Horses which get laminitis/founder fall into three general categories. We could call these categories, or groups; survive without help, survive with help and don't survive. Survive merely means alive and ambulatory. the "quality" of the survival is another matter. The first group is the largest. Better than 60% of horses which experience laminitis/founder fall into this group. The remaining groups are roughly the same size at 20% each. These numbers are not varifiable. No meaningful statistics are kept on laminitic/foundered horses. We arrive at these numbers through personal experience. It's remarkable how similar these reports are around the world.

These groupings are extremely important. The largest group survives with or without our intervention. Often individuals in this group survive in spite of our help. This is very important to understand. This is why it is so difficult to determine therapeutic efficacy. Horses which respond to Sunflower Seed therapy, Classical Music therapy, Acid Rock Music therapy, Charcoal therapy, Seaweed therapy, HBS therapy, Cold Hydro therapy, etc. all belong to this group. Because individuals in this group ALL survive no matter what, if any, therapy is used we find this group less interesting then the second group.

The second group contains those which respond favorably only to timely efficacious therapies. These horses will not survive unless they receive specific therapy at the appropriate time during their disease. This and the third group I find more interesting than the first.

The third group contains those individuals which die no matter what is done for them.

I make no argument with any therapy that saves a horse. I urge any out there whose horse is not responding to whatever therapy to give careful thought to seeking out someone who is trained and experienced in treating horses in the second and third groups. Theses are the people who impact the size of the hole.

You see, in the population at large the 60,20,20% rule rules. If your horse falls outside the 60% group you will need to find someone who change that formula for your horse. remember that statistics do not apply to the individual. If your horse is going to die, then for him it will be a 100% death rate.

I am part of the Northwest Laminitis Center. At the Center we use our understandings of anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, and physics to treat our horses. For us (and many others) these understandings have produced the best results for the greatest number of horses so far. Most of the horses that we see have not responded to received therapy so far. We address the medical issues as best we can, but our focus is on the hoof. Basically we remove dead and distorted hoof tissue and "Fix" PIII into its normal anatomical relationship with the remaining hoof and follow the progress of the new hoof wall as it grows back, leaving the horse with a normal healthy hoof.