Hello,

         Another weekend goes by. Hope everything is going well for everyone and their horses. It’s been a pretty good week for me, more people finding my materials and calling me out to work with their horses. I’m continually astounded by what I see in the field on how horses feet are worked on and how they become lame. I guess I take it for granted others know how to do things right but then find out just how wrong I am to assume such a thing.

         I was called out to a ranch on the California coast highway that for the past 17 years I had always wished I had clients, it’s a horse rental ranch right in Half Moon Bay, and I was to just replace a shoe that a horse had thrown. While there and meeting the new client another woman showed up and approached me, we discussed her horses as well. I didn’t know but the horse I was putting the shoe on was her horse. She asked me what I thought of the shoeing that had been being done on the horse and I had to tell her it was just not all the way correct “ wasn’t bad “ just wasn’t right.  What she told me was the Farrier had come out for the first time and made all 8 of her horses lame.  “SIGH”!!! 

        I just don’t know how Farriers stay in business with that kind of performance. The point I’m trying to make is this type of thing is everywhere. 

        The photo below is from another new client out in Half Moon Bay. This horse has “Laminitis “– the horse foundered. Laminitis is no joking matter; when it happens it affects horses in differing degrees of severity. Any way you look at laminitis it’s a devastating problem. In the most severe cases the coffin bone rotates so severely the point actually punctures the bottom of the sole and the coffin bone itself will be exposed. I have not personally seen such a severe case but have seen and worked on severe enough cases where the whole bottom of the sole is laced with bloody tissue.

        The photo below – because the horse has laminitis it becomes extremely important that shoeing and caring for the horses foot is all the more important to be done correctly. The laminitis causes lamina separation, the sole drops, the bony column slides downward in the hoof capsule, deep flexor tendon stretch occurs and coffin bone rotation. With the lamina separation come the forward extended toes as seen in the photo which unless addressed correctly will cause more rotation to the coffin bone increasing pain and further issues to the horse. 

        What the photo makes somewhat clear is how the integrity of the lamina is destroyed. That’s why the white line is much thicker at the toe than at the sides. As already mentioned when laminitis sets in and the white line falls apart the fleshy part of the foot inside the hoof slides downward through the hoof. You can see the black rotted slits in the white line as the destruction has taken place, integrity of white line destroyed.

        What caused this horse to Founder was overfeeding; it was getting 12lbs of grain per day and much lush pasture grass along with full rations of alfalfa daily. I was told there was so much feed available in the stalls it was becoming bedding for the horses to lie on.

        Let’s get on to the shoeing side of things here.  

        The problem this horse was having is the Farrier was not addressing the length of toe in this Laminitis case. The length of toe stops the foot from breaking over and with the destruction of the white line already at the toe that’s exactly what this horse does not need. When the foot sticks to the ground (due to excess toe) as the horse is walking the body of the horse keeps moving forward but the foot stays on the ground stretching the deep flexor tendon further rotating the coffin bone. Severity of Laminitis is often referred to in terms of how much the coffin bone has rotated by “Degrees of Rotation”. The more severe the laminitis the more degrees of rotation so obviously rasping the toe back in this case was essential yet not being done by the previous Farrier. 

        It would never hurt to roll the toe of either the shoe or the hoof of a horse with laminitis. Doing so will help the foot break over sooner reducing the stresses and coffin bone rotations as well as the destruction to the white line. To cut to the chase now the photo shows exactly where I placed the shoe and then rasped the entire extra toe off the horse. The white line then became exposed on the outside surface of the hoof wall. The red line in the photo is how far to the rear I placed the shoe.

        The sole of this horse was healthy and showed no signs of laminitis other than the white line separation. There wasn't even any bruising at the tip of the frog which happens frequently in these cases.  Sometimes in these cases you’ll find large pockets and traces of blood throughout the whole bottom of the sole. When that happens you can press the sole with your finger and it will flex severely and the horse can feel pain – so padding or silicone injections under a pad become necessary to protect the bottom of the foot.

        I would like to impress you that horses are and can be very extremely sensitive animals to all differing degrees. Some can tolerate incorrect things with their feet while others may not. So two horses standing side by side with the exact same type of shoeing might have two different consequences – one comes up lame the other not. The point is you don’t want to risk it either way. Horses need to be shod correctly or the chances of you having a permanently lame horse go significantly up.

        Shoeing horses correctly is actually a very complex process taking into consideration many aspects of the particular horses’ anatomy. No two horses are the same. Each horse taking and requiring specific changes made to the particular characteristics of the horse. The moment you leave out one single aspect of the process you’re increasing risk. If you love horses as much as I do, well, I don’t think any of us can afford the risk.   

       Ok. Check the photo out below, get a better feel for things and I’ll see you next time with more important aspects of shoeing to prevent lameness.

       Have a great coming week.  Don't forget, you can get ahold of me for any horseshoeing consultations at no cost to you - that's "Free"    (-:      But while time lasts so hurry up ...    John@Care4Horses.com  

happy and safe riding and always remember to www.Care4Horses.com 

John "the foot doctor" Silveira 
john@Care4Horses.com