SoVa Hoof Care

11/18/2024

Rain after a long drought means there’s lots to exfoliate. I love when there’s a beautiful baby frog hiding beneath a raggedy, so ready to shed, old frog. These pieces peel right off when they’re ready. I left the sole for nature to exfoliate as I knew this horse would appreciate that. Overall a nice looking healthy TB foot! 🐎

11/16/2024

“We need to start reducing the heel height on that boxy foot”

If you take the feet in isolation I’d agree
If we consider the whole horse I would disagree

These high - low horses are busy trying to compensate for what they have going on both skeletally and with soft tissue

There always (IMO) needs to be a combined approach - skilled bodywork, orthotic intervention if needed and targeted exercise

My personal order of information and influence surrounding this

Dr Kerry Ridgway
Farrier Moses Gonzales
Farrier Jim Crew of Healthy Stride
And of late some amazing nerve release from equine physio Yasmine Stuart

11/15/2024

Horses are born with about 3-4 inches of tooth root to last them their lifetime. Around age 25, depending on dental care throughout the horses life, the teeth will begin to expire. This is why it is critical to be conservative when making adjustments in the mouth. Over floating can result in premature expiring of teeth.

11/15/2024

So thankful for a bit of rain to break the drought. Here are a few of today’s trims. Have a great weekend! 🐴

11/07/2024

Trying out the Easyshoe Roller on a beautiful QH gelding. A little back story - earlier this year he had arthroscopic surgery to remove bilateral OCD fragments from the extensor process of P3. At his latest follow-up appt the surgeon was elated to see such improvement in his soundness and hoof morphology. However, after performing radiographs, the surgeon requested shoeing to further accelerate the breakover and I chose to use the Easyshoe Roller for this application. We are looking forward to seeing him and his owner have fun in the show ring soon. (Next time using black glue for a sleek application! 😉)

EasyCare Inc. Protective Hoofwear
3D HoofCare
Jim Blurton Farrier Products

11/06/2024

There are two ways to determine if your medication dose is correct with a PPID equine. One is by careful monitoring of the horse's physical symptoms. More accurate (but more costly) is by monitoring the level of the hormone ACTH with blood tests. Whichever manner or combination of the two used, you should closely monitor physical symptoms and whenever you see an increase in physical symptoms, consult with your veterinarian about dosage adjustments. For more information on treatment for PPID, see https://ecirhorse.org/pergolide.php for

11/06/2024

Looks can be deceiving, so here is your reminder to check for wall separations when picking your horse’s hooves. Most people would have picked out the collateral grooves beside the frog and left it at that. Hey, I’m glad you’re picking the feet but what would you have missed?
These small resected pockets at the toe pillars were actually quite deep and infected with black crumbly gunk. Also note the black line in lateral quarter. This is white line disease. Early intervention means this won’t be too bad to treat if you do it now and stay on top of it. Wait too long and these infections can get deep, make your horse lame and be a real challenge to treat and can get costly. Also beware if your horse has toe cracks, deep wall cracks or has chronically chipped/broken walls, you can go ahead and assume there is a microbial component involved there too.
WLD has been a problem for a lot of horses on the East coast this summer/fall. Next time you see your horse do a thorough picking and check with your farrier if something seems off.

09/26/2024

A lot of people initially balk at the idea of a 4 week schedule, however given enough time and a few trims to see results, they will insist on 4 weeks and not going any longer. 😉

This!! Captured by PR Consultant Farrier Ashley Gasky, while attending a vet conference in Saratoga this week. From Dr. Michael Savoldi— correction, Ashley said it was Mike Wilderstein. Too many awesome Mikes in podiatry, LOL!

How much equine hoof distortion could be avoided altogether if people didn’t try to push the trim window?

09/25/2024

Back in April, I had been contacted by this gelding‘s owner who was seeking a change in hoof care management. In March, the gelding had surgery to remove bilateral OCD bone fragments adjacent to the P3 extensor process in the LF and RF. His shoes were pulled prior to surgery, and the post surgical recommendation was to bring the toes back and improve upon the phalangeal alignment.
Needless to say, we are pretty ecstatic about these changes in just five months! Not only are his feet looking better but most importantly he is moving and feeling great!

