Correctly trimmed/shod hoof

[Bebe]

Hi

The new yard that I'm on has a resident farrier that comes out each week and shoes both the sales horses and livery horses as needed. I've looked at the results of his shoeing on many of the horses and don't like what I see. The hooves are incredibly upright, to the point of almost looking club footed. It doesn't look right to me but I'm getting a lot of talk about how Bebe's feet are too large (I thought we wanted decent weight bearing feet not little ballerina hooves) and she needs her heals raising.

I've no intention of changing my farrier for the yards farrier, or of having her heals raised. However, I would like to get hold of a couple of pictures of correctly trimmed hooves to have a comparison. Does anyone know of any on-line resources that I could print off a picture from?

Hopefully any pictures will show hooves that look like Bebe's and I can show the people who are telling me this and they'll shut up!

Thanks
Amanda

 

[ponyvet]

i can't show you any photographs but I can explain to you what you're worried about. Horses feet have a natural shape and every time they grow or are trimmed that shape changes. Ideally the horses foot should be kept to as natural a shape as possible. This makes sense as horses were designed pretty well (I think!).

The way vets and farriers assess this is by using a concept called hoof balance. You draw an imaginary line down the pastern from around the centre of the fetlock joint, when the line hits the coronary band drop another line down to hit the ground at right angles. There should be 50% of the weight bearing surface of the hoof in front of the line and 50% behind. Horses which have more in front are called long toed (or broken back hoof axis). These horses balance more of their weight on their heels compared to their toes and as a result the heel drops down towards the floor. I HAVE SEEN MANY HORSES WHICH ARE LAME BECAUSE OF THIS.

Some farriers like to give horses short heeled shoes, which actually brings the axis forwards and causes even greater problems. In fact the horse should have longer heeled shoes to help spread the weight more evenly ( I know they can pull them off but sorry!). The horse should also have his toes trimmed back to reduce their length and can also have a heel wedge put on if he is particularly lame, to ease the problem in the short term.

In addition the heel surface and toe surface of the hoof should be roughly parallel

The pictures below show:

1. Long toed horse
2. Ideal horse
3. Short toed horse (not at all common)
4. Ideal horse with short heeled shoe on

Ask Wally for more info as Wally is training to be a good farrier.

By the way, it sounds like the farrier on your yard is right, horses should not have hooves like dinner plates, they should have tight hooves (obviously some horses have larger feet than others) and should be more happy with them trimmed properly. You wouldn't be comfy walking on shoes with your heels hanging over the end would you???

 

[Bebe]

Hi Ponyvet

Thanks for your reply, it's very helpful.

I don't think horses should have hooves like dinner plates either but some of the horses on the yard are huge ID crosses and have tiny, tiny feet. Apparently the hooves were larger before but this farrier has trimmed them down to be smaller. That's what seemed odd to me, surely the feet should be in proportion to the horse - big horse = big feet (within reason)? They are trimmed as in the picture labelled no 2 but just seem really small and upright in comparison with other horses (this farrier actually seems to trim the livery horses in a different way to the sales horses, they aren't as blocky looking).

Bebe's toes are probably a little too long from comparing with the pictures but she is due for the farrier on Monday so that's probably why. It wasn't the yard farrier who commented on her toes, it was a someone who was just hanging around the yard. She has been stumbling (she always has done though, she has had problems with a sacroiliac injury and has only been back in work for approx 6 months) and I am wondering if shortening the toe a little could help. I can't remember if she still stumbles straight after being shod or only when she's coming up due for trimming.

I'll take your pics along and compare them after she's been trimmed. I am happy with my farrier and have never had any problems with him so am not looking to change, just wondered about the difference between how he and the yard farrier sem to do things.

Thanks
Amanda

 

[Wally]

Every horse is different, their bone structure will be different and just because he's ID doesn't mean he has to have "splatty" feet. Cob types often have upright, boxy, "pert", for want of a better word, feet.

We have a 13.2 haflinger and a 13.2 Icelandic, both M&M breeds, both with similar bone, both hairy and hardy and about the same weight. Haffy has 5 and a half inch feet, Icelandic has 4 and a quarter inch feet. no comparison. This particular Icelandic has incredibly concave feet with very upright hooves and long, deep heels. It would be tempting to try and alter this to a more accepted angle, but to do this would make him lame by putting undue pressure on his joints and tendons.

The farrier who is teaching me tells me to just look at what God gave each horse at the end of each leg, then if possible and beneficial, moslty beneficial, improve on it never try to radically alter it.

But I have to say my eyes have been opened, before I looked at a horse's feet and saw 4 hooves, Now I'm being taught to recognise different things it's like a whole new world opening up.

 

[KarlR]

Amanda,

There are quite a few articles over the months in the usual magazines (Horse, YH, H&R, etc) which have illustrations. If you ge stuck let me know (but they're all in boxes right now as you might guess).

If you fancy spending a week or two (literally) reading about farriery you can refer to http://www.horseshoes.com/advice/advcclms.htm#1 which is an excellent list of published papers on the subject.

One that includes a couple of diagrams is http://www.horseshoes.com/advice/balancingnormalfoot/balancingnormalfoot.htm but I don't have time to search for more.

If you are happy with Bebes feet though try to ignore them!

 

[Bebe]

Hi

Wally, thanks for the helpful info.

Karl, cheers for the links, I'll check them out during one of the endlessly boring moments at work! I am happy with my farrier but upon reflection do think that Bebe's toes are too long. Of course, she's due for reshoeing on Monday which could be why but I'm going to have a word with him about the stumbling she does as I'm pretty sure he'll be able to give me some advice (even if it's nothing to do with her feet).

Thanks!
Amanda