DDFT, tenotomy and rupture

[Ronald Aalders]

I consider myself a pretty experienced shoer, seen a lot, done a lot and done it in several states in the US and several countries in Europe too. Sometimes I even did ok!

So howcome I have so many questions that I have a hard time finding an answer to?

Here goes an other one.

From a very reliable source I learned that when performing a (midcannon) tenotomy of the DDFT, it does not leave the toe up in the air, while a DDFT ruptured at the navicular bone definitely leaves to toe up in the air as is clearly shown in a thread by Jaye Perry. Why is that??

I've read a suggestion somewhere that this has to do with somekind of attachment the DDFT stil has when tenotomy is performed. I don't get this. What attachment? The carpal accessory of DDFT? This one does not hold the toe down after a tenotomy! Then what? Some kind of friction related reason that prevents the toe coming up after tenotomy? Friction? I would hope that the DDFT slides pretty smoothly through its tendon sheaths.

Also, again looking at the pictures in Jaye's thread, the results to the coffin joint is way different too. With a tenotomy subluxation is to be expected, but when DDFT is torn at the navicular bone what we see is full luxation of the coffin joint. Big difference!

Anyone with any thoughts on why it makes such a big difference where the DDFT is cut? Either at midcannon or at the navicular bone?

Thanks,


Ronald Aalders

[jamesrooney]

A very good question. The reason, put as simply as I can, is that the deep flexor and the superficial flexor are firmly tied together by deep fascia. When you cut, or disease cuts, the deep flexor at or just above the navicular, the toe goes up because the action of the deep flexor on the coffin joint is lost. When you cut higher than than - either the deep flexor or its check ligament, the action of the deep flexor on the coffin joint is not lost. I know that's a bit hairy but look at the anatomy closely again, remembering that the deep and superficial flexors are firmly tied together and act as a single unit at least as far down as the pastern joint.
If this doesn't help, let me know, and I'll try again.

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Dr. Rooney,

Thanks for your reply and please elaborate! I guess all shoers like to learn about anatomy as much as we can.

I never realised this 'bond' between DDFT and SDFT. I always assumed that they moved more or less separately. Like in lowering heels on a horse causes the DDFT to tighten and the SDFT to loosen up a little, depending on the foot angle.

Does this mean that the subluxation of the coffin joint that we see with a midcannon tenotomy is just some stretching of this connection between DDFT and SDFT? And when a tenotomy is performed the thing to do, I think, is to wedge up the foot and after the cut remove the wedges? When doing so the distal part of DDFT stays where it is, but the proximal part moves upward?

What exactly is this connection between SDFT and DDFT? Could I find something about this Adam's? I tried to find something about it, but I failed. That book is just to thick for a horse shoer...........


Ronald Aalders

[jamesrooney]

Give me a day or two to answer your questions. But, right off the bat you will not find anything about this close connection of the SF and DF (why use SFDF and DDF when SF and DF tell you what you need?) except in what I have written. The writers in Adams as 99% of veterinary anatomists have never observed this obvious functional correlation.
I am busy right now but will be back to you on the rest of your questions. If you wonder if I am the crazy, and not the others, just get a leg and dissect it: the cards read. Jim Rooney

[Ronald Aalders]

Thank you for your effort Dr. Rooney. I'll look forward to your posting.



Ronald Aalders

[jamesrooney]

The deep and superficial flexor tendons are tightly tied together by deep fascia throughout the metacarpus. Your supposition and the assumption of most anatomists and surgeons that they moved independently is not correct. Since I am not a surgeon, I don't know what you should do so far as wedging or not. Also, I do not know what happens to the two ends of the deep flexor except that they will separate somewhat. It has been my understanding that it is the check ligament of the deep flexor which is transected for club (stump) foot and not the deep flexor itself. If the deep flexor itself is transected as in trying to deal with severe laminitic rotation, I think the effort is doomed since there is no effect of the deep flexor attachment to the coffin bone unless the tendon is cut in midpastern region rather than mid metacarpus.
The "exact connection" you ask for is the deep fascia.
You will have to describe the subluxation for me. I have not heard of it previously.

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Dr. Rooney,

Thanks for helping out.

I did some reading not wanting to mess up here. In particular an essay by Steve O'Grady, "Treating Chronic Laminits - A Novel Approach" and a book by Ric Redden, "Understanding Laminitis".

