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Re: [RC] high heel/low heel, asymmetric shoulder - Barbara McCrary - Kitley, Carrie E Civ USAF AFSPC 30 MDSS/SGSLFThere are many cases where what Barbara describes is true. Much of it does depend on the skeletal structure. The question is, what exactly is causing the low heel? If your horse just simply has a lower heel on one side, that's one thing, but if you were to have x-rays and found that the coffin bone has a negative rotation, you would likely want to fix it with farriery and it CAN be done as long as the farrier is working along with your vet, sees the xrays and is familiar with this type of corrective work. My mare had high/low syndrome and we attempted to go bare for awhile, hoping it would correct itself. Turns out (with xrays) she had a negative coffin bone rotation. She ended up injuring the digital flexor tendon while barefoot which resulted in level 2 lameness due to the low heel. Sometimes a low heel can result from an issue with the diagonally opposing hind leg, i.e. arthritis, etc. Also, it could be that the heavier built shoulder on that side is what's causing the low heel, not the reverse. We're all asymmetrical in some ways and like people, some horses are just built that way and for them, it's normal. JMHO :) Carrie One of my best endurance horses had a high/low syndrome and he was fine until farriers tried to "fix" it by wedging shoes, etc. Eventually he went lame in his later years and I suspect had we left him alone he would have been fine. It was what he was used to, probably since birth. Had there been correction before he was 6 months old, done by corrective trimming, he might have turned out differently. But then again, it might have been his skeletal conformation rather than just his foot. I'm uneasy about trying to correct a high/low foot syndrome when the horse is fully mature. My experience and opinion only, your results may vary. Barbara Carrie Kitley 30th Medical Group, Vandenberg AFB DMLSS Database Sustainment Specialist (DSS) CACI International Inc, www.caci.com DSN: 276-1077 Fax: 805-606-1179 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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