Posted by Phil Armitage on June 11, 2003 at 22:03:22:
In Reply to: Club Foot posted by Eileen on June 11, 2003 at 20:35:23:
: I expected more of a response than I have received. Is there a problem. Did I pose my inquiry wrong or can no one give me any advice. Any answer would be appreciated i just need a little advice. Thank Anyway
I thought Derin's advice was pretty good. Here is what I do. first off I do not try to match the feet on club footed horses or put them to a predetermined angle. I go for the Natural balance of the feet. If I am shoeing a club footed horse then I will put a different size shoe on the club foot if the foot is a different size. Check out the tuturials on Natural Balance trims on the hope for soundness web site. There is alot of detail on how to trim. I have to caution you on doing this yourself though, no matter how competent you think you are, developing and eye and feel comes from experience and you are bound to make mistakes on your horses before you get it figured out. This is not as easy as it appears. I told you how I deal with it, I cannot go into detail, without being right there to show you. Another thing you can try is to ride with a farrier and observe and ask questions or have someone come out at least walk you through it and teach you how to trim. Until you have it figured out I would leave the feet a little on the long side rather than trim to short and weaken the sole and support under the coffin bone, you can always take more off if you have to, pretty difficult to put it back if you trim to short, don't get yourself in a situation where your horse needs to be shod becuase he is sore or lame.
Phil