WO2004107857A2

WO2004107857A2 - Plastic horseshoe

Info

Publication number: WO2004107857A2
Application number: PCT/NL2004/000397
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wilhelmus Johannes Gerardus Suijker
Original assignee: Suijker Wilhelmus Johannes Ger
Priority date: 2003-06-05
Filing date: 2004-06-04
Publication date: 2004-12-16
Also published as: NL1023607C2

Abstract

Horseshoe made from a flexible plastic, comprising an annular sole element (2) , which is shaped so as to match the sole of a hoof of a horse, having walking-surface parts (5, 6, 7) located at the front, to the sides and at the rear, together delimiting a central cutout (3), and a bearing wall (9’) which extends substantially without interruption along the walking-surface parts (5, 6) located at the front and to the sides and projects obliquely upwards. The bearing wall have a differentiated profile. The walking-surface parts (5, 6) and/or the bearing wall (9’) may be provided with gluing chambers (20), and the walking-surface part (7) located at the rear may be provided with at least one narrowing (8) for connecting the walkingsurface parts (6) located to the sides to one another in such a manner that they can move resiliently towards one another and away from one another.

Description

Short title: Plastic horseshoe

The invention relates to a horseshoe made from flexible plastic.

The prior art has disclosed a very large number of variants of horseshoes of this type. For example US-A 3,494,422 shows a plastic horseshoe which is intended to be glued to a sole of a horse's hoof. The horseshoe comprises a profiled, horseshoe-shaped sole element. A bearing wall which is positioned obliquely upwards is provided along part of the peripheral edge of the sole element. Once it has been glued into place, the bearing wall is intended to bear against the hoof. Those parts of the horseshoe-shaped sole element which are located to the sides are connected to one another at a certain distance from their free ends by means of a bridge piece. The shape and effective size of the sole element can be adapted by shortening the length of the bridge piece and reconnecting the free ends to one another by means of a metal circlip.

Drawbacks of this horseshoe are that it takes a relatively long time to fit, is susceptible to fracturing, in particular at the location of the bridge .piece, is prone to coming off the hoof, and in practice offers insufficient comfort when it is worn by the horse. This can lead to injuries.

Furthermore, US-A 3,513,915 has disclosed a plastic horseshoe with an annularly profiled sole element in which there is an oval-shaped central cutout. A horseshoe-shaped thickened portion is provided on the underside of the sole element. The horseshoe is intended to be secured to the hoof by nails.

Drawbacks of this horseshoe are that shoeing the horse is labour-intensive work, the horseshoe is susceptible to partially coming off the hoof and is also susceptible to fracturing, in particular at the location of the nail holes. In this case too, the comfort for the horse wearing the horseshoe leaves something to be desired, which can lead to injuries. It is an object of the present invention to at least partially overcome the abovementioned drawbacks and/or to provide a usable alternative. In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a user-friendly horseshoe with an optimum comfort when worn by the horse and with little risk of causing injuries to the horse.

This object is achieved, according to the invention, by a horseshoe in ■ accordance with claim 1. In this case, the horseshoe comprises an annular sole element having walking- surface parts located at the front, to the sides and at the rear. These walking-surface parts together delimit a central cutout. Along the walking-surface parts located at the front and to the sides, there is a bearing wall which is at least partially inclined obliquely inwards and upwards. The obliquely upwardly projecting part of the bearing wall has a differentiated profile in the obliqueness from the walking- surface part located at the front to the walking-surface parts located to the sides. This advantageously creates a good fit which on the one hand is optimally matched to the shape of a horse's hoof, and on the other hand enables a wide range of horse's hooves to be provided in a reliable and flexible way with the horseshoe using just a limited number of sizes of the horseshoe. The differentiated profile- of the obliqueness has proved particularly advantageous and efficient in practice, with the bearing wall having to bend open to a greater or lesser extent while it is being attached and glued in order to make space for the horse's hoof as a function of the shape and size of the hoof to which the horseshoe is to be fitted. The prestress which is hereby produced in the horseshoe is responsible for tightly-clamping bearing and partly therefore also for successful and reliable adhesive bonding.

The differentiated profile in obliqueness in particular amounts to at least 5 degrees, with the bearing wall being increasingly more upright towards the rear.

The object of the invention is also achieved by a horseshoe in accordance with claim 4. In this case, the length of the bearing wall at the location of the walking-surface part located at the front is greater than at the location of the walking-surface parts located to the sides. This too advantageously provides a fit which is optimally matched to the shape of a horse's hoof, enabling a wide range of horse's hooves to be provided in a reliable way with the horseshoe using just a limited number of sizes .