In some cases of clubfeet (interphalangeal rotation) and laminitis (with a capsular rotation) cutting of the check ligament or DDFT itself has been performed as a way to stop DDFT pull and its maleffects.

As far as high end cases of laminitis are concerned it is my understanding that when DDFT tenotomy is performed (not a check ligament tenotomy) P3 subluxates and moves forward (I know I saw a picture but I can not find it again, that what you get talking to a horse shoer). I think this subluxation would happen a a situation of laminitis where P3 has rotated prior to the tenotomy. This would have created a space allowing the subluxation. In a clubfoot situation I think such subluxation is less likely to occur because P3 will be curbed by the hoofwall.

After a DDFT tenotomy when perfomed midcannon, the toe does not tip up, while when DDFT is ruptured at the navicular bone the toe does tip up. This difference may well be explained by SDFT and DDFT being connected e.g. by deep fascia. I just wondered about P3 moving forward causing the subluxation, when given space to do so. How can deep fascia keep the toe from tipping up, while it can not prevent P3 from moving forward?

Or is this just another case of the ignorant being able to ask more questions than the wise can answer?


Ronald Aalders

[jamesrooney]

I have no idea what you mean by" P3 moves forward" nor the term subluxation, here. I am a slow learner about other than reasonable precise terms, so please describe in detail. jrooney

[Stephen E. O'Grady, DVM]

Ron

This is a good question. Dr Rooney has given you most of the answer. The ******** attachment between the DDFT and the SDFT is most pronounced in the pastern above the area where the SDFT bifurcates and attaches to the distal end of P2. The SDFT actually supports the DDFT proximally to this insertion. After having done over 100 of these surgeries, I can make a few comments. When the tendon is transected, it produces a gap anywhere from 1/2 to 1 inch. This distance has to go somewhere. It allows the distal end of P2 to move in a distopalmar (down and backward) direction relative to P3. P3 can't go forward. Subluxation is not a good term. This change of position of the coffin joint is responsible for the toe lift seen when the horse moves following a tenotomy. Along with realignment of P3, I now shoe all tenotomy cases with rails to place p2 and P3 back in alignment. Results are very good.

Stephen E. O'Grady, DVM

[Phil Armitage]

I had the same questions as Ron while I watched Mitch Taylor do a leg discection at a clinic. Nobody could answer my questions at the time. Mitch let us push down on the leg before the disection and throughout the process as he cut and removed ligaments and tendons. The toe did not lift until the tendons and ligaments were removed in the pastern area. So I am assuming the Fasia attachment that Dr. Rooney mentions is a key thing when thinking about the biomechnics of the horse. Which now clouds my already cloudy mind even more. :confused:

[calshoer]

Picture of coffin joint subluxation in suspected rupture at navicular bone.
This is a terrible quality film but I think graphically shows the toe of P3 tipping up that Phil mentioned. Both feet were like this in this poor mare,(who was sold by an unscrupulous dealer to the mother of a little girl as a 'really gentle kids horsewh won;y go faster than a walk') . Every time anyone tried to realign the joint with wedges or whatever she couldnlt walk . She suffered horrible heel abscesses. We tried a ringbone type set up made out of double nail pads for full roller motion with no change in joint angles, and that didn't help either. She was eventually euthanized.
Believe it or not, I do another old horse with radiographs showing a subluxation just as bad as this, and despite periodic horrid heel abscesses, he gets around good with his field buddies fairly well. He was likely nerved at some point given his history prior to rescue (and the fact he never feels the abscesses until they are huge). I just trim him, rolling the foot itself to a Redden 'rock and roll' sort of configuation. Patty

[Ronald Aalders]

Thank you Dr. O'Grady for explaining and for answering Dr. Rooney's last question to me which I fear could not never have been answered satisfactorily by me.

The reason I'm more than a little interested in this phenomena is the whole Redden/Rock 'n Roll/Banana concept. I've been experimenting with this for some time now with astonishing results. I've added two pictures illustrating this. The shod foot is only 3 shoeings later.......

I have worked using banana's (this word I like a lot as it is such a descriptive term) on laminitis and clubfoot cases with very good results, but I also use it on some pleasure horses that have too much knee action. In all my years of shoeing pleasure horses I have not come across a better fix for the knee action problem. All you pleasure horseshoers out there, this is something you want to try! Take it from someone who shod pleasure horses at the Congress, the World and European Championships.

