I have had several lameness cases in horses lately. Most of them have been from improper trimming and shoeing. Several years ago we were having trouble getting them stood up because everyone was cutting heals to short. This led to the horse not having enough support for the tendons and boney column of their leg.
Now we are not even touching the heal and it is leading to the same thing. We have to cut that dead tissue off because it will not support the horse. Horse’s weigh anywhere, from 750 to 1,500 pounds. And they are standing on toothpicks for legs, compared to their body. We have to trim and shoe for the horse and their structure. Not every shoe or style of trimming and shoeing will work on every horse. This has to be adjusted for every horse. This is just like my shoes will not work for you.
When we do not trim the heal of the hoof, it will either contract in or flair out. Dead tissue cannot support the weight of a horse, period. When the heal contracts, which is most often the case, it will curl in to the bars and push the hoof towards the front. As this happens we put more stress on the deep digital flexor tendon. This tendon runs down the back of the horse’s leg and through the navicular bone and attaches to the back part of the coffin bone inside the hoof. Now we are putting weight of the horse on the heal. With this happening the deep digital tendon is stretched too far. Eventually the horse becomes sore in that leg.
An analogy of this is if you would put a 1 inch thick piece of wood under the ball of your foot. Now walk around, run, perform and sleep standing with that wood there. To understand this concept just stand with only the balls of feet on a step and drop your heals down below the balls of your feet. You will feel the pull all the way up your leg. The most pull will be on your Achilles tendon. And now remember, your horse is always set like this 24/7. With a horse standing square, where the heal touches the ground, draw a straight line up the horses leg. This needs to be at least under the midline of the horse’s cannon bone. If not, we need more support.
These heals must be trimmed and the foot balanced out for the horse first. Now with the shoeing, a lot of horses are just shod to the bars and done. Well these horses need more support for those tendons, since they are sore. A lot of times it will take an egg bar shoe, maybe just the next bigger size with a small 3/8 inch trailer, or maybe a wedge shoe with a rocker toe. It will depend on how bad your horse is.
Dr. Tim E. O’Neill, DVM, owns Country Veterinary Service in Farmington, Ark.
