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Lynne, good article.

There is only one thing I have to ask...not for me, but for others with "know it all" farriers/horseshoers...how do you go about getting them to correct their mistakes? 

I went thru a number of horseshoers, knowing things weren't correct with our horses feet. None were willing to listen to me, and continued as they wanted.

I started taking care of my endurance horse, but the rest had to suffer. Luckily, I now have a farrier that not only works with me, but is also very much into teaching me things I didn't know and learning more about the bare foot.(not looking for a shod or unshod debate here folks  :)  )

Some people just don't have the opportunity to shop around for a good farrier, and have to make do.

What can they do?

 

Lori

Lynne Glazer <lynne@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> My friend and shooting partner Cristy Cumberwork wrote this post on 
> the fuglyhorseoftheday blog today, and I feel this concise info is 
> worth sharing, am sure the content is old news to many of you. 
> Cristy's been riding competitive trail since she was a kid along with 
> her family, they manage rides, and she did take the horse mentioned 
> below to Tevis though before his feet issue had been identified much 
> less resolved. She's the editor of Hoof Print, the NATRC pub. (I'm 
> oversensitive about proper trimming/shoeing anyway, but my own 
> horse's ideally shod feet were nearly ruined while recently on trial 
> for sale, wearing shoes that had only been on for two weeks but that 
> shoer had done everything wrong--it's going to take 3 shoeing cycles 
> to fully restore his fronts, one down, two to go, though he is 
> rideable.)
>
> ---
> For those that are having a hard time with evasiveness
>  while ridden. 
> (Popping shoulders, not wanting to round) You can make sure the horse 
> is physically ABLE to do it first by taking a good long look at their 
> feet. So much bad and undesirable behavior comes from unbalanced 
> feet. Especially long toes and underrun heels and medial-lateral 
> imbalances too. Most of us just love our farriers and assume they are 
> doing the best job....... but how do you really know?
>
> Here's a few clues to look for. Get down at the foot level and look, 
> REALLY look, at the coronet bands from the front. Are they level? If 
> they are tilted then the medial/lateral balance is off and can cause 
> pain (and eventually remodel the bones too, but doesn't take as long 
> as you might think). Are there flares? Usually the pain from medial/ 
> lateral balances are not enough for the horse to show unsound (at 
> first anyway), but still.... ouch, think of the canters, gallops and 
> landing a jump!. Are there any humps or
>  curves in the top of the 
> coronet band? If there is, that is a place where there is pressure 
> pushing the coronet band up.... a spot where the hoof wall needs a 
> wee bit extra trimming or rasping to allow that section of hoof to 
> "drop". Sometimes you can have the foot "leveled" and wait overnight 
> and some of it will drop, telling you exactly where the pressure is 
> and allowing it to be rasped again before shoes are applied. 
> Sometimes all you need is 20 minutes for it to drop.
>
> When you look at your horse from the side, is there any hoof under 
> the cannon bone? If not, the hoof has migrated forward. (this 
> appearance can also be caused by long slopey pasterns, in both cases 
> the horse needs trailers on his shoe to help give support under the 
> cannon bone) Also look for a smooth unbroken line from the pastern 
> joint through the hoof. if that angle is 'broken' the hoof is likely 
> out of balance. The angle of the shoulder,
>  pastern hoof and head 
> should all just about match. I see lots and lots of 'broken back' 
> angles on horses, meaning the angle of the hoof is less than the 
> angle of the pastern and is usually accompanied (and caused by) long 
> toes, underrun heels. (X-rays will tell the truth but it's often very 
> apparent by just looking. This condition put major EXTRA forces on 
> the suspensory and other tendons and ligaments and will often cause 
> suspensory soreness that no one can quite figure out how to make go 
> away. It also puts TONS of pressure on the P2 (short pastern) P3 
> (coffin bone) joint and guess what is right under that joint.... you 
> guessed it.... the navicular bone!!!!! It can actually be squished up 
> against the joint and become misshapen by the pressure on it. Many 
> many cases of "navicular" (I use that term lightly 'cause many people 
> call the many things that CAN go wrong there by one name, including 
> vets). Just so long as you
>  know 'navicular' can be any number of 
> things happening in that particular area. Hopefully that will be 
