyone with the code can verify the claim in under a second.

The gate sits alongside a Playwright test suite that exercises five documented clinical scenarios end-to-end. Both must pass on every release. The current state is fifteen of fifteen byte-identical, ten of ten scenarios passing.

Relationship with HoofFlix

Laminitis Tool is part of the HoofFlix equine education platform, also published by Scientific Horseshoeing Limited. HoofFlix is the teaching content: videos, courses, webinars, podcasts, and research articles. Laminitis Tool is the clinical decision-support sibling. The two work together. Watch a Mark Caldwell case study on HoofFlix; apply the protocol with this tool the next day.

The visual identity is shared. The horseshoe mark you see at the top of this page is the same mark that fronts HoofFlix; one company, one brand, two products.

How to get in touch

General enquiries: [email protected]
Privacy and data protection: [email protected]
Security disclosures: [email protected]

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