Reconstruction (following on from losing shoes)

eml

eml

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Apr 29, 2002
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Copied from daughter FB post::

As a bit of background, earlier this year the heel collapsed on the offside fore whilst box rested for an unrelated injury- this is the wonky foot that has a poor hoof pastern axis conformationally. (And always has been an issue, horse was bought for his temperament not his feet!) Whilst box rested we couldnt trim/shoe the front as he wouldnt weight bear behind, so everything went to pot!
Have had heart bars on in the meantime as a temporary measure to keep him sound and comfortable whilst he was still lame from the hind injury. Becuase of the mechanics of the breakover point on this foot it takse him longer to get this foot up and off the floor, by which point the back foot has travelled and overreached or removed the front shoe. He was also struggling with moving his shoulder and lateral work for the same reason.
Anyway now the ground is a bit drier and he is back in proper work (after nearly 6 mths off!) it was time for a transformation!

Shoe removed

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Applying filler

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Corrected hoof pastern axis

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Quick theory lesson

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Finished after cold shoeing with natural balance shoes

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Heel support...change in balance will allow heels to grow down and improve breakover so he doesn't overreach so much

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Jimmy Choos for horses, fashionable summer wedges to sort out the problem and not as expensive as we expected.

Build up material was designed for sorting out foals hoofs and comes at a cost price of £30 a tube, I will not tell you how many tubes were used but farrier took over an hour on this one foot and did a normal (for us!) natural balance shoeing on the rest. Total cost was not much more than two sets!!
 
Interesting eml - can you keep a diary on it?

In my experience (limited) I have found shoes only make under run heels worse - with the theory being that the back part of The hoof is weak (thrushy and contracted frog usually) and to strengthen it the heel needs to make contact with the floor to simulate development. But would be fascinated to see how this helps!
 
I am not sure the leg would have stood much more at those angles. Remember it's not the foot you are shoeing it's the horse.
 
An amazing difference & I've never seen that stuff used that way on an adult horse, when I've seen similar problems they've been treated with wedges, pads & putty.

Like Wally I was a bit :unsure: about the extent of the change made in one shoeing & whether it would cause strains further up the leg. I'm no expert though & even if I was I don't know the full details of this case & haven't seen the horse myself.

Like popularfurball I'll be interested to see how this goes, I find things like this fascinating. Please can we have updates?
 
Not a massive change carthorse, the horse was already having wedges and bar shoes but because of the way he moves they were constantly being pulled off, just a hopefully more lasting approach.

To put it in context until last year he was a very successful young racehorse and so would have been shod/reshod every couple of weeks. When we got him there was an area of damage ( large dip) which we expected to grow out and give problems this year. He also had two periods of box rest with field injuries (very thin skinned TB!) during one of which we couldn't physically change his shoes, this made the problem far worse.

Popularfurball, no shoes is not an option, there is no way this horse could even stand balanced on this foot unshod let alone work! Even as TBs go this chap is extra sensitive. He also was not moving correctly and if left this would have deteriorated.

Prime example of exracehorses are cheap to buy but not cheap to keep!!!
 
Like Wally I was a bit
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I was not a bit unsure at all. The horse had a well angled leg before his box rest, this is simply restopring his leg to its proper angles to give the horse back his true conformation before his heels plopped. Wha ti meant was had he spent an awful lot longer with bad angles it would have had long term consequenses.
 
Interesting, as PFB says please let us know how this develops and how the horse gets on. What's the plan, is the intention to keep him like this long term? Has the farrier indicated if he thinks this will help the situation with the heels or is it just a case of making the best of a bad job?

Looking at the pics the thing that strikes me most is that although the angles look more uniform the apparent effective heel height on the wedged foot is now way in excess of anything the horse could or would have grown for itself. The foot appears tall compared to its partner as a result and I wonder what effect this will have on tendons, ligaments and muscles? Is he sound with this arrangement?

The other thing that would concern me is the angle of the pedal bone, it's often steeper than the hoof wall in a run forward foot, so jacking the heel up like that may be leaving it tipped onto its nose, you'd obviously need xrays to confirm that though.
 
Yann said:
The other thing that would concern me is the angle of the pedal bone, it's often steeper than the hoof wall in a run forward foot, so jacking the heel up like that may be leaving it tipped onto its nose, you'd obviously need xrays to confirm that though.
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i thought about that too...
 
Just to clarify this horse had been in heartbars to correct the angle of his feet ...he never worked (couldn't physically!!) without shoes, this first picture was just taken to show the process . The building up of the back of his foot has the same effect as his heartbar shoes, we just couldn't keep them on when he was turned out even in full boots so this much more expensive approach seems worth a try .

He has never been lame before or after, just could not be worked if he lost a shoe and as that was at least a weekly occurrence he was missing out on a lot of his competitions (does BD and ROR Performance classes).

The farrier is sure this will enable the heels to grow down and the filler will be filed off as time passes, to all intents it will act like real hoof. The farriers drawing shows normal foot and what this horses structure was doing. As a college lecturer who also does a lot of remedial work with local vets he loves enlightening us!!

The camera angle does make the feet look odd but he is level at all joints and as I said totally sound. Osteo due for routine visit so I will be interested to see what he thinks as he is an expert in TBs and their quirky ailments!!
 
Sorry eml I wasn't meaning to be "barefoot fanatic" - just simply that I've not seen an uner run heel corrected through shoeing - hence my interest to see how this progresses as an alternative to going barefoot
 
Horse has been going really well and we had entered a competition for next week, Osteo thought new foot was a great improvement but yesterday instead of their normal 4 acre field which was flooded he was turned out with his friend and 'calming influence' pony companions on the much drier 12 acre field the RS horses are normally on...cue mad gallops and lost shoe and filler.

Farrier out tomorrow to reassess.

Just to give an idea of our farrier we had him out over the weekend to reshoe my connie ready for the NPS champs where she will be jumping on grass..we asked about studs....his view...take the shoes off she will be more secure.

Interestingly she went for a hack to day with no shoes, mix of stony track, tarmac and grassland, went better than ever!
 
Blumin horse!! I don't suppose you could post more pics to show how he's coming along?
 
eml said:
Pouring with rain so couldn't do resin fill which needs to be kept dry, back for the moment in bar shoes until we get a dry day.

Connie is amazingly better without shoes ....sometimes horses are bizarre!!!
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I really hope you aren't holding your breath for a dry day eml:wink:

Like JC nothing to add but reading with interest.

Will say though that I don't think it's bizarre at all that your connie is better without shoes *takes off barefoot anorak and slinks off*:wink::tongue:
 
Fiddys foot looks so much better angles already, farrier is happy with how heel of hoof is hardening and strengthening just waiting for another dry day to redo with less filler. Will get pictures.

Connie is a strange discovery. You may all think I have gone mad but I have a theory she was so lacking development in her bone structure when we bought her and putting back shoes added just enough weight to make her slightly sore in her hocks when asked to work more from behind and therefore running away from pain. Without shoes she is back to the quiet pony I bought. Possibly totally coincidental to her maturing but......!
 
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