Australian scientists are helping horse-racing canter into a new age, with stylish footwear to boot.

Researchers at CSIRO have developed a new method to make sure the shoe fits, digitising the hoof and printing horseshoes from titanium.

A horse dubbed 'Titanium Prints' will be the talk of the stables, since getting outfitted with the soon-to-be-trendy 3D-printed footwear.

The hip purple treads are not just for fashion purposes, they have serious scientific benefits too.

In recent years most horse shoes have been produced from aluminium, each weighing around a kilogram. Rendering the shoes in titanium leads to dramatic weight losses on the hooves of the equine sprinters.

“Any extra weight in the horseshoe will slow the horse down. These titanium shoes could take up to half of the weight off a traditional aluminium shoe, which means a horse could travel at new speeds,” says trainer John Moloney

“Naturally, we’re very excited.”

The CSIRO team have applied futuristic techniques to the feet of the world's oldest transporter. Each hoof is individually scanned and modelled in high-resolution 3D, before a set of custom shoes is tailored to each one. The procedure takes just a few minutes, is completely painless for the horse and can produce a set of bespoke horseshoes in a matter of hours.

CSIRO’s Future Manufacturing expert, John Barnes, says 3D-printing a racing horseshoe from titanium is a first, and demonstrates the broad range of applications for the technology.

“There are so many ways we can use 3D titanium printing. At CSIRO we are helping companies create new applications like biomedical implants and even things like automotive and aerospace parts,” Mr Barnes said

“The possibilities really are endless with this technology.”