Licensing and development opportunities
A UK company set up the Royal Veterinary College and the Institute for Orthopaedic and Musculoskeletal Science is seeking to license its proprietary carbon fibre Hoof Support Patch to treat horses with collapsed heels. The company, VetCell, is also looking for global collaborations and partnerships to further develop and commercialise the technology.
Event horses with flat thoroughbred feet and little horn growth, although not lame, suffer discomfort and have difficulties performing on firm surfaces due to collapsed or under-run heels. In 2006, Peter Day and the locomotor research group at the Royal Veterinary College developed and patented the Hoof Support Patch based on stem cell technology.
The patch is a carbon fibre composite sheet applied to the hoof wall that increases the bending strength of the hoof wall by 40 per cent, strengthening heel tubules and preventing collapse. The technology could avoid the onset of a variety of conditions such as navicular syndrome, chronic heel pain, coffin joint synovitis, quarter cracks, heel cracks and interference problems.
Endorsement for the patch comes from Millie Tonks, competitor and British Eventing accredited trainer: “The Hoof Patch Supports were simple for my farrier to apply and they aren’t too expensive either. Within a week my mare was feeling much happier. Soon her great jump was back and her dressage scores dropped by five marks. My dressage trainer is very impressed by how much better the horse now moves from the shoulder.”
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