Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hello Carrie,

The article did not say it was wrong to have matching hooves. It said
matching hooves with unequal coffin bone angles can cause problems.
You did the right thing getting x-rays because that is the only way to
tell if you have unequal coffin bone angles. What you did was not a
mistake at all, just expensive...ugh. Hopefully your x-rays were done
with all the frog tip and heel markers and toe wires. Those things are
needed to determine how the coffin bone is sitting with regard to the
existing toe horn and hoof plane and sole thickness. Make sure you get a
copy of the x-rays.

Redden's second to last paragraph and I quote: 
"Significance Most light-breed horses will have a bone
angle around 50-51°, but variations of up to 15° can occur between feet
on the same horse. Matching feet with such different bones can cause
unwarranted problems (see "The Myth of Matching Feet" on page
82)."

His paragraph says to me that most light-breed horses CAN have
matching hooves and most will measure 50-51° . BUT if a hoof seems way
off then get x-rays and determine the coffin bone angle because
variations of up to 15° can occur, then trim that particular hoof
accordingly. Basic common sense stuff.

Don Huston



At 01:47 PM 7/22/2008 Tuesday, Kitley, Carrie E Civ USAF AFSPC 30
MDSS/SGSLF wrote:
> That's a very interesting
> article.  If we could just convince all the ride vets of this, then
> we wouldn't get pulled for being a little "off"?  I just
> spent a bundle on x-rays and diagnostic imaging and a
> "specialized" farrier, trying to get my girl's feet all even
> (she was low on one heel, but it never seemed to bother her much), and
> now I'm wondering if it wasn't a mistake.  She's now having some
> minor back pain after riding this weekend, that she never suffered from
> before.  I'm so frustrated I could scream.  I sure wish our
> furry friends could talk!  Sometimes I think I'm doing the right
> thing by her, and then I get more information and question what I've just
> done.
>
> Carrie Kitley
> 30th Medical Group, Vandenberg AFB
> DMLSS Database Sustainment Specialist (DSS) 
> CACI International Inc 
> www.caci.com
> dsn 276-1077, Comm (805) 606-1077
> fax dsn 276-1179
> <\_~
>  // \\
>
> carrie.kitley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [
> mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> firedancefarms
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 1:40 PM
> To: ridecamp
> Subject: [RC] hooves
>
> This is an excellent article from the horse.com
> Here is a quote from part of it.  I think it will ease a lot of
> worries!
> The rest of the article is:
> http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=7630
>
> Most horses do not have perfectly matching feet. Why? Often, the shapes
> of the coffin bones inside them are very different. When the bone angles
> vary by up to 15°, is it any wonder that the hooves are shaped
> differently? 
>
> Matching hoof angles when bone angles are significantly different has an
> inherent risk of causing unwarranted lameness because the forces within
> the foot are drastically altered. 
>
> If you try to make feet like these match externally, you might create a
> lameness problem. It's a mistake to think that forcing one to match the
> other or making both conform to a vague standard will make them
> healthier. A horse's feet can be perfectly healthy and functional at very
> high levels of competition without matching each other or some
> "perfect" standard. They just have to be in equilibrium with
> their internal structures to stay "happy." 
>
> --Ric Redden, DVM, with Christy West 
>
> Louise Burton
> Firedance Farms Endurance Arabians
> http://pages.prodigy.net/firedancefarms
>
>
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Don Huston
donhuston @ cox .net
SanDiego, Calif