Lameness

[NHFarrier]

I guess I don't consider this horse lame, but he is definitely not sound....4 year old QH, front foot/leg conformation is bad . He grows extremely underrun heals and his feet grow forward and have lots of flaring and stretching through the toe. His feet grow faster than any horse I've ever seen and to keep on top of it, I have to shoe him every 3-4 weeks. He is slightly toed in. He is back at the pastern joint (yes I mean pastern), so I wedge him with a 2 degree. His hind legs are set under his body and he is very slightly cowhocked. He grows lots of medial flare on both hind feet.

This guy is pasture sound, BUT when ridden trips like there is no tomorrow. I ride him and it seems like all he does is trip, equally on all four legs. He tends to be a little lazy, but I don't think this is the cause of the tripping.

I heard a sign of navicular is tripping. Anyone ever heard of a horse with this problem? Any suggestions?

Amy

[Rick Burten]

Amy

The first pic is not very helpful because he is standingall askew with this head down. Do you have any others with him standing relaxed but more squarely on a surface like asphalt or concrete?

In the second picture it appears that he is standing under which may indicate clinical heel pain. Though it is hard to tell , it looks like you have the shoe set back/under at the toe, but I can't see how much heel support is provided.

Do you have any pics of the bottom of his feet shod and before and after the trim?

Do you have any radiographs?

While continual tripping is one definition of lameness, it does not necessarily mean navicular syndrome/disease.

It looks like he may need more degrees of wedging along with the breakover being farther under. Or, this guy could be a really good candidate for an aluminum full roller motion shoe with additional mechanical frog support.

Since he is toed in, the shoe fit may be a bit more technical. If you are confident you have his feet in balance, look at the current shoe wear and let it help guide you.

Another option might be to try the EDSS package. This will allow you to play with the heel height and frog support without having to remove the shoe package.

Or, you could take him barefoot and really get after the heels and toes on an even more frequent schedule.

I don't have a set answer for you but my initial thought/reaction was that he needed more heel removed, the toe backed up and from a shoeing choices perspective I would probably have started with the full roller motion aluminum shoe and then if that was not getting me the results I wanted, the EDSS. I think I'd stay away from steel right now just to reduce the weight/torque on his legs.

For his hind, its hard to say because I don't have any good photos to work from. There is nothing you are going to do about his cowhockedness, if you try , you'll only get him sore. Balance the foot, remove the flares. I'd probably go with a blunt toed shoe with short heel extensions(not a trailer) fit full on the lateral side and fairly tight on the medial side. Quarter clips and two nails/branch. If his angles are low, wedge him up but give him frog support all the way to the ground.

Hope that helps.

[Phil Armitage]

Hey Amy, it is difficult to comment on these pictures. From what I see in the pictures here is my shooting from the hip comments. The first picture show me a horse that is very big/heavy on the front end large shoulder, head and neck and small hind qaurters with small feet got a real challenge here. The second photo the feet look broken back and it does look like the heels need to be trimmed shorter, but hey who am I to say sitting at my computer, maybe they don't. Might have a better anserw for you with better photos. I say this because they look underrun and long and the toe looks pushed forward or dished. One would have to have the foot in there hands to really give you any advice, but I would take a look at how much exfoliation there is in the bars and heels. Get the heels trimmed back and proper breakover then maybe adding a wedge pad with frog support or wedge aluminum shoe with equipak for frog support might help this guy out. You have to find if he can tolerate for frog pressure. You might want to recommend radiographs for this horse and see what you have for sole thickness, location of proper breakover, and position of bone alignment. Would at least answer allot of good questions and you could ask the Vet for recomendations. Since he is only 4 you might prevent some serious problems in the future getting him figured out and keeping him shod for protection and support based on some good radiographs and proper evaluation of a good horse Vet. that you can work with. Good luck, I would definately work with a Vet on this one. I worked with many good horse Vets on simalar problems and it felt good to have more information and working as a team to come up with a solution that works well.