08/03/2024
Resist the Urge to Fix Everything
I feel like I need to be really careful how I word this post. Not even because it’s controversial, although it is, but because I feel like I firmly believe two things can be true at the same time and I could even see MYSELF getting into an argument if I read this post about this topic 😂🙈
Yesterday I took the day off for my birthday and had some nice down time, which is rare these days, and honestly amazing. It gave me the perfect amount of rest to get absolutely fired up about some posts on social media 😂
One such post was a friend of mine sharing some images of her now-sound horse and posting what his feet look like when he is most comfortable and moving soundly. Now, I know this horse’s entire saga of a story, and all the years of extensive diagnostic imaging this horse has had alongside corrective shoeing, joint injections, oral NSAIDs, and more, only to then be given the recommendation of euthanasia in the past due to lameness. It has taken my friend years of troubleshooting to find what keeps her horse sound and in full work- and a huge step forward in that was taking a minute to leave the feet alone. Once they were able to note his wear patterns and where he was compensating, their trim and hoofcare approach changed and they found he was much more sound and off all NSAIDs once they “listened” to the hoof more.
It resulted in an uglier hoof, a little more length, a little more flaring and deviations, but confidence and comfort over all surfaces and soundness to return back to full work for the last few years. As long as they don’t force their ideal onto his feet, he does well.
Now, I give this background because I want to emphasize that this horse has done better for years despite uglier feet. Yet the comments on her post went to downright rude… there were people telling her that her farrier was stupid and lazy and didn’t know what they were doing, there were people saying the trim was asking for heel pain and issues (which is exactly what he rehabbed FROM to now being sound), there were people laughing at her photo and her comments.. The amount of people who got absolutely OFFENDED that her horse had extra growth on his hooves… honestly, it got me defensive FOR her.
Because
1) as hoofcare providers, NONE of us have all the answers for every single horse
And
2) although an ideal may be “correct,” every single horse is an individual, and previous injury, conformation, and internal pathology can make the “ideal” impossible.
It is so easy to judge feet from hoof photos. I do it all the time without even thinking. It’s easy to look and think that XYZ horse’s HPA isn’t perfect, or their bars are laid over, or their walls don’t have uniform thickness all the way around, or the breakover isn’t as far back as we would like on “OUR” horses, etc etc etc.
But if that horse has said NO to every attempt at getting to an ideal, and has said YES to what has been done for the last few years with veterinarians even commenting on the positive changes in soundness that they didn’t think were possible, who are we to tell the horse that they are wrong?
Now here is where I want to be careful, because this is NOT AN INVITATION TO BE NEGLECTFUL. Do I constantly seek to get the hooves I work on in a better spot- asking for the foot to move towards that ideal? As long as comfort allows- 100%!
Do I have horses who clearly tell me that they want me to do something differently and that they can’t handle having nice little symmetrical feet? Absolutely.
My point in this is that we have to listen to the horse. And maybe next time you see someone post a horse’s hoof and mentioning that their horse is sound with weird feet- maybe ask some more questions about the situation instead of going all Keyboard Warrior Karen and making me grumpy on my birthday because of it.
Educating others on what we look for in hoof health is great. Tearing others down because their horse is more sound with feet you don’t like looking at isn’t okay.
Okay, I’m hoping that’s it for your regularly scheduled rants for a while 😂
Graphic shows a photo of my gelding’s “ugly” foot when he is his soundest due to soft tissue calcification, DDFT tears and impar ligament adhesions, bone spurs and navicular bone damage. Try to dictate his foot and he will tell you real quick that it isn’t okay.