Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Okay, I've read this thread for a while, and your lastest post sort of rang a bell for me.  Is this horse, by any chance, a little over at the knee?  The hoof conformation you're describing sounds exactly like what I see in horses with this conformation "fault."  If you touch the sole, you get a sore horse.  If you try to leave the heels, they crush.  There's a really good reason for this:  a horse over at the knee needs more toe to keep his knees from buckling.  Every horse uses his toe to keep his knees solid when standing and also to have enough time on the ground for forward momentum.  When you take off too much toe, the horse starts to show sore because his knees are "breaking" far earlier than they should.  Ideally, when watching a horse walking from the side, the shoulder should pass over the knee before the knee bends and breakover occurs.  When trimming horses with this fault, I try to leave some toe, don't
 touch the sole except to keep the frog from "welding" into the sole, and keep the heels back.  When shoeing, which is usually a foregone conclusion with these guys because they just simply don't have the wall and sole for barefoot, I do pretty much the same thing, follow the shape of the white line and use the frog as "center" as much as possible.  Many of these fellows also appreciate a leather pad.