If you stand behind the horse and look down its back the head of the scapular at the withers will probably be winged on the right side.
Thank You David! I too am trying to learn as much as possible and your answers in this thread is what they should be! And they are what this forum should be about. Learning and helping each other. Not degrading someone for trying to learn and ask questions from the better farriers on here. Lots of people seem to forget that there was a time that they didn't know the answers either.
Well said there Jacob1.. some of these feet are shaped that way from a prior trauma above..it takes a lot of time and sometimes you are not goin to get much change...IMO.. I am sure shoein with barshoes and floating the heels slowly will overtime help...maybe not tho if there is scar tissue above involved...in other words some feet cant be fixed ...BUT they can be managed.. remember and take notes of what you did and come back in 6-8 and see what affects you notice. Now days we have cell phone cameras to take so we can look back...
You could make the medial heel the same length along the buttress as the lateral heel like this - Stand in front of the horse and look at how the pastern inserts into the hoof capsule. It is offset to the inside. The coffin bone is asymmetrical in these horses - note frog is not in center of the foot - more foot on the lateral side of the frog than the medial. Medial side of the foot is disproportionately over loaded (smaller surface = higher PSI) vs. lateral side has more surface area and lower PSI. Looking at the limb front to back the bone orientation probably looks something like this - VERY ROUGH illustration.
Awesome gentleman. Thanks so much. David I will read and then reread the links you posted this weekend. My nights are a little too foggy of mind to try and take all that in. The next time I am at the horse I will try and take as many pics as possible with out scaring the owner too badly.
Jacob, it generally takes me about 6 months to a year to get one of these sorted on a stable baseline. After the hair line is straight, you will likely see a lot of changes in the sole and bars with each trim. Just remember you're dealing with an abnormal coffin joint where the pastern inserts into the hoof at a damned awful offset and twisted angle. As David pointed out, horses with this kind of hoof issue have other skeletal problems due to long term weight bearing compensation. Usually the compensation problems show up in the hind end.
Dave could you explain a bit more how a heel gets dragged up rather than pushed. Forgive my ignorance, its a new concept to me. I remember you talking about it in Scruggs thread a while a go and in that case I assumed the medial/lateral? side rotating was pulling up on the opposite heel maybe I was wrong in this I should have asked more at the time. But in this case how does the force work on the hoof if landing laterally to drag up the medial heel. Thanks....I understand if its a while before ya get back to me on this, I hear its weather for the bike or beer garden back there not sitting at a computer, enjoy
Best to fit a straight bar, preferable 3/8" x 7/8", acs putty and copper sulfate crystals would be a good addition.
Dave off to drink beer tonight, but that inside heel doesnt touch the ground with enough force to push it anywhere, if P3 is facing north in that capsule, and the capsule is pointing north east then its spun round.
So in the begining stages of correcting it as we have pictured, you are trimming to make that "hairline" the same distance to the ground on each side? Thanks.
Don't assume the solar surface of P3 is parallel to the joint surface. In other words.... P3 can sit lopsided in the capsule and the "longer" side is not always the side P3 sits higher on. This misalignment of p3 within the capsule comes from excess torsion. I think these horses when they load, tend to screw (twist) and "lock" one heel before unloading, causing the torsion.
If you treat the central sulcus with cow mastitis ointment (Tomorrow) and use a bar with a pour in pad. Preferably, Equipak with CS sprinkled liberally first, you can gain a lot of headway. Equipak with CS just doesn't have enough CS to help. Apply separately, or as Jaye mentioned, mix it in your putty.
Denise, go easy on David. He just got out of school ya know. Think of the foot as being twisted on P3 like a screw, medial toe quarter over loaded, medial heel under loaded . . . check for bruising in medial toe quarter. NO, not the distance to the GROUND! Hairline same distance to the heel points on each sides. Use calipers to check it if you have to. Don't check the foot with it on the ground. Don't try to get the bottom of the foot flat either.
I'm sorry David, other then pulling the toe back. Can you give me a brief description of what "get the capsule radius parallel p3 radius" means. Are you calling the hoof the capsule? Are you just saying to have the hoof capsule look more like P3 then it currently does? Do you folks think this hoof has 1/2 a chance of normalizing if a shoe/package is not used? The likely hood of them paying is pretty far out there. I would do it myself just for the education but I don't think I could even get them to do the follow up with the mastitis cream. I also have no idea if this old cranky horse has ever been shod. Thanks.