Furthermore, the object of the invention is achieved by a horseshoe in accordance with claim 7. In this case, at least one gluing chamber is provided at the location of the mutually facing wall sides of the walking-surface parts and the bearing wall. This specific positioning of the gluing chamber makes optimum use of the prestress formed in the horseshoe after it has been fitted to a horse's hoof. The wall parts around the gluing chamber are pressed in a tightly fitting manner onto the horse's hoof, while a quantity of glue is enclosed in the gluing chamber (s) , which can ensure good adhesion. This advantageously results in a good adhesive bond between the horseshoe and the horse's hoof.

This object is also achieved by a horseshoe in accordance with claim 10. In this case, the horseshoe once again comprises an annular sole element having walking-surface parts located at the front, to the sides and at the rear. These walking-surface parts together delimit a central cutout. Along the walking-surface parts located at the front and to the sides there is a bearing wall which is at least partially inclined inwards and upwards. The walking-surface part located at the rear is provided with at least one narrowing provided in a side wall for connecting the walking-surface parts located to the sides to one another in such a manner that they can move resiliently towards one another and away from one another in the transverse direction. This improves the comfort of the horseshoe when worn by a horse. The rear walking-surface part with a narrowing constructed in this way, together with the raised bearing wall, create the option of allowing the horseshoe to move with the horse to some extent when subjected to load, with the hoof being deformed during this load. This flexibility improves the comfort for the horse wearing the horseshoe and reduces the risk of injury. Furthermore, this flexibility ensures that the horseshoe is less susceptible to coming off the hoof and/or fracturing.

In particular, the walking-surface parts delimit an oval-shaped central cutout, and the narrowing is located on the side of the central cutout and is curved concavely. The central cutout and the narrowing merge into one another via convexly curved parts . This shape creates good flexibility and, moreover, is advantageously relatively unsusceptible to cracking. The narrowing and central cutout shaped in this way together delimit a droplet or lemon shape, providing good accessibility to the radius of the hoof.

The walking-surface parts located at the front, to the sides and at the rear may advantageously have a substantially uniform thickness. The curved walking-surface parts located at the front, to the sides and at the rear in this case form a substantially continuous walking surface. In this way, the entire horse's hoof is supported uniformly, and the likelihood of the horseshoe coming off the hoof and/or fracturing is reduced still further in conjunction with the characteristic features of the narrowing and the bearing wall.

Further preferred embodiments are defined in the subclaims .

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the appended drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the horseshoe according to the invention;

Fig. 2 shows a plan view of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 shows a side view of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 shows a view corresponding to Fig. 1 of a variant embodiment;

Fig. 5 shows a plan view of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 shows a cross-sectional view through Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 shows a longitudinal-section view through Fig. 4; and

Fig. 8 shows a perspective view .of Fig. 4 seen from the underside .

The horseshoe is denoted overall by reference numeral 1 in Figs. 1 - 3. The horseshoe 1 comprises an annular sole element 2 in which there is a central cutout 3. The sole element 2 can be subdivided into a walking-surface part 5 located at the front, walking-surface parts 6 located to the sides and a walking- surface part 7 located at the rear. The walking-surface parts 5, 6 located at the front and to the sides are curved so as to match the shape of the sole of a horse's hoof and have a substantially uniform thickness of more than 10 millimetres. The underside of the walking-surface parts 5, 6, 7 of the sole element 2 are designed to be planar and form a continuous walking surface or supporting surface.

The walking-surface part 7 located at the rear is designed to be substantially straight at the outer edge. A narrowing 8 is provided in that side of this walking-surface part 7 which faces towards the central cutout 3. The narrowing 8 is concavely curved. The transitions between the central cutout 3 and the narrowing 8 are curved convexly. In this way, an overall cutout which resembles the shape of a lemon or droplet is delimited by the common walking-surface parts. The cutout is designed to taper slightly in the downward direction (cf. Fig. 3) .

An integrally formed bearing wall 9 which is inclined obliquely upwards is provided along the peripheral edge of the walking- surface parts 5, 6 located at the front and to the sides. The bearing wall 9 is of continuous design. The bearing wall 9 is rounded at the ends. Furthermore, the bearing wall tapers in the upward direction and ends in a sharp edge. The height of the bearing wall 9 is more than double the thickness of the walking- surface parts 5, 6, 7. This advantageously creates a good fit for the bearing wall 9 around the horse's hoof.

The bearing wall 9 extends as far as the level of the narrowing 8. This creates good interaction between the bearing wall 9 engaging around the horse's hoof and the narrowing 8. The engagement around the horse's hoof ensures a reliable connection between the horseshoe 1 and the horse's hoof, while the flexibility resulting from the narrowing 8 means that there is no obstacle to the horse's hoof moving resiliently inwards and outwards slightly under load, for example when the horse is being ridden.