What I don't get though despite the obvious results, why our great Architect (God or Evolution, take your pick) designed a horse's foot with heels and a toe. Why not just continue the hammock, created by DDFT,P3 and the Lamellea? Why not shape the bottom of the foot like a banana? The only reason I could think of is the muscles acting to some extend as a "spring", which I thought would be harder "without" heels. However Dr. Redden uses banana's on racehorses too! I did notice that when I use bananas on Reiners, the younger ones always get into trouble when stopping. They kind of use their front end more than they should. They get a little "stiffer" during the stop. Apparently its easier on them to not bend their knees with a banana. Another advantage the banana offers is the huge reduction of torque and twisting forces acting on the foot and leg when loading and especially when turning. Probably this is why the banana was used on ringbone cases.

I've been around horses long enough to have learned that even the greatest thoughts have their drawbacks. Probably the banana has too. If so I would like to know! Anybody who feels that the drawback of the banana is heel reduction, its not true. I have experimented a lot with bringing back breakover as much as to the Center of Articulation, with all kinds of shoes. (I put an example in of such a shoe a picture out of the European Farrier Journal) All of those shoes provided some kind of caudal support, but a lot of breakover as early as at the COA. In my experience those shoes did not have the same effect though. (I'm not talking about the****utic cases here, I'm talking about performance horses.) Both in gaining foot quality and quality of motion (not just on pleasure horses, but on reiners and cutters too) nothing beats the banana.

Which brings me back to a question raised earlier, why are toes and heels imbedded in a horses genetics? Why don't horses have feet with a banana shaped ground surface?


Ronald Aalders

[Phil Armitage]

Picture of coffin joint subluxation in suspected rupture at navicular bone.


If my memory serves me correctly during the disection, the coffin bone tipped up after either the Lateral Collateral ligament of the pasturn joint was cut and the Navicular impar ligament cut and removed. I tried to get in there and press down on the leg as the disection went along, but there were many heads and hands in the way. What comes to my mind is the Deep Flexor and Superficial Flexor primarily act as a cable pulling the foot for locomotion and the lower ligaments act as a stop and support. The Deep Flexor and superfical Flexor Tendon do not really hold P-3 in place, however they do pull as in the case with club feet. Have to be carefull about just focusing on the Deep Flexor, wedgeing and or modifying breakover and the plaine of the bottom of the foot could be stressfull on the Extensor Tendon attached to the front of the coffin bone. :(

[Stephen E. O'Grady, DVM]

What I don't get though despite the obvious results, why our great Architect (God or Evolution, take your pick) designed a horse's foot with heels and a toe.

So it would be stable, anti-concussive and effecient at bearing weight.

Stephen E. O'Grady, DVM

[Dave Purves]

Perhaps, Ronald, you should "banana" your own footwear, and see what the results are. I can see where in some cases of pathology the "banana" shoe may allow the horse to bear weight in a more comfortable way. However, whenever you deviate from normal you are adding stress to certain structures as you lessen stress on others. I'm the wrong person to talk to about Western Pleasure horses cause I think they look lame. I go to the congress every year and shake my head at the way those horses move. They really do look lame. I don't know if it is shoeing, or training or a combination but whatever it is, it's not right, it's not normal and in no way is it close to being a natural gait. If you eleviate knee action then somewhere in the leg and shoulder stress is being added, many times muscles, tendons, and ligaments will " atrophy" for lack of a better term when they are not required to work in a normal fashion. I would bet that these are key reason that so many WP horses end up with navicular, side bone, and ring bone. Add this type of shoeing with poor breeding and you have disaster.
just my opinion
Dave Purves CF :)

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Dave,

I fully agree on both. E.g. the Zippo Pine Bar line was not only famous for their good pleasure horses, but also for their LH/LT syndrome. A lot of horses with that one clubfoot......... Also I have been among pleasure horses long enough to know that some of them do good because of conformation faults. As to pleasure horses being lame, I want to point out that this is the result of poor judgment at AQHA and NSBA. Both organisations allowed poor moving gaits just because they were slow. Even to the extend where horse would lope up front and jog at the hinds. This is NOT a fault WP horses or trainers should get their *** kicked for. The trainers are just trying to make money in the horse business and we all know that's hard to do. The horses just do what they are trained to do as good as their breeding allows.

