I am also interested in your position on not necessarily using pastern
angle as your guide to hoof angles. At what point do you start stressing
other leg stuctures by deviating too far from the pastern angles. There
was a study a while back on dead horse legs that indicated higher hoof
angles decreased the stress on the deep digital flexor. That stress was
instead transferred to the suspensory ligament. I may have screwed this
up. I can't find the article.
Duncan Fletcher
dfletche@gte.net
----------
> From: Tivers@aol.com
> To: ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject: Re: hoof angles
> Date: Sunday, November 24, 1996 11:35 PM
>
> In a message dated 96-11-25 00:52:22 EST, you write:
>
> << y farrier uses this theory rather
> than focusing only on the pastern angle - the angle of the shoulder,
pastern
>
> and hoof should all be the same. Any comments? Is he pulling my leg?
>
> Joyce >>
>
>
> That's a theory--but if he's not actually measuring the angles of these
body
> parts, he's not practicing the theory--just eyeballing like everybody
> else--lots of room for error. And then, the stuff I'm reading tends to
either
> discount or ignore this theory, focusing instead on other overriding
facts of
> biomechanics. Put simply--the fore feet have to get out of the way while
> keeping the horse from falling down on his nose while the hind feet have
to
> grab ahold of some turf to move the horse forward. Also, for the most
> efficient trot, the hind feet have to make impact slightly before the
fore
> feet. (George Pratt, mid 70's with many personal observations of this
truth
> since--slo-mo a video of any racing Standardbred and you'll see what I
mean.
> Positive dissociation is an absolute necessity for these animals.
>
> ti