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Re: RC: Re: barefoot



Hi Abby

Just wanted to respond to the below post, it was me that posted about needing more heel.

<First, someone mentioned that she acquired a new horse and had to shoe her to "get some heel on her."  I think that this may be the root of at least some of the disparity between what "barefooters" and "shoers" are saying. Horses with shoes tend to have much higher heels than horses without shoes, so I think that there is a difference here in what people are used
to seeing from looking at shod horses.  I think that the reason a lot of horses wear their heels down is because they are SUPPOSED to have low heels.  We artificially jack up their heels with shoes, and also
artificially leave the feet way too long (when barefoot, they would chip off to shorten them, and this chipping is another reason people often think a horse needs shoes). So people are used to seeing feet that may in fact be too long, so when the horse wears his feet or gets trimmed short, it looks really scary to people used to seeing shod horses or barefoot "pasture ornaments".>  
I didn't give more info on that post.  I'm growing more heel out on the advice of my vets and a very good farrier.  This mare was a pasture ornament, brood mare, and when I bought her, she was way out of shape.  We started conditioning very slowly.  About a month into the riding (walking only) she hurt her fetlock joint (running around in her own paddock) and there was a tremendous amount of painful pressure on her tendons and ligaments. On the advice of my vet, a second opinion from another vet (an Internationally known leg man who kindly took this on), and my farrier, we added elevation to the heels to take the pressure off her tendons and ligaments.  We have slowly been lowering the wedge (every 7 weeks) while growing out a little more heel.  Both vets and farrier agreed she did not have enough heel. I'm not looking for straight up pasterns, I'm not looking to grow a tremendous amount of heel, but she had "none" when I bought her.  With lots of time, support from both vets and farrier, her feet are finall
y shaping up.  Her heels are also spreading, and she's going up to the next size shoe at her next appointment.

Judy :)  Just wanted to clarify.



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