Moving around the capsule…
The hoof capsule is made up of the same constituent as our hair. This was recently brought home to me at a farrier convention while a horse was being hot shod. The smell of burning hair is too distinct to not recognize. The capsule is made up of tubules that are born and grow down from the coronary papillae, and fused together by an exudate.
The capsule includes the outside wall, buttresses, and bars.
The hoof tubules are longest at the toe, getting shorter and shorter as they round the foot toward the buttress. The wall capsule makes an acute turn at the buttress, and continues back toward the toe-quarter on the opposite side of the foot. The wall tubules continue to shorten toward the natural terminus of the bar, about half way up the frog.
Looking through the hoof capsule…
The outer layer is made up of hard, pigmented tubules. Inside this is a non-pigmented layer of tubules that are softer. And on the inside of this layer, are the insensitive laminae. These three layers make up the wall of the hoof capsule. On the sole plane, the wall is joined to the sole at the white line by the exudate of the terminal papilae of the sensitive lamina on the inner hoof. This exudate is most often referred to as the white line, though it’s yellow.
