Q.I'm desperate to find some way to prevent my 20-year-old Thoroughbred mare from cutting her elbow on her egg-bar shoe when lying down. She has been wearing egg-bars on her front feet to give her a little extra support since she pulled her front right suspensory for the second time. The egg-bars themselves seem to be fine; she is going great in them, jumping small jumps, and primarily doing dressage.

My problem is that she is cutting her left elbow on the egg-bar, probably when she gets up from lying down. She has nicked the right elbow a couple of times, but cuts the left elbow quite seriously. The first time, the injury required two sets of staples, then a set of stitches, all of which kept getting ripped out. We finally let the wound stay open and eventually heal on its own. However, she's cut the elbow open twice since then.

I got a boil-boot, which she wears when not being handled, but she is still cutting herself. She cut herself for the first time shortly after she was shod with the egg-bars, so I'm sure that's what the cause is. For a brief time, my farrier put regular shoes on her and just set them back a little bit to see if that would stop the cutting of her elbow. She still managed to cut her elbow