I said it before in this respect, put the blame where you should, in Amarillo, TX and Tulsa, OK at AQHA and NSBA headquarters. They are the ones to blame for poor moving horses and the near destruction of WP. And for a lot of horse men such as yourself this can not be cured by simply sending out a video how AQHA expects horses to move in future.

Also I agree that with any deviation away from 'natural', will cause strain elsewhere. My question is what would your guess be? Where would we find more stress when a banana is used?

Also we almost got away from an (in my view) important question as far as landing even is concerned. Should the uneven landing of a horse be considered to be a cause for (future) problems, or is the uneven landing a symptom of already existing problems?


Ronald Aalders

[Jaye Perry]

IAlso we almost got away from an (in my view) important question as far as landing even is concerned. Should the uneven landing of a horse be considered to be a cause for (future) problems, or is the uneven landing a symptom of already existing problems?
Ronald Aalders



"As long as the the bony column, it's articulations, muscles, tendones, and ligamentous of the limbs remain healthy,... the normal direction and positions will be maintained. frequently... the normal condition will be altered by disease of the joints, tendons, and bones; the defects in (normal) form and action of th lower limbs will arise and often require attention in shoeing"
(Lungwitz)

"... heredity does not divest the lesion itself to the decendants; .. it assures the transmission of the architectural terrain, physical and chemical, which assures it's developement."
(Rooney/Robertson)

[Donnie Walker]

This is better than a collegiate level anatomy class. Keep it going.
The "rock n roll" or "banana shoe" needs to addressed pertaining to race horses. I received a personal e-mail from Dr. Redden on 10.04.04 which I quote:

"We have used this shoe on lots of breeds of horses doing a variety of sports, with the exception of racing. No athlete performs well with foot pain. Once the area is allowed to heal, many cases will gradually wean out of the heavy mechanical shoe and into a more subtle, rockered toe, flat shoe.
I strongly advise that any horse wear the shoe at least one shoeing period before they are asked to compete. This allows for adequate adjustment, as well as enhancing the healing environment."

The above was Dr. Redden's response to the question of whether this shoe could be used on a team roping or barrel horse.

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi,

I worry about loosing heels with this shoe. Whatever you do, either use Redden's pre made banana's or shape and hot fit them yourself like I do, you're going to loose heel in a sense that the caudal part of support changes dramatically. The shoe rolls up so to speak and supports the foot in the middle.

Don't get me wrong this type of shoeing is a very important tool to me now. I have never ran in to anything that gave me the opportunity to really have soles grow into thick protective buffers and really reduce those P3 rings on the sole caused by poor breakover in just 1 or 2 shoeings. If you look at the hindfoot I posted in this thread, that horses lateral and medial wall was red from the coronary band down. The shod foot is 3 shoeings later and you can tell for yourself how much the bruises grew out.

I have had a very small amount of horses that did not respond too well to the banana. One I remember was an older horse with a known SDFT problem and another with a wry foot. The funny thing is on that horse you'll notice the medial heel being pushed in the ground a lot when it jogs and lopes. With a straight bar shoe this happens too but less severe. So obviously even with a banana shoe you should RTFM (read the f........ manual) But we need a manual first!

But let's face it I'm not a researcher, I'm a horseshoer. There is always some tendency to take it one shoeing at the time and in that process loose the bigger picture a little. But since in my opinion this type of shoeing is so important I think I should not take a chance of letting that happen here. So I'm trying to find out all I can in my own way and that by talking to you boys and girls I guess.

So because of my worries I asked Redden about extra strain on the SDFT when using a banana. This is where the attachment of SDFT and DDFT of Dr. Rooney comes in. This is why I was interested in the difference between toe response in a tendon rupture and the navicular bone and a mid cannon tenotomy. This has been clarified (THANKS Dr. Rooney and Dr. O'Grady) but I'm not in the clear yet what this means when this knowlegde is applied to the banana concept.

