06/09/08

Hello , John TheFootDoctor here.  Lots going on lately right ?

The May Hand Forged Horse Head Hoof Pick winner is :  Bridget McGraw in Antioch , Congratulations Bridget.
Bridget is a client of mine, she has the horse Zeus that had the quarter crack. She'll be leaving to Switzerland for school , i hope she's able to keep her horse till she gets back.  Keep your fingers crossed.

This is really simple - here at Farrieritis we give away one of these hand forged horse head hoof picks that you see below per month , all you do is leave your name and physical mailing address , ok ?  just leave your name and mailing address at John@Care4Horses.com and you're entered until you win. Do it !  Now   (-:  
 

                                                        

I have a client who found me through a recommendation from her friend. Without going into much detail her horse was almost lame and we decided to shoe the horse using the methods you've been discovering here. In a very short time her horse became sound again much to her delight - the horses too , however the friend that gave the recommendation in the first place remained with the farrier she had been using.  OK , so i get a call from her (the one that gave the recommendation) that she thinks her horse needs help as it's just not the same anymore and asked if i'd look at it. I did and the horse was not right . Apparently the horse was being corrected for pigeon toes using the ole industry standard methods that just don't measure up to safe shoeing practices . Her horse too was in trouble.

The long story short is the medial ( inside ) hoof wall was being trimmed short so the hoof/foot would rotate and force the foot in a less pigeon toed manner. Doing so puts the coffin bone in an unnatural position , in this case the horse was feeling the pain. With continued use the horse could very well have come up permanently lame. So we leveled the foot , moved the toes back , gave the horse heel support with a slightly longish shoe , put the shoes on so they balance the foot and practically overnite her horse is drastically improved , here is her email / update to me . 

                "  Hey John, Had to let you know how my ride went last night. I'm not sure how you did this, but my horse was "springy". She was so soft every stride felt like I was landing on a pillow. I'm still in shock! I will give her today off and try her again on Saturday.
THANK YOU!! Hope you are enjoying Grass Valley, and not working too hard!
Patti  "

               isn't that nice ? 
Ok you know me and i'm not known for pulling many punches on this site , i'm a farrier right - you know how we are  (-:         Well one of the issues Patti had for waiting so long to look into an alternate farrier was the distance i live away from her barn and my availability and once she were to leave her farrier she probably wouldn't be returning and this caused her to worry for a replacement farrier that would be at least as good as the one she was using ( my opinion of course is he wasn't very good in the first place - sssssssh i didn't say that ). I could tell Patti was in a spot so i spoke the truth and told her she wouldn't have much problem finding another farrier anyway that would most likely be able to do a better job ,  that's all Patti needed to hear, she decided to use my services right then and there ( we shod the horse that nite ) and now her horse is doing much better.    There's a moral to this story and you know what it is , i don't want to bore you and get long winded about it.   My perspective though is , this is just another example of many of how relying on a farrier and not your own understanding of shoeing / educating yourself can lead to disaster.  You and i are trying to put a stop to that aren't we ?   hope so.    

So here's what happened to Pattis horse.  Follow along , i'll be quick . The photo below is a level foot - it's so easy to tell it's level , well , because the hoof's gone !!! That's the rear view and you can see the wings at the sides which is the coffin bone. But that photo is where you want to be with your horse when it's feet are trimmed , nice and level. 

                                                                
Supposing this is a left front foot, Pattis horse was being trimmed with the right side of the foot /hoofwall shorter than the left side. The coffin bone no longer level and binding the joints.  OK i'm sure you understand this , the problem is how do you really make sure your horse's foot is level if you cover those bones up with hoof wall and are no longer able to see the joints. Look at this next photo . Does that foot look crooked ? the red lines are different lengths side to side - the heels look different , but i promise you this hoof is level ! When this foot is on the ground the bones and coffin bone are level (just as in the photo above) and this horse is optimal for level. I use a method to visually level a foot and every XRay i've seen of horses i have shod show the foot as truly level - but i need to get to the point.

                                              

There are farriers that would look at this foot and use the hoof as the guage of a level foot and even the lengths of this hoof wall side to side and length of heels (and change everything) while completely missing the point of level joints. It's sad - but that's what was happening to Pattis horse. There are gimmicks out there / tools that measure length of heels from the toe that tell you to simply keep cutting foot off until the length of the heels are the same while never once talking about bone alignment which just simply cannot be ingored - again - Patti's horse is the prime example of what happens when bone alignment is ingored. There's so much more to this shoeing puzzle but i need to start somewhere / here , with one of the most important aspects , the problem i have is this is the most difficult aspect to explain how to get the foot level in text format - So i'm going to get another video on here for you that will be very clear, how to establish a level foot , you will never again be at a loss for knowing if your horse is level or not and you'll not have to leave your horse at risk of lameness ever again from this perspective just as in Patti's case.

I was just at another horseshoeing blog a couple days ago while researching pigeon toed horses and the Expert was teaching the typical "Old School" method of lowering one side of the foot - teaching this stuff - YIKES !!!!! - please don't you buy into that , and don't let your farrier either ok ?       So i'll be back with a video.

till next time , happy and safe riding and always remember to www.Care4Horses.com 

John "TheFootDoctor" silveira   

PS.  you can get consultations at no cost to you - that's free . Get ahold of me personally simply go to my email   John@Care4Horses.com  , send me photos of your horse whatever you need. Limited time basis.