Shape of hooves

[love4horses]

Not on the subject, but an update first:
I posted a while back about my colt's lip being ripped. After a week of it happening, it healed right up with no infection woohoo. But he now runs with the big girls 24/7 and he likes it too. He may be small, but he still has authority!

Back to my topic! My mare, Baylee, I've been wondering how correct her feet are compared to my big mare, Mystery. Mystery's feet are perfectly round, with the exception of the frog part, but Baylee's seem to be more egg-shaped. I get that from when I see her hoof prints in the ground. The farrier has been working trying to get them at the correct angle, because she has a steep angle, almost but not quite a club foot. I wished my new computer would take disks so I could get pictures off of my digital, but oh well. Any help appreciated, farrier should be out about mid month.

[Pink's lady]

Shod or unshod? Natural barefoot horses are usually slight wider than long, although the back feet are longer. Shod feet are often far too narrow.

it deoends what type she is too. TB and QH etc are usally fairly round, or slightly longer. Draft horses have VERY wide feet, often with short toes -like this

Pink's feet, showing how upright and rounded they should be (if you can see past the feathers :rolleyes:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Pinkslady/Editted%20photos%20etc/Pinksfootfrontrightsideon.jpg

Her front foot, showing that round they are, with the width greater than the width greater than the lenght
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Pinkslady/Editted%20photos%20etc/Pinksfrontfootsoleshot.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Pinkslady/Editted%20photos%20etc/Pinksleftfrontfootsoleshot.jpg

And how the back feet are much more ovel
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v715/Pinkslady/Editted%20photos%20etc/Pinkshindfootsoleshot.jpg

Also note how wide hr frogs are. She's a draft type, but still.... ;)

[Jessey]

My boy had lovely feet as a baby, the he started work and we shod him and gradually they deterioated (sp?) They went long and thin and he started to get collapsed heels. We went back to bare foot a year ago and his feet are 110 times better than they were, they are now round and his heels are correcting slowly.

I found that his feet grow quickly and getting the farrier out every 6 weeks was just too long and the toes started to creep forwards, now he is barefoot he naturally wears the feet back slowly all the time, if they start getting a bit too long I take him out on the roads (tarmac) for a walk about and that keeps them fairly trim, then the farrier comes out every 8 weeks to make sure they are still balanced etc.

J x

[eeyore]

oo those are some fab feet, Pink's Lady!! :)
look at the size of the frog on the hind!

hmm to post Ben's..
he had typical TB feet - underun, possible navicular syndrome.

Left-Fore // Side View // 04.08.05
http://epsilon.applepics.com/52/userfiles/42f2084080799.jpg

Left-Fore // Side View // 19.01.06
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/barefoottransition/455.jpg

now they actually look quite ponyish! (especially with the current hairy winter legs).

different breeds seem to make the feet shape differ quite a lot, but as long as the horse is sound and happy then there isn't a need to worry.
have a word with your farrier about it.
i can highly recommend barefoot if yours aren't already, mind! :D
especially for club feet!

[carthorse]

Eeyore do you mind me asking how he coped with the transition to barefoot? Was he sore in he field? Did you ride much? Also what type of trim are you using?

Sorry for the questions but I have a draught with poor feet. At the moment he copes very well with specialist (NB) shoeing but I'm seriously thinking of barefoot if I have another really bad spell with him. My main concern is he has very flat feet (walks mostly on his frog which luckily is large & solid!), low heels, goes hopping lame if he loses a shoe, I don't think I'd find boots to fit & I suspect he'd go through mousemats taped to his feet (he can wear through a canvas poulice boot in a day or less then smashes up the hoof :( )

Any feedback would be great as I really don't know if thiswould be worth trying. It sounds pathetic but I can't cope with a footsore, unhappy horse & so far that's put me off trying barefoot.

[eeyore]

Eeyore do you mind me asking how he coped with the transition to barefoot? Was he sore in he field? Did you ride much? Also what type of trim are you using?