> enough info to help you talk to your farrier (and vet) about the 
> condition of your horses feet a little. All of the above issues can 
> be corrected or helped with REAL balanced trimming, more can be 
> corrected with therapeutic shoeing except conformation but some of 
> that can be even be fixed if caught when the horse is under a year old.
>
> Horses are really pretty damn stoic, by design, and often there are 
> little things about the feet that cause pain that they don't tell you 
> about in an obvious way. They often opt for what we refer to as 
> behavioral problems, many of which are little (or big) evasions. If 
> you horses feet are properly balanced according to its individual 
> conformation, it's amazing how many of these evasive behavioral 
> issues will just fizzle away. You may not know it but if your 
> horse's hooves are not
>  balanced, they are probably slowly 
> degenerating. Hoof imbalances can impair circulation to the hoof 
> which, in turn, can cause bone and tissue degeneration, which can 
> cause more circulation issues....vicious cycle. Eventually the horse 
> can't help but show the pain and sometimes by the time he "tells" 
> you, it's too late. He gets retired.
>
> Not all farriers are created equal! Not all vets are either. (I have 
> met plenty that are clueless as to the P1, P2, P3 alignment as well 
> as lateral/medial imbalances, all of which can mold the bones and 
> misshape them and it doesn't take as long as you think.) How do I 
> know all this? The hard way. But with therapeutic shoeing, he is 
> doing much, much better and it much happier and is moving better than 
> he ever has. He will hopefully be balanced enough able to go barefoot 
> again. (One proper trim is not gonna fix it. It takes time because 
> the foot takes about one year to grow one full
>  cycle.) Lo and 
> behold, the horse that was given to me with the only half-joking 
> nickname of Widowmaker is pretty happy these days.... and guess what, 
> after 17 years of walking around like a banana shape (upside down, 
> from ears to tail) the horse now rounds himself when he works. (But 
> don't fret--he's still capable of calling out Mr. Hyde :-) but he has 
> fewer reasons to do so.) Once we balanced the feet, THEN we worked 
> on the training part. Lots of bending exercises and longeing (with 
> side reins placed as close to the withers as possible, NOT down by 
> the girth) to get him to step under and quit evading straightness, 
> and even lots of riding time cutting across hills to keep the weak 
> side uphill to force it to work. He's 23 and remolding the muscles 
> is slow but progressive. The important thing is now he physically CAN.
>
> Some cool references: Horseshoeing by Anton Lungwitz, translated by 
> John Adams (a book). The
>  Principles of Horseshoeing, 2nd or 3rd 
> edition by Dr. Doug Butler (another book) Equinestudies.org (Dr. Deb 
> Bennett, how to achieve straightness, see article "Lessons from 
> Woody" at the minimum). SustainableDressage.com (really really nice 
> section on tack as well as true vs. false collection).
>
> I hope that help some of you and your horses out. Proper balance in 
> the feet (based on the individual horses conformation, you must trim 
> the WHOLE HORSE) does not matter if it's shod or barefoot. THAT is 
> the core, whether you put shoes on or not after the balancing has 
> been done properly, fine. There is soooooo much more to the story 
> but that is a decent starting point I hope. No Hoof, No Horse.
>
> Post Script: Even since taking my horse through the process of 
> rebalancing his long out-of-balance feet, I have become intensely 
> interested in hooves. I have since gotten all my mom's horses' feet 
> balanced and we have a lot of much
>  more comfortable happier horses 
> now--and the young ones, well they aren't getting the chance to 
> become imbalanced. They are much more fun to ride and teach things 
> to! I continue to work with my vet AND farrier on other clients' 
> horses documenting the progress they are making. Many, many of the 
> clients report back that the horses are more willing and feel like 
> they are moving more free and easy especially once their long toes 
> are disposed of. My job is to watch horses, I am a pro equine 
> photographer and I go to many many events. I can't help but look at 
> feet now too, it's like an obsession and there are lots and lots of 
> horses out there with problems. Hopefully this will inspire you, the 
> horse owner, to take a good long look at your horses feet and ask 
> questions of your farrier AND vet and take the time to educate 
> yourself so you can make a good informed choices on who helps you 
> care for your horse and give it
>  longevity as well as many many 
> comfortable days doing its job.
>
>
>
>
>
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