© Randy Sublett
(Randy, a practicing farrier, writes articles oriented to horse owners.)
True or false? The correct angle of the hoof is 52 degrees. Answer. Sometimes. Many horsepeople have the misguided notion that all horses' hooves should be trimmed and shod so that the angle is 52 degrees. I suspect that this number came from some early books on farriery or has somewhat become fact from myth. The fact is that the magical number of 52 is a sort of median number; that is, many horses have hoof angles of 52 degrees with some horses having hooves of a steeper angle and some of a lower angle. The correct angle of the hoof is not determined by a hoof gauge, but by the natural conformation of the individual animal. The key words here are "individual animal." Go ahead, say it again slowly: individual animal.
The farrier is mainly concerned with the structures of the lower leg, i.e., below the knee joint on the foreleg and the hock joint on the hind leg. In the forelimb of the horse the main bones below the knee are the cannon, long pastern, short pastern and coffin in that order from the knee down. In the hind limb, the main bones below the hock joint have the same 'common name'. I say common name because the scientific names vary between fore and hind limb. The bones of the forelimb are referred to in terms of phalanges and the hind limb in terms of tarsals. A comparison to human anatomy is that your phalanges are the bones in your fingers and your tarsals are the bones in your feet. The joint that is formed between the cannon bone and the long pastern is called the fetlock joint. If you are not sure about the location, it is the first joint below the knee or hock. The next joint down is formed between the long pastern and the short pastern bones and is called, guess what? The pastern joint. The next joint is formed between the short pastern and the coffin bones and is called the coffin joint. The coffin joint is not visible because it is entirely covered by the hoof wall.
Earlier I mentioned the word conformation. Conformation are the standards of the theoretically perfect horse. How a horse is proportioned and put together is the conformation. Every breed of horse has different conformational aspects. In his book "Academy for Grown Horsemen," published in London in 1808, Geoffrey Gambado stated: " To define a perfect horse is nearly impossible, and to tell you where to buy one, completely so."
So what does all of this have to do with 52 degrees? The angle of the hoof for each horse is determined by the conformation of the lower leg. In the ideal horse, when the horse is at a stand, the cannon bone should be at or near the vertical axis and the long and short pastern bones will be in a STRAIGHT LINE at 52 degrees. Ideally. The critical piece of information here is that when your horse is properly trimmed and shod, the long and short pastern bones will form a straight line with the coffin bone. In order to get that straight line, a farrier may have to set the hoof angle at 50 degrees or maybe even 56. So when mister horseshoer comes out to the barn and pulls out his hoof gauge and the only number on it is 52 in bold numbers, he does not know what he is doing. He is looking at a gauge, not at your horse. Always shoe to the conformation of the (come on class, say it one more time) INDIVIDUAL ANIMAL. Go out and look at your horse or someone else's horse and locate the bones and joints.
Randy welcomes comments or questions about his articles. He may be reached by E-mail.
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