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Re: [RC] high heel/low heel, asymmetric shoulder - Truman Prevatt

Lauren - wonderful response and right on the money. You won't fix it and the asymmetry is coming from the foot not the shoulder. I have a 20 year old Arab and we became a "decade team" in '06 and we are still going. He has this asymmetry and shoeing cycle is extremely important as is the length of the toe. For him natural balance shoes - which do a good job of managing the break-over point work well for him.

Kerry's article is very good in that it explains the foot asymmetry ripple up the entire leg causing the shoulder with the higher heel to be back behind the other should blade - causing the illusion of the other shoulder being bigger.

Truman

Lauren & Allan Horn wrote:
Sandra,

You will never be able to "reverse" or "fix" your horses shoulder asymmetry. You will just be able to manage it. The shoulder asymmetry is caused by the hoofs and where the arm bones are located. You will also find that one shoulder is more forward then the other one. In my opinion 95% of this is genetic. (Quit breeding arabians with asymmetrical feet - a lot of top stallions have this and this is considered "common" and normal" among many people. That's a another subject!!)

A good farrier is important. Because of the faster growth of high heel you will need shoeing cycles that are between 5-6 weeks. You do not want to let that heel get too high and stretch your shoeing cycle. Depending upon the severity of your low heel you may want to consider a wedge shoe on that hoof, but it is very important to keep that toe short.

Dr. Kerry Ridgeway has an excellent article on this syndrome and shoeing tips. You may find it by Goggling it. There are also other articles, and one even deals with leaving a rear toe longer to compensate for the uneven stride of the front. Information, research, articles and opinions are out there you just got to search for it and start experimenting.

Also just make sure you ride balanced and don't favor diagonal positions when posting or leads when cantering.

Many horses with this condition have made good endurance horses. Like I said it is a management issue.

Lauren




--

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." H. L. Mencken


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Replies
Re: [RC] high heel/low heel, asymmetric shoulder, Lauren & Allan Horn