12/12/2024
Serious question…Are you making choices for your horse based on lived experience… or predjudice?
What if your experience was limited? Or what if your opinion on an intervention was unfair and unreasonable; formed without enough thought or knowledge? This is prejudice.
Let’s consider hoof care. It is not the tool which is the problem but the manner in which the tool is used.
You could switch out the word ‘tool’ with ‘trim’ or ‘shoe’ or any manner of intervention designed to improve the well being of a horse.
If you asked a barefoot trimmer about farriery and shoes, they might tell you shoes are harmful.
If you asked a farrier about barefoot trimming, they might tell you barefoot is harmful.
If you asked me, I’d say “domestication is bloody hard, go ask the horse”.
But we cannot. Instead we can document, study, measure, objectify, assess, observe, question with curiosity, and read the horse, and hoof, to learn what the evidence and being in front of us might tell us.
But not if we are prejudice or closed minded to new information and ideas.
Shoeing has its place. Especially in the winter. But only if it improves or maintains healthy morphology and therefore balance in the hoof and therefore the horse. For one cannot truly exist without the other.
Test your knowledge of modern farriery and podiatry now. Rank the 4 lifelike illustrations of the same hoof, shod and trimmed 4 ways, from best balance to worse, and state your reasons why you made the decisions you did.
Let’s say it’s a freshly shod hoof, and the shoe is a modern lightweight acrylic glue on shoe. It’s December, and the horse is turned out every day for a few hours on a muddy field, and a stone track and dry lot with rubber matted shelter at night.
One day your horse might be in trouble and the best intervention might be a shoe - so knowing how a tool should be used, when to use it, and knowing how to assess the application of an intervention might serve you and your horse very well!
I will respond with my answers on Sunday night 🙂
Here’s my review as promised, posted 10pm GMT 8th December :
1. Highest scoring hoof is bottom right. 5/10 due to the correct placement of the shoe. The base split is 50:50 around the COR post trim. This means the base split will creep forward towards the toe during the cycle. The split should be no further forward than the POB (larger green line bisecting the coronet line) and in this morphology, where there is a broken back hoof pastern axis and long toe/low heel pre shoe, the shoe should extend to the back of the heel. This ensures adequate caudal support and optimum base proportions during the cycle of growth.
The use of a wedge is to create phalangeal alignment and this, along with the trim and base split plus shoe length which extends to the heel bulb, will create optimum balance - meaning there will be equilibrium between forces experienced on the tendons in the lower limb, helping to protect from strain on the ligaments and tendons and ensuring the hoof is loaded correctly during mid stance. The pink material is dental impression material or other hoof packing, conforms to the underside and caudal hoof, supporting even and appropriate load on all the surfaces of the hoof. This helps with promoting healthy morphology (form + function).
In the winter, horses can spend extended time on soft surfaces such as mud, turf, and even sand in turnout areas, and they can also spend extra time on hard surfaces such as stables, and hard abrasive turnout surfaces, or during road work. Both hard and soft surfaces must be met with a hoof which has optimum balance, as described above in a horse with this hoof morphology. Without this, there will be uneven sinking on soft ground, and uneven load on bone/joints, dynamic tissues and soft tissues *ligaments and tendons and also fascia, laminate, hoof capsule, and blood, nerve and lymph vessels*. Uneven load will also occur on hard surfaces, creating unnecessary wear and tear. This is occurring in the other 3 hoof examples.
Correct hoof balance will help create ideal hoof morphology, and together, this will help facilitate healthy posture and development of the horse. This will have a positive impact on the load on the hoof, balance and hoof morphology.
This hoof will grow well with minimum distortion because of the balanced load and will rehab quickly, and could potentially be barefoot and well developed in the spring.
During the winter, shoes can really help this hoof morphology, but only if the trim, and shoeing package are appropriately applied and to the correct cycle. Too long between cycles and the hoof will run forward as it grows, and the heels will become overloaded as the balance is disrupted.
If this horse is otherwise reasonably health and mature, with neutral spine and adequate development as appropriate for riding, I might score this horse 5/10 and therefore fit for low intensity and duration riding exercise.
2. The second highest scoring hoof is top right. This has close to straight HPA, largely due to the wedge and thoughtful trim, however the shoe has incorrect base split at the COR (55:45), and the shoe is too short. In soft ground this hoof will sink in too far in the heel and place too much load on this area on all surfaces, and on the suspensory and flexor tendons. The coffin joint and navicular region will be under additional load also. This will increase the risk of trauma, injury and lameness, as well compensatory posture and development and increase the wear and tear, fatigue and pathology risk anywhere in the body.
There isnt any caudal hoof support, encouraging the caudal hoof to migrate between the shoe. This, along with inadequate base proportions and length, will encourage the hoof to run forward, creating distorted wall, bars, frog, and heel. Over time it might start to look like the examples on the left…
This hoof scores 4/5… for now… I wouldn’t ride this horse due to the risk of injury and lameness.
3. Top left and bottom left - both poor balance and will encourage distortions, pathology and compensatory posture - they are both equal at 3/5.
The top left has been dumped in the toe so this will impact morphology and create distortions - see the distortion in the wall, with event lines and a distorted coronet band? The heel is under run too and the hoof lacks appropriate vertical depth. There is a broken back HPA, so lack of phalangeal alignment. The caudal hoof, frog, sole and heel isn’t adequately supported due to the open heeled shoe, lack of wedge and 3D support, and the base proportions are incorrect for balance. In soft ground the toe will sink into the ground and there will be increased load on the suspensory and extensor tendon. This will lead to bracing and compensatory posture, as well as disrupted biomechanics. The horse is a risk of injury and lameness. I would not recommend riding this horse.
Bottom left also has a broken back HPA, inadequate depth, and unhealthy base proportions. Similar to the top left, there is inadequate support for phalangeal alignment, the caudal hoof and sole is inadequately supported and there is distortions in the wall and coronet band. Like the top right, the heel will sink in further than the toe on soft ground, and the heel will be over loaded on hard ground.
In all 4 examples, the morphology and balance afforded by the shoe and the influence of this on the posture and biomechanics of the horse will either continue to maintain, support or reduce the health of the hoof and the horse as one influences the other.
In every case, the balance can be quickly and easily recognised, if one looks and has the knowledge to understand this, and an intervention chosen to best suit the horse in its environment.
It is not the tool which is the problem, it’s the manner in which it is made. Horses typically don’t have s**t hooves naturally, they are the victim of poor decisions.
My advice? Objectively measure the hoof and horse, identify the morphology and balance, and apply an appropriate intervention to optimise hoof morphology, balance and healthy posture and development of the horse, as befitting the environment the horse lives and exercises on.
For support and a thorough review of your horses hooves and posture, browse our comprehensive and compassionate services: https://www.holisticequine.co.uk/book-a-service
Learn more about hoof mapping here: https://www.holisticequine.co.uk/pro-active-hoof-mapping-for-lameness-prevention-in-horses
Learn more about the impact of winter and surfaces on hoof balance and how to recognise horses at risk of lameness: https://www.holisticequine.co.uk/event-details/winter-hoof-and-horse-care-how-to-keep-horses-safe-sound-during-winter-months
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