08/27/2025
❌ SADP and Capsular Rotation Were Wrong > Laminitis is only one part of what we are about to explain.
Why the HM Divergence Principle Will Rewrite Hoof History
This short article contains enough to change history. To change the way people think about laminitis.
But it won’t - not yet. Too many careers and reputations are tied to the old theories. Too many research dollars were spent chasing the wrong questions.
But one day, when the dust finally settles, the HM Divergence Principle (HMDP) will stand. And when it does, horses will finally be seen for what they’ve been showing us all along.
We prove it every day through consistent, successful rehabs. That was always the missing piece.
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1. The Old Stories...
For decades, the horse world asked the wrong question: why does P3 look “rotated” in the hoof capsule?
Two theories became orthodoxy:
👉 SADP - the Suspensory Apparatus of the Distal Phalanx. The idea that the laminae suspend the bone, and when they fail, P3 “rotates” or “sinks.”
👉 Capsular Rotation - the idea that the entire hoof capsule “rotates” as one piece around the bone.
Both were wrong. Both ignored the real constants of hoof anatomy.
Yet textbooks were written on them. Research papers were funded on them. Gadgets and appliances were created to “fix” them.
Horses were medicated, cut, wedged, shod - and yet, they didn’t get better.
Because the story was wrong from the start.
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2. The Trap of “Laminitis”...
Once the world named it laminitis, everything became laminae-centric.
That single word blinded people to the fact that the entire foot is distorted and traumatised. It created tunnel vision:
>> Laminae = initiator.
>> DDFT = culprit.
>> Metabolism = scapegoat.
The name itself closed the door on seeing the hoof as a whole system under strain.
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3. The Constants They Ignored...
The hoof has constants - anchors that never change:
👉 P3, frog, and true sole plane (HSP) - inseparable.
👉 The extensor tendon - fixed to P3 and the coronary band, stretched and even torn when distortion occurs.
👉 The DDFT - squashed, not pulling, under imbalance - angle of insertion altered.
👉 The coronary band and papillae - papillae follow the coronet, so when it distorts, growth deviates.
👉 Heel height relative to the HSP - not opinion, but anatomy.
👉 Hoof rings - distortion markers, not diet “event lines.”
Respect these constants and the horse recovers. Ignore them, and pathology deepens.
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4. The HM Divergence Principle...
>> What happens is not rotation. It is divergence.
>> The Sole-P3 unit is fixed.
>> The hoof wall plane is variable.
>> When balanced to compaction instead of the true sole, the wall departs.
>> At the white line pivot, the two planes diverge.
>> Torque builds, laminae tear.
>> The coronet stretches, papillae deviate.
>> Tendons are strained, joints overloaded.
>> The horse suffers.
What Is The HM Divergence Principle (HMDP)?
The pathological divergence of the variable hoof wall from the fixed Sole-P3 unit, with lamellar tearing and whole-hoof trauma as the consequence.
This principle explains what the old models never could: why tearing stops, and recovery begins, the moment divergence is corrected.
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5. Why Metabolism Was a Convenient Ghost...
Pollitt’s research made the world believe that metabolism was the root. MMP enzymes became the villain. “Endocrinopathic laminitis,” “septic laminitis,” even “supporting-limb laminitis” - all wrapped into one metabolic story.
Why? Because biochemistry leads to drugs. And drugs sell.
But even Pollitt admitted later:
MMPs are downstream, a response to trauma.
Blocking them did nothing to prevent pathology.
He had no hoof-care histories for the horses he studied - meaning the story began two-thirds in, at the x-ray, not at the trim.
This is why “laminitis” became a ghost disease: a metabolic label with no consistent proof in rehab. Horses didn’t recover because MMPs were controlled or diets were changed.
They recovered because the hoof was rebalanced.
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6. Why the Trigger List Never Made Sense...
Because the models were wrong, the profession was left chasing correlations instead of causes.
Grass sugar, frosty mornings, obesity, Cushings, sepsis, retained placenta, supporting-limb overload - the list of “laminitis triggers” grows longer and longer.
But if these were true causes, then controlling them should have ended the problem. It hasn’t.
Decades and millions spent, and the horse world is no closer to fixing a problem it will never fix this way.
Because they were never triggers. They were correlations. The cause has always been the same: divergence driven by imbalance in hoof care.
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7. The Psychology of Looking the Other Way
Why does the profession cling so hard to “triggers”?
Because if the problem is in the grass, or the weather, or the owner, then the professional isn’t at fault. The horse becomes the problem. The owner becomes the problem.
This is the psychology of deflection:
"It can’t be the trimming - it must be the sugar."
"It can’t be the balance - it must be the breed."
"It can’t be us - it must be them."
But the horses tell the truth. Rehab after rehab proves that when divergence is corrected and the hoof wall starts growing in on the same plane as the fixed sole, the supposed “triggers” vanish into irrelevance.
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8. Beyond Laminitis...
“Laminitis” was always too narrow. It reduced a whole-hoof trauma to one tissue.
But divergence affects everything not just the laminae:
>> Laminae torn.
>> Coronet stretched.
>> Papillae deviated.
>> Sole compacted.
>> Tendons squashed and torn.
>> Joints strained.
>> The horse’s mental health eroded.
And it goes further: the same imbalance underlies what have been boxed off as separate “diseases” - navicular, white line disease, seedy toe, ringbone, sidebone and more.
They are not separate mysteries. They are all part of the same picture: pathology born of divergence.
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9. The New Language...
It is time to retire “laminitis.”
We name the mechanism:
👉 The HM Divergence Principle (HMDP).
We name the condition:
👉 Hoof Divergence Syndrome (HDS).
A neutral, universal term. Not a “disease” to be medicated, but a syndrome of imbalance and divergence - encompassing the whole foot, across all ungulates.
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✨ Closing
HM is working hard with Gawsworth Track Livery to bring you rehabs in real-time.
SADP was wrong. Capsular rotation was wrong. Laminitis is wrong.
The textbooks, the funded papers, the gadgets, the appliances, the drugs, the endless “triggers” - none of it saved horses. Because none of it addressed the real cause.
The truth is divergence. The hoof wall departs, the constants remain, the horse suffers - until balance is restored. Then the horse recovers.
This should change history. One day it will.
HM.
Image shows 3 different views of a set of sequential x-rays of the left fore of a gelding, showing increasing severity of Hoof Divergence Syndrome (HDS) - caused by imbalanced hoof care.
Stop Hoof Divergence Syndrome in your horse - forget the word laminitis - there's far more being damaged than the laminae - join The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health