Sorry for the questions but I have a draught with poor feet. At the moment he copes very well with specialist (NB) shoeing but I'm seriously thinking of barefoot if I have another really bad spell with him. My main concern is he has very flat feet (walks mostly on his frog which luckily is large & solid!), low heels, goes hopping lame if he loses a shoe, I don't think I'd find boots to fit & I suspect he'd go through mousemats taped to his feet (he can wear through a canvas poulice boot in a day or less then smashes up the hoof :( )

Any feedback would be great as I really don't know if thiswould be worth trying. It sounds pathetic but I can't cope with a footsore, unhappy horse & so far that's put me off trying barefoot.


no course i don't mind! :)
i admit it was a very difficult time for us (him And me!)
he was previously lame in trot while shod so it's not like the shoes were keeping him sound or anything.
he was hopping lame for a week or two after his first trim as we discovered he had quite a bit of bruising, and apparantly he'd been walking on his soles entirely - not his heels at all!
he was living out at the time but luckily he didn't have to go far to come into the yard for dinner in the evening - but i bet you can imagine the looks on the very "traditional" horsey women's faces!! :eek:

i didn't ride him for a few weeks while he was lame in walk, and just occasionally walked him down the track in hand to get him used to his new feet.
once he seemed sound enough in walk, i rode him only in walk in the arenas and he was fine.

we've had our ups and downs (and fair few rude comments :rolleyes: ), but they were actually quite useful - one woman made me so paranoid (about his HIND legs this time!!) that i got the vet out anyway, trotted him up on concrete, lunged him - said he was 100% sound :D
and this was the same vet that diagnosed him with navicular syndrome originally!

this was approximately 2 and a half months after we had our first trim.
not bad for a horse that even the specialist farrier himself said he would go lame as soon as the ground got hard! :p (while shod!)

when ben had his last pair of shoes fitted, the trimmer came down the next day for someone else, and so i came along and asked her to have a look and tell me more about what could be done and how he would cope, etc.

she was very helpful :)
i was Verrrrrry sceptical (sp?) about whether or not he would cope but it's Totally! worth it if you are willing to have patience, do your research, know about conditioning the feet to the ground and basically stick to your guns and know that it's going to be worth it in the long run no matter what anyone says!

p.s sorry for serrrriously long post! lol

[Pink's lady]

oo those are some fab feet, Pink's Lady!! :)
look at the size of the frog on the hind!

*pride* grew them all by myself ;). Actually, she came with feet like, never having had shoes on, nor having had anythign done to them other than an occasional trim. Which just goes to show. My consern is the lack of symmatry in them. In the photo's they've just been trimmed, but they are usually non-symetircal. Doesn't seem to cause her any trouble and she has a totally straight movement, but the front feet are definitly wider one the outer edge.

[carthorse]

Thanks eeyore :)

Much as I like the idea I think I'll keep it as a reserve plan at the moment. Despite being a big active horse with poor feet he's actually very sound with NB shoes even on hard ground (to be fair he was sound in conventional shoes too, I just couldn't keep them on!) & that is what makes me reluctant to try barefoot if he's likely to be uncomfy while transitioning. Also his field is a fair way from the stableyard & he's stabled for part of the time pretty much all year.

Having read your posts & seen all your pictures I will definately consider it if we get to the stage where he's having problems though.

[eeyore]

my trimmer says ben's fore feet are different because he favours one to the other - could that apply to yours?

[Pink's lady]

No, her feet are identical left hoof, right hoof, it's the walls of the same hoof that are non-symmtrical in relation to her frog. It's almost unnoticable when her feet have just been trimmed, but over the weeks the outer wall on each becomes much longer and flared. But her frog still wouldn't be entirely central even if the walls were horribly short on both sides -it just seems to be squint. It's never causes any problems, but I'm hoping to get a proper barefoot trimmer out soon-ish anyways. If I can find one in Central Scotland :rolleyes:

[MelanieD]

Have a look at www.equinepodiatry.net I know there's an EP in scotland but have no idea what area. Uneven wear could be because they aren't being balanced well enough when trimmed or just could be that she hasn't got perfectly straight legs so doesn't want perfectly straight feet on the end of them, can't really tell from pictures as it's hard to look at 3D feet on flat images. Wearing the toe slightly more on the outside on the fronts seems to be normal for a lot of horses.

[Pink's lady]

Thanks. I had a look on there, but the trimmer's in the Highlands which is miles away.

She's never had her feet 'trimmed' as such - all the farrier ever does is roll the edges, otherwise she just self-trims as she does a lot of road work. I'd still be interested to see what a EP thinks though, if I do ever find one

[love4horses]

I got the little mini digital out and tried to get some pics of Mystery's feet. They are not very clear, but you can tell what it is.
Fore feet
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e147/mysteriouslady/3c38296e.jpg
Bottom of the right fore foot.
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e147/mysteriouslady/pict001.jpg
Back feet... I believe that she has good angle.
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e147/mysteriouslady/foot003.jpg

You can definitely tell that she is due for a trim.