09/24/2024

Trimming the hinds to better proportions on this mustang mare with a case of bilateral SDFT contracture. This flexural limb deformity causes the fetlocks to be very upright and in more severe cases the fetlock will knuckle forward.
In the case of DDFT contracture, the resulting morphology would be anything from a broken forward HPA to varying grades of club feet.

09/03/2024

Foal day 😍 Trims for Maddox, a 5 month old Gypsy Vanner c**t, and Dreamer, a 4 month old QH c**t. Thanks Chiefla Stables Horse Training for doing an excellent job training them to stand so nicely.

08/01/2024

Well said!

“It depends.”

The unhelpful but ultimately most honest answer you’re going to get from an experienced professional, regardless of the area of expertise.

Someone asked me how I determine wall height when trimming…

It depends.

The amount of concavity, the amount of sole depth, the amount of ‘callous,’ the thickness of the hoof wall, the capsular distortion, even the moisture content and ‘distortion-ability’ of the capsule.

It also depends on the health in the back of the foot. I’m going to leave more to protect a compromised frog, for instance.

Then also, what type of terrain are we going to be on, mainly? How did the horse respond to the previous trim?

Sometimes we have to do more, sometimes less.

Is the horse freshly out of shoes? Transitioning from wet to dry or vice versa?

Has the previous cycle been a little too long?

The horses I trim, I also have to ride, so they need to walk off the same or better than before the trim.

I have the benefit of being able to trim more in a few days with horses on-site, so I can be conservative if needed.

If it’s a horse I won’t see for a while, I have to weigh my options carefully.

Most horses want some peripheral load on the unpigmented wall around the tip of P3 especially.

I generally reduce peripheral load on the pigmented wall if I can, but sometimes we don’t have the vertical depth of sole or thickness of unpigmented wall to do that.

There’s a reason why most professionals can’t give you a concise answer.

Because they have learned the hard way, ‘it depends.’

That takes years and years of being open to whatever the horse needs.

07/28/2024

Fancy TB feet. 💜

3D HoofCare
EasyCare Inc.

07/26/2024

07/25/2024

Mini feet 🩷

07/15/2024

I’d like to weigh-in on the notion currently being discussed which states that there is no relationship between the length of the toe and the force on the Deep Digital Flexor Tendon (DDFT). In the figure below a widely accepted model of the coffin joint mechanics is presented. The image below is shows the lever and pulley relationship between the length of toe moment arm, and the force on the DDFT.

The red circle represents the Center of Rotation of the Coffin joint, located at the distal end of P2.

The smaller blue circle depicts the Center of Rotation of the navicular bone. The DDFT rides over the navicular bone, which acts like a pulley.

The length of the Lever arm of the Toe, is depicted as a blue line marked Lt.

This relationship of lever to pulley, becomes critical for the foot to achieve breakover. Breakover is described as the moment when the stance phase has ended, and the heel just lifts off the ground. To achieve this, the DDFT muscle must contract, which creates torque around the Center of Rotation of the Coffin Joint. The longer the Length of the Toe arm (blue line marked Lt), the harder the muscle of the DDFT must work, to flex the coffin joint forward, and achieve breakover.

Neglecting to trim the toe appropriately, creates extra work for the DDFT and its muscle. A shorter toed horse will have less tension on the DDFT than a long-toed horse.

Something worth noting is that this is the model for a normal horse with healthy wall attachment. The failure to remove the excess toe on a horse with laminitis, has serious repercussions for the recovery of wall attachment during the healing phase. More on this in another post to follow.

References:
1. Evaluating Radiographs for Equine Foot Management, by Pete Healey, APFI
2. Rooney J.R., Functional Anatomy of the Foot. In: Floy A., Mansmann R.A., ed. Equine Podiatry
3. A Modern Look At the Hoof by M. Craig

07/14/2024

And the next 3 days will be a high of 98°….