The walking-surface part 7 located at the rear continuously adjoins the rear ends of the walking-surface parts located to the sides. This too contributes to the desired flexibility while preventing the horseshoe from coming off or cracking.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 4 - 8, identical parts are denoted by identical reference numerals. In this variant, the bearing wall 9' is characterized by a differentiated profile, on the one hand in terms of its obliqueness and on the other hand in terms of its length.

The walking-surface part 5 located at the front has an obliqueness alpha of between 45 - 60 degrees, and in particular approximately 50 degrees at the location of the longitudinal section shown in Fig. 7. More particularly, the invention provides two types, one which is intended for the front hooves of the horse, with a range of 45 - 55 degrees at the location of the walking-surface part 5 located at the front, and one intended for the back hooves of the horse, with a range of 50 - 60 degrees at the location of the walking-surface part 5 located at the front. The walking-surface parts 6 located to the sides have an obliqueness beta of between 60 - 70 degrees, and in particular approximately 60 degrees at the location of the cross section shown in Fig. 6. This range may be identical for horseshoes for the front and rear hooves of the horse. The decrease in obliqueness is therefore at least 5 degrees, and is preferably gradual.

The free end of the bearing wall 9' is strongly curved and tapers to a point. This improves the bearing under prestress against a horse's hoof and prevents the horse from kicking the horseshoe off. Furthermore, at the walking-surface part 5 located at the front, the length L of the bearing wall 9' is greater than 30 mm, and in particular is approximately 35 mm at the location of the longitudinal section shown in Fig. 7. The length L at the walking-surface parts 6 located to the sides is less than 30 mm, and in particular is approximately 28 mm at the location of the cross section shown in Fig. 6. The decrease in length therefore amounts to at least a few millimetres and is preferably gradual.

The bearing wall 9' in this case has a thickness of a few millimetres, in particular of approximately 3 millimetres.

The walking-surface parts 5, 6 located at the front and to the sides are provided with a gluing chamber 20 which is recessed in the shape ^•';, 'ό.p a horseshoe. The gluing chamber 20 is located substantially beneath the bearing wall 9' extending above it.

The bearing wall 9' is provided on the inner side with a plurality of gluing chambers (not shown) which are located next to one another and are preferably formed by grooves extending in the vertical direction.

The recess 3 is designed so as to taper slightly in the upwards direction (cf. Figs. 6 and 7). Furthermore, the walking-surface parts 5, 6 and 7 are provided with a profiling 21, which is in this case formed by wavy grooves, on the underside.

The horseshoe 1 is preferably made from a polyurethane, in particular a polyol/isocyanate compound. This allows good adhesive bonding to a hoof and offers the desired combination of resilience, shock absorption and support. The material is preferably transparent and bronzy or gold-coloured.

In a variant, ceramic particles, in particular aluminium oxide powder particles, are embedded in the material. The ceramic particles are responsible for providing the horse with a good grip on the ground. Embedding the particles substantially uniformly in the material means that this antislip property is retained even in the event of wear to the horseshoe. In addition to the embodiment shown, numerous variants are possible. For example, it is possible to provide more than one narrowing, or for the narrowing to be provided at a different location in the walking-surface part located at the rear. It is also possible for the narrowing and the central cutout to be shaped differently. As an alternative to gluing, it is also possible for the horseshoe to be fitted to the horse' s hoof in a traditional way by nails, or by a combination of the two. The sole element may be of profiled design in order to provide better grip and/or better connection to the horse's hoof. The bearing wall may be designed with a vertical initial part which merges into a part which projects obliquely upwards and inwards. Furthermore, it is also possible for the entire part which projects obliquely upwards and inwards to be curved at least on the inner side. The various characteristics described and shown are preferably used in combination with one another, but may also be employed separately.

In this way, the invention provides a plastic horseshoe which is beneficial to the animal, is inexpensive to produce in a number of shapes and sizes, can be fitted quickly and ^"efficiently and is reliable in use.

Claims

1. Horseshoe made from a flexible plastic, comprising: an annular sole element (2) , which is shaped so as to match the sole of a hoof of a horse, having walking-surface parts (5, 6, 7) located at the front, to the sides and at the rear, together delimiting a central cutout (3) ; and a bearing wall (9' ) which extends substantially without interruption along the walking-surface parts (5, 6) located at the front and to the sides and at least partially projects obliquely inwards and upwards, characterized in that the part of the bearing wall (9') which projects obliquely upwards, in obliqueness, has a differentiated profile from the walking-surface part (5) located at the front to the walking-surface parts (6) located to the sides.

2. Horseshoe according to claim 1, in which the part of the bearing wall (9') which projects obliquely upwards has an obliqueness (alpha) which is between 45 - 60 degrees with respect to the horizontal at the location of the walking-surface part (5) located at the front.

