When I was at the racetrack vet with Tuffy, I took a walk through the "sick barn" and there was a very young Walker with those blocks fixed to his feet. Huge slanted blocks with the horse's toe pointing down. No dang wonder he was at the vet's. He was a youngster, too, probably a yearling. A vet happened to be walking by so I stopped him and said, "what the heck? Do you agree with that?" He said, "of course not."
I understand how these things happen, though. Judges will reward a certain look or action, and the trainers immediately produce more of the same. Over time it becomes exaggerated to the point of parody.
Seen it with Siamese cats, judges gave winner's ribbons to the cats with long, lean bodies and long chiseled heads . . . eventually you got cats with heads so narrow their brains had been squeezed out, and bodies so slender that they broke their legs jumping off sofas. Ditto with Labrador Retrievers - the judges went in for the stocky look, now some of them look like little beer barrels on wheels.