Jack is a show jumper who has an injury of the suspensory ligament on the left front. When the horse arrived here from out of town we found problems in the right front. First picture is radiographs the day before the first shoeing Second picture is radiographs after the first reset at four weeks Jack is now sound and about ready to start some riding.
Very nice, Jeff!. Its interesting that there seems to have been some major remodeling of p3 during the four weeks between the two sets of rads. Why did you radius the lateral branch?
Thanks Rick, the lateral side of that foot was jammed up a bit still. In my mind, if I lowered the profile of the shoe some and helped him with some break over there that might be enough to get him sound. Also there wasn't enough foot to acheive the medial/lateral balence I was looking for so I put it in the shoe. It seemed to pay off. He went sound on the lounge. I can't figure out the coffin bone either. I questioned that myself.
Would the disparity of depth in the colateral grooves be a reliable guage for the coffin bone imbalance on the xray? Or could other pathologies have accounted for the collateral groove disparity? Is that (the collateral grooves) one of the things that guided your trim? How did he get that way? Bad trim? I ask cause the hoof wall on your picture (nice) shows no grooving in the new growth at the coronet. Which would mean this imbalance wa short lived, right?
My 3rd day of headache in a row will not let me find the correct word for "grooving." WHat I am intending to say is I do not see any iregualr "growth rings" at the coronet. The paint on the foot looks off - but it might be the periople is longer on the lateral side than the medial. But the wall itsself looks great to me. So my guess is one half or one cycle at most with the medeal lateral imbalance caused by poor trim.
OH!!! ANd now that I look again at the Xray - I can see some displacement of the lamellar shadow on the right side of the below picture. Or is is just the bone is tipped up on the left???
Oh yes - slight defect on right side of the wall - about 3/4 inch down. Periople is high on that side too. You da man Rick!
X-rays are a moment in time. Postion and distance play a big factor on what the bone is going to look like. 2nd rad appears the machine was a bit higher and better positioned, 1st appears to be shooting up towards the bottom of p-3, which would make things appear different. I have a pair of rads somewhere that were taken 10 minutes apart same foot with different machine height, you wouldn't even recognize it was the same foot. One shows significant bone degeneration, the other a very normal bone. I'll see if I can dig them up.
Are you sure its a defect? The periople width may be nothing more than how the wall was finished and other than confusing the eye, is of no consequence. Keep looking, comparing and reporting........
I think sometimes when we have been shoeing for a decade or more. Your eye gets trained to see less then a 1/16 of an inch difference . Length change gets easy to see when that is all you look for. Rads get so interesting based on the person taking them. Take the last rad. What if that horse was starting to take a step when the shot was taken ? Changes things a LOT. I think you have done a good job with what you had. I also think that you would have done just as good without the rads. What did you do different with the rads then you would have done without ?
What did you do different with the rads then you would have done without ? Great question Michael, I would have done the samething. This horse was indeed trimmed poorly. All I know is when we trotted him out he was off on the right front and now he is not. The point of this is, we had a lame horse and now we don't. We gave this horse a good trim, cut some steel and made and applied some barshoes. We did not have to go to the farrier store to buy the latest cure all horseshoe and glue. So far all he needed was a proper shoeing.
In "true show jumpers" medial displacement is common. It goes back to "not enough stability in the iron applied". the sole in the pic w/ the barshoes shows a "slick" medial side and a "flaky" lateral side. Thus not vertical depth medial and some vertical depth to the lateral. The barshoe application is good. A little putty will accelerate healing process. "shoe jumpers" need the "BIG IRON"; applying SX-8's is like peeing on a forest fire! Good Job Jeff!
Jeff, I'm not trying to be nasty or condescending but I think you're a little hasty in throwing the previous farrier under the bus. Unless he was drunk or blind, I don't believe anybody could trim that much out of level on purpose. Now, I have to give a shout out to Uncle Jaye for giving me a heads up on how to spot these and improve my technique for their management. This medial displacement or sinking could have occurred AFTER he was shod previously. When those coffins let loose; it doesn't matter who trimmed them, they sink and they go right now. You had the benefit of xrays on this horse; maybe the other guy didn't; maybe the horse wasn't having an issue on the right front yet. Nice job of managing the situation but don't strain anything patting yourself on the back. More of a heartbar and IM or partial pour in really brings them around nicely but they are never fixed/healed. Without support they will sink again. You should know, that you can go from hero to zero on a horse like this in a heartbeat. Next cycle or so, you too could be this horse's future ex-farrier .
Brian, You are most certainly correct on all accounts. As of right now this horse is doing great. I don't know much but I do know enough that it can change in a heartbeat. My appologies. If we xray at the next shoeing I will post them. If this horse declines in anyway I will add in some additional support. From what I know is that his shoes were removed just before being shipped here. I must say the history in things like this gets lost in translation. His heel was stacked up and dish at the toe. I regret not taking before pictures but hey I can't turn back the time. So if indeed he was trimmed just before he got on the bus, it didn't recieve a good trimming. I also know client/farrier relationships can be fragile. I closely monitor these situations. The parties involved in this situation support the descions I make 100%. They know I will do my very best on this case and every other case I do for them. I feel confident that I will be working on this horse as long as he is in town.
I agree with Michael, you would have seen that without xrays. That is a poor trim. Brian, I've seen this on a horse where the farrier wasn't drunk or blind, just an idjet. Whatever method he was using for getting M/L balance , it was not the right one.
Thanks for the probie response! "jumpers with credientials" will displace more than once in a year. what looks to be a "Bad trim job" is only the wear pattern of the long cycle and hard work. WOW! Another piece of home work... trim feet absoluetly level; place and aboutsuety level shoe on the trimmed foot; tell us about what you find in 5-6 weeks. Displacement will happen laterad or medial. "horses feet respond to the pressures placed upon them. whether enviromental, conformational or work related"....Me.
On your marks get set BANG!false start. Poor trim I doubt it . If the horse had a suspensor ligament injury. Then the fulcrum (sesamoid) would all so be involved to some extent in the injury.Directly or in directly . The horse will carry his weight on that limb to compensate accordingly & the hoof will in most cases compensate by making structural changes in angle. One has to read the overall injury & the results of that injury before assuming that restoring the hoof to the angles it was prier to the injury is not going to be contrary to what the limb has adapted to for compensation from that injury .
Jack Mac, this RF was one of 4 trimmed this way. The farrier was not drunk. His reason was to "fix" her splayed stance at 11 years old. This was on purpose. She has no injuries and no problems and had been trimmed M/L equal for 6 years without problems. New farrier corrected the situation.
