David not sure what you are asking I use them when they are needed. Had a young foal at clinic that needed them so she got a pair hope to leave them off when we recheck in 30 days.
John there have been posts in other threads about vets requesting them, Do they do more harm than good sometimes, foals aside when should we use them?
A useful shoe if used in the right circumstances. The trim has to be as balanced as it can be otherwise the shoe is counter productive.
have to agree with Marc there , can be harmful in the wrong hands ,seemto be the "in " shoe at the minute , whilst making improvements in the short term cause more problems in the hocks long term
Few feet need them. Most feet I see with them on would benefit more from A) a bar shoe B) a half bar shoe(like in my avatar) or C) a symmetrical shoe. The long term consequence of what is applied is an important consideration. I use a lateral extension for horses that have poor conformation and brush behind or for an excessive abaxial swing(screwing) when load bearing, they work really well in these instances.
The "screwing" is a stifle problem: Hayden Price and I had that debate in Florida 2005. I have seen several horses with "screwing" problems and a lateral TOE extension, mild to severe, has sufficed. The "screwing" didn't leave the gait even after the hocks were injected. Inject the stifles and see what happens........
Nice! I'll do a keggar w/ extension, both toe and heel, tomorrow for show and tell. I have to do something besides "Burp the Baby"....
putting lateral extensions on a horse with conformation problems as prescribed by a vet and their "remedial " farrier is a short term fix , it certainly seems to correct the problem for a short time ,the horse then goes back to the previous farrier who then has to deal with the problems caused in the joints higher up normally the knee in front and thehock behind . the vet/farier combination get the praise ,the poor regular farrier is the fall guy . correctly applied at the right time they can be a useful aid to long term soundness and keeping a horse in work but IMO being applied to willy nilly for the wrong reasons ,mainly financial gain and kudos , too many vets , so called remedial farriers and insurance companies are dictating what goes on without looking at the long term consequences of what problems they are causing , oh , of course lets do something else , another shoe , pads , fillers the list goes on , its a conspiracy to rob the poor old owner off and we are all guilty of it ,we have mouths to feed
There has recentley been a machine made lateral extension shoe introduced to the market here(which i find staggering that someone couldn't forge one) by a very famous farrier. Looking at the design of the shoe there will be a fair few horses to correct in 12 months time!
Are we discussing lateral toe extension or lateral heel extension? Two differant issues IMO? I use alot of lateral heel extensions when I see the lateral heel crushed or rununder as in a club foot on the Lateral front, then the Lateral hind will ususally have issues with its lateral heel? I dont think I have ever used the term lateral so often before?
