Re: High Interference

Subject:

Comments:
: : Hi guys. : : I have a horse, RF slightly deviated at the knee, : : breaks over to the outside of center (pretty close to the toe corner), and RF wings : : in when he walks. : : When I bought him as a 5 yr. old the RF was wry, with the lateral : : bar closed up and tight against the frog so there was no cleft on that side of the frog. The lateral heel wall was turned under, and the : : shoe was actually on top of turned under wall.. : : It took over a year to straighten his RF foot out to : : as good as it was ever going to be..which of course is not ever going to be perfect. : : This foot is slightly smaller than his LF. : : Because breakover is off-set (laterally) from : : center, the wall at the toe Ctr and the medial toe corner always looks like it needs to be dressed (rasped). : : (He's barefoot now.. shod of course this was not as noticable) : : Ocassionally, he has always interfered, high on the inside of the opposite front leg at the WALK (but never at the trot). He's 15 now, and this has not caused lamness, but over the years (shod 6 months per year) has caused a slight thickening just below the knee (inside cannon). This isn't really : : noticable, but when you feel it, it feels like : : a tapered splint starting just below the knee : : and tapering down about an inch or so, then blending into the bone. It does not interfer with the tendon. : : My question: : : Since he's barefoot his riding season, : : Would rounding & rockering (just the pigmented horn) from the natural break-over point, across the toe center to around the medial toe corner be the right thing to do? : : I can't figure out which is worse: : : ocassionally bonking the inside of his LF with the rounded edge of a shoe, or with the : : sharper edge of the natural hoof. : : Thanks, : : Barb : Barb, after reading your post for some time, and thinking about it, I have some thoughts to throw out to you. I think it is easier on your horse to hit with the hoof, and might be helped by rounding the offending portion a bit. I think it might help to find out exactly which part is hitting, and you can do as we do at the track, by smearing lipstick on the leg where he hits, and finding lipstick on the hitting hoof. One idea, he must be slightly toed in, have you thought of shoeing him with a kind of square toe tip shoe, a thin training plate type going across his toe and cut off behind the second nail holes? With a tip-shoe you could control his breakover better, by moving the breakover more to the center, eliminating some winging, and rasp away some of the offending portion of wall. By not having branches on the shoe he would be less likely to "bonk" his other leg. : Just a theory, never tried it, never seen it done, but I think it would work. Jack Hammonds