3. Horseshoe according to claim 1 or 2, in which the part of the bearing wall (9') which projects obliquely upwards has an obliqueness (beta) of between 60 - 70 degrees with respect to the horizontal at the location of the walking-surface parts (6) located to the sides.

4. Horseshoe, in particular according to one of the preceding claims, made from a flexible plastic, comprising: an annular sole element (2) , which is shaped so as to match the sole of a hoof of a horse, having walking-surface parts (5, 6, 7) located at the front, to the sides and at the rear, together delimiting a central cutout (3) ; and - a bearing wall (9' ) which extends substantially without interruption along the walking-surface parts (5, 6) located at the front and to the sides and at least partially projects obliquely inwards and upwards, the length (L) of the bearing wall' (9' ) being greater at the location of the walking-surface part (5) located at the front than at the location of the walking-surface parts (6) located to the sides.

5. Horseshoe according to claim 4, in which the length (L) of the bearing wall (9' ) decreases gradually from the walking-surface part (5) located at the front to the walking-surface parts (6) located to the sides.

6. Horseshoe according to claim 4 or 5, in which the length

( ) of the bearing wall (9') is greater than 30 mm at the location of the walking-surface part (5) located at the front and is less than 30 mm at the location of the walking-surface parts (6) located to the sides.

7. Horseshoe, in particular according to one of the preceding claims, made from a flexible plastic, comprising: an annular sole element (2) , which is shaped so as to match the sole of a hoof of a horse, having walking-surface parts (5, 6, 7) located at the front, to the sides and at the rear, together delimiting a central cutout (3) ; and a bearing wall (9') which extends substantially without interruption along the walking-surface parts (5, 6) located at the front and to the sides and at least partially projects obliquely inwards and upwards, in which at least one gluing chamber (20) is provided at the location of the mutually facing wall sides of the walking- surface parts (5, 6) and the bearing wall (9').

8. Horseshoe according to claim 7, in which the bearing wall is provided, on the inner side, with a plurality of gluing chambers which are located next to one another and cut out in the form of grooves .

9. Horseshoe according to claim 7 or 8, in which the walking-surface parts (5, 6) located at the front and to the sides are provided, on the top side, with a gluing chamber (20) which is cut out in the form of grooves, in particular a gluing chamber (20) which is cut out substantially in the shape of a horseshoe.

10. Horseshoe, in particular according to one of the preceding claims, made from a flexible plastic, comprising: an annular sole element (2), which is shaped so as to match the sole of a hoof of a horse, having walking-surface parts (5, 6, 7) located at the front, to the sides and at the rear, together delimiting a central cutout (3) ; and a bearing wall (9) which extends substantially without interruption along the walking-surface parts (5, 6) located at the front and to the sides and at least partially projects obliquely inwards and upwards, in which the walking-surface part (7) located at the rear is provided with at least one narrowing (8) provided in a side wall thereof for connecting the walking-surface parts (6) located to the sides to one another in the transverse direction in such a manner that they can move resiliently towards one another and away from one another.

11. Horseshoe according to claim 10, in which the central cutout (3) is substantially in the shape of a lemon or droplet.

12. Horseshoe according to claim 10 or 11, in which the central cutout (3) is substantially in the shape of an oval, the narrowing (8) is located on the side of the central cutout (3) and is curved concavely, and the central cutout (3) and the narrowing (8) merge into one another via convexly curved parts.

13. Horseshoe according to one of claims 10 - 12, in which the raised bearing wall (9) runs substantially continuously along the walking-surface parts (6) located to the sides towards the rear as far as the level of the narrowing (8) .

14. Horseshoe according to one of the preceding claims, in which the walking-surface parts (5, 6, 7) located at the front, to the sides and at the rear have a substantially uniform thickness .

15. Horseshoe according to one of the preceding claims, in which the walking-surface part (7) located at the rear adjoins the rear ends of the walking-surface parts (6) located to the sides .

16. Horseshoe according to one of the preceding claims, in which the height of the raised bearing wall (9) is greater than the thickness of the walking-surface parts (5, 6, 7) , in particular is more than double this thickness.

17. Horseshoe according to one of the preceding claims, in which the raised bearing wall (9) tapers upwards, and in particular ends in a sharp edge.

18. Horseshoe according to one of the preceding claims, in which the bearing wall (9) has a curved profile at least at the free end.

19. Horseshoe according to one of the preceding claims, which is made from a polyurethane, in particular a polyol/isocyanate compound.

20. Horseshoe according to one of the preceding claims, in which ceramic particles, in particular aluminium oxide powder particles, are embedded in the plastic material.

21. Horseshoe according to claim 20, in which the particles are distributed substantially uniformly within the plastic material.

22. Horseshoe according to one of the preceding claims, in which the thickness of the walking-surface parts (5, 6, 7) is greater than 10 millimetres.