I started shoeing a horse a few months ago and both stifles lock up bad. He has a fairly low angle and dumps his toes off. The feet were in pretty bad shape but they're coming around. The angles are still low. I got a call yesterday and the vet says she wants me to trim the inside of the hoof lower. Unfortunately there is no foot to trim to make it lower. So I'm going to meet her today so we can discuss it. Has anyone had any success getting stifles to not lock up anymore? I've never had any luck with it.
That ended up being a false alarm! It was the vet that wanted the balance changed it was the chiropractor. She thought if I just took two light swipes with the rasp to the inside of the foot all would be good. The vet and I decided since the locking seems to be improving with each shoeing that we would just leave it alone.
Since you've only worked on the horse a few times you probably need like 6 months for the horse to develop a new baseline.
I agree. I keep gaining a good amount each time. Last time I should've made new shoes because the feet keep tightening up and needs a smaller shoe but they still looked brand new and couldn't bring myself to do it. He has a zero or negative angle from what I can tell without xrays. It's getting better with each shoeing. And the stifles appear to not be locking quite as much. I should be able to make some good improvements the next shoeing. I doubt shoeing is going to get the stifles to stop locking up but it will be interesting to see how much it helps just getting the feet back in order.
Ohhhh, if the guy woud've just grabbed something out of the box it would've been better. Everything came around fine but it's going to take some time for the integrity of the wall to grow down.
trying to keep stifles fom locking is futile. could be due to fitness, osteo concerns and lack of good farriery in the past. decent results have been seen with mild to servere lateral toe extensions and cross fired toes. wedges can help.
I'm going to look into some of this in the next shoeing or two. The feet were a mess and are just about in order now.
If it is upward fixation of the patella, I've seen a vet inject Hormones (Estrogen, I believe) into the area (Ithink it was injected into a muscle, not into the joint itself). It helped the horse.
I wedged the horse up a good amount and the locking stopped for the most part. Owner said the horse improved in all areas of training.
My wifes Reining horse developed a locking stifle after my wife gave him an enforced vaction from work following her breaking two ribs. The Vet, who is an excellent horse only vet, and I took X ray etc and found nothing wrong. I even pulled his plates, no change finally she told me just to work him in the round pen. I worked him for a few minutes at a time to start with and gradually he stopped. I did some research afterward and found that the lack of muscle condition can cause the stifle to lock. So on my own horse it was conditioning or loss of it from lay up.
