I was talkin in General, I have alot of respect of Mounted Police...now back to wedges as Ray says...
Baseline of WHAT? Foot, Rads and (a) direction? One gets paid for What? To make excuses or make progression? Per the literature " a shoeing of a lame horse will see effiecient /affect in 10 days to 2 weeks".......
What results following whatever you do to the horse. At the first encounter you have no baseline other than whatever history you can gather and whatever observations you make of the current situation. So the first time you work on the horse you apply your opinion to the situation. However the horse walks off and however it improves or deteriorates over time is the new baseline. A farrier cannot control the variables involved in husbandry and use, but we can do our best to account for these in our observations over time and make adjustments to what we do in an effort to accommodate said variables in our decisions. In context with my reply to Kim, she did not have this when she first encountered the horse. Results. Progress can be good or bad and can change from good to bad or bad to good over time. If one does not make good progress then one needs to find out why and make adjustments where possible. Per Stovall, "Horse should walk off better than it walked up."
"When shoeing a lame horse, one has a 50/50 chance of bettering the situation." Me. To "understand" what happens in a "lameness situation"; develope an understanding of others studies and one's empirical experiences.
I believe it applies to either wedge or not in some circumstances...one can over wedge in some cases IMO.
yes you can over wedge a horse; and especially when a owner wants 3* degree shoes; and you think it is too much for the horse. QH are the worse for over wedging a horse.
This is on the wedge subject so I think can go in thread. Ive used dalmer wedge cuffs on two 6 month old foals here with flexor deformities a long with getting the vet to bandage the leg, its had good results, now they want me to do two more tomorrow but ive no cuffs left, I was lucky to find these couple of pairs hidden in the store from years ago. So I will have to improvise, any ideas?
if you have to: take a plastic bar wedge; cut it to fit the cuff; then drill it like putting on a pad with a steel or aluminum shoe on it. will be hard; but in a pinch it can work. if you can, wait a few days till you can order Overnite shipping of new cuffs. just an idea to get you out of the situation.
Do you have access to equicast? I've had good results using that to put on shoes without nailing. Regards
No access to equicast and we dont have any cuffs. Overnight shipping is not a possibility here.....id be lucky to have anything in a month here. I was thinking kinda along the same lines linda. im just bout to go try do it now so il let ya know how i got on, thanks for the advice.
Do they have a doctor around the cast that they use could also be used on horses. You might need some anyways if you mess up they may cut your hand off!!!!
hand is still in place........ for now I found some of the wedges that screw to the bottom of the dalric cuffs and screwed equilox composite cloth to them and equiloxed that to the hoof wall and and wrapped another layer of equilox covered composite cloth under the whole lot coming up glueing to the hoof wall either side. It wasnt pretty but was still on when he walked back to the stable
Reset the horse today. 1/4" growth in the toe and lil over a half inch growth in the heels. So heels are out running the toe. When he walked up he was landing slightly toe first, then lateral to medial. On the left front he was slamming the lateral side down then medial. Very noticeable difference. After Trim he was still slight toe first and even on the lateral to medial on both fronts. Put him back where the Vet wanted him. Before After
If you want to leave that much foot with all that heel and toe make sure you extend the heels so you can get half the mass on either side of the COA. Not being there I can't tell for sure but it appears like you may have a retained sole problem leading you to leave the extra toe and heel. What is the toe length from hairline to toe?
