Hello forum! I'm a newbie here and recent basic 2 week shoeing school grad. I have a question for the experts here - We just bought this horse on Saturday and he was lame in the front and he was cocking both hinds alternately, but mostly the right hind. He had thrown the right front shoe and that was where his main limp was. (The wall had broke out pretty bad with the shoe and he was standing on sole.) I reset both fronts as he was long anyway and his front right gimp is about gone. He was pretty thrushy in 3 of 4 feet. The frog was in real bad shape and the heel bulbs were pretty soft and squishy. I cleaned out as best I could and especially cleaned up the frog and colateral sulcas. I didn't treat with anything as he will be out in my own dry pasture indefinitely. Anyways, the one foot that was not full of thrush was the one he cocked up most of the time. Do you think that would explain why the other 3 were pretty bad off and this one was not? I have no idea what his former home life was like or where he was kept as we bought him at a sale and I'm pretty sure the old guy who sold lied in the catalog. (The sale owners gave us the option of a refund that same day or taking a chance and my wife and I decided to take the chance.) FWIW - his hind end lameness doesn't seem to be foot related but rather higher up.
Your instincts are good. IME, most often hind end lameness is higher up in the limb while front end lameness is more frequently in the foot. Since you're a newbie, here's a quiz question for you; Why is it that most clinical lameness ("clinical" meaning obvious to the casual observer) present in the front feet whereas most subclinical lameness ("subclinical" meaning not obvious except to the trained eye) seem to occurred in the hind limb above the foot?
My guess would be that the casual observer doesn't really think above the foot or maybe the casual observer is looking to affix blame on the last guy who worked on the feet
