Bruce, You have shod a lot more horses for a lot longer than I have. I am not disputing you or Gary or anyone else. I should say that I dress feet. I spend way more time focusing on the aesthetic appeal of my work than I should. I think having a nice looking foot is one of the most important parts of the finished job. If I did what I was proposing was the ideal I probably would not be asked to continue shoeing most of my clients. But to continue the debate: Why does dressing allow for hoof wall to grow down in the manner you described? Why would the same not be true for beveling? -Spotty
Spotty, I have a feeling our goals are the same but our manner of getting there slightly different. Can you post a pic of a bevelled foot? I'm not really sure what you mean by bevelling. Gary
So I do bevel! The toe was much more distorted than shown in this picture and I had already taken it back to the point where the damaged laminae were about to be exposed, so the only way to place the shoe where I wanted it was to set it back. My aim was still to get the dorsal wall straight and back to where is should be over the following shoeing cycles: moot now, as she sold the horse...
After you nail up, nip or rasp the distorted toe at about 45deg. Then just round up a little from the top.
Why not just rocker the toes so that you support the Dorsal wall and still move everything back? I'm confused.
Even if it is laminitic, I believe the foot should be dressed back to where it needs to be and then Fit that. Sitting shoes back without dorsal support does nothing to help distortion. A rocker toe allows you to be able to move everything back, if that is what needs to be done, and also allows you to Fit the foot.
Dressing feet is an art that is overlooked, IMO. I think many people are setting shoes back with no thought to anatomy or foot shape. I don't agree with dressing a foot back until you can't remove any more wall and then fitting a shoe to it is a good thing either. If the toe is still distorted forward after dressing the foot, if you apply a shoe to that distortion it is a toe extension. I'm yet to see anyone use an anterior extension shoe on a daily basis. If the dorsal wall distorts forward, the sole also pulls forward and the coffin bone drops. You can't always rocker these. A roll toe might not be aggressive enough. If you fit a shoe to distortion as the coffin bone rotates, as the horse moves forward, you are increasing stress to the dorsal wall. Not supporting it. You can add a big wide web toe to allow the sole to try to minimize the stress on the dorsal wall.
No Tom, I resected the wall and what was left I kept cleaned up and allowed to continue to grow down . First shoe was a reverse shoe to give support but no stress on exposed laminiie. Then when Vet and I decided it was ok to close up the front I applied acrylic and put heart bar shoe back on. Acrylic was nailed into. Little wall left on medial side near coronary so I used #12 capewells to reach and clinch into only solid wall left. After a lot of time, patience and pads, shoeing and acrylic Scooby had grown back a solid healthy hoof wall that looked better than his opposite foot. I am looking for pictures but they may have gone to the wayside with my moving and over time. I will keep looking and if I can find them i will post them.
Some laminitic horses cannot take any PSI on the toe. The whole tearing of the laminae thing doesn't like to be agravated, if you want the horse to live. How do you know where it needs to be? My experience differs. Reduction of GRF however you go about it does a lot to reduce distortion. Some feet don't have enough depth to rocker. Do you always fit the foot? I beleive Eric explained it pretty well.
Bruce, there's a couple ways you can do it In photo bucket, right click on your image and copy the image location. When you are creating a post, click on the add image icon. Paste the image you just copied in it. In photo bucket, click the share button above your picture. Then just copy and paste the link in here.
Justin, Yes I always try to fit the foot to the best of my ability. In my experience there is rarely a foot that doesn't have enough depth to rocker. Even if it is drop soled I can still rocker it. I just seat out the inside web aggressively. I used to think that it wasn't possible but I have seen it work after applying it. If the foot has stretched laminae, I will dress it back to as "normal" as possible to remove any dishes or flares. I look for even hoof wall thickness for a reference as to what the coffin bone shape is; that is where I think it needs to be. A rocker toe, in my opinion and experience, takes away the stress that is applied to the Dorsal wall, which prevents tearing of the laminae. I will try to post some pics if I can.