Anyway at one time I asked Dr. Redden about what happens to a banana shod foot in the landing and loading phase of the stride. I thought that in that part of the stride without a bar or heels or anything providing support, the DDFT would even have to work a little harder when heels were rolled up. (In that phase of the stride legs are stretched forward and heels are needed to take the load when the horse's weight is shifted to it) After applying the banana on a lot of horses now I'm not so sure anymore that that is a problem, but I DON'T KNOW. And this concept is too good to just shrug and go to the next horse. Guys in my case we are talking about (big) improvement with horses suffering from: navicular, chronic laminitis, spavin, stifle problems, sacro-illiac problems. Stuff we run into every day!

I didn't want to sound like some kind of advocate for just this concept. So I chose another way. I said it before I'm not endorsing anything other than ways to get a horse shod well. Whatever method that takes. For me the banana is a tool, just like a wedge pad and a square toe can help out some horses. But to me the banana is a very helpfull tool I can tell y'all that much!

Getting back to my question to Dr. Redden here, he answered that he uses a big thick short wedge when using the banana on horses ("non speed athletes", he wrote) with virually no heels at all. After a lot of reading (I must have read everything he wrote on this subject, Redden is one very hard working man, I can tell you that much) I translated this in that in every case you want to reach a normal alignment of P3 relative to P2 and P1, before you can expect to gain any real advantage of the banana. On a negative palmar angle horse you want to get him up. On a clubfooted or chronic laminitic horse you want to derotate first. (Using the wedges on clubs and chronic laminitic horses serves another purpose, reduction of DDFT pull) In the end you often end up with wedges and banana's on horse you think the banana is helpfull. Or in Redden's case a banana shaped rail shoe.

But all this just has more angles than my poor shoer brain can keep track of! Just to draw your attention to another aspect of this all take a look at the LF and RH of this drooling horse. The fetlock of this Olympic Champ almost hits the soil. You see the same thing with racehorses and showjumpers coming down from a jump. My thought is that this kind of stretching gets worse when more caudal support is used (e.g with an eggbar). Following this line of thought I'm really interested to learn what would happen if those horses where shod with a banana. Would the stretching be less? Or more? Or would it not make any difference?

Usually in the movies this would be the time for the Big Gun himself to step in and help us out a little..............


Ronald Aalders

[Phil Armitage]

Very interesting subject. I thought I would add one of my owne experiences with a club foot. I have been shoeing a Hafflinger that his RF is clubby and the toe splits and when the ground is wet the toe seperates and fills with debri. So instead of setting the shoe back, I beveled the toe to healthy horn and sole and hot fitted a rocker toe shoe. The next shoeing the toe looked great and the rider said the horse is also moving better. When I reshod the horse though, I found the foot was not flat and I could not get it flat "Bannana" so I shaped the shoe to the foot "Bannana" and hot fitted it again with a rockered toe. The horse is moving even better and the stress on the toe is gone. I have run into this a few times and eventually the foot gets back to being flat. Is the foot telling us what to do every time we shoe them? Maybe all we need to do is follow our gut, take a roll of tums and hope for the best. I do not know????? :confused: I take it one shoeing at a time and try to get a feel from the riders as to how the horse is doing. However I would really like to understand what is going on.

[Dave Purves]

I think Phil has a great point. Many times the foot will tell you what it needs if you know how to read a foot. The problem I see is that too many farriers can't read a foot and therefore rely on some sort of "pre-determined" set of rules or shoeing protocol. I shoe a paint mare that has a bad club foot. Small toe cracks, and a "twisted" heel and toe quarter. This horse was so uncomfortable that she wouldn't pick up the right lead, and on the left lead often counter cantered. But in this situation the opposite front foot was in great shape. I'm sure we've all noticed that many times the club foot is at least a size smaller than the normal foot. So I shaped two shoes the same size and added a leather rim pad to the club foot, safed. and prayed that it would stay on. At the next appointment, the horse was riding better, picking up both leads and not counter cantering anymore. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are many ways to skin a cat. When I see a club foot I see a foot that is struggling to touch the ground. Most cases I see are a matter of one leg being "longer" than the other.

To answer Ron's question the best I can, if the foot is landing "wrong" or not consistent with the trim or conformation of the foot and leg, then I would have to say that something is going on higher in the leg or deeper in the foot. But not all legs and feet are set up to land perfectly flat, or even. So it is a hard question to answer. I've seen many horses that land way out of wack, fix it and the horse is lame, trim and shoe to help support but not "twist" it around and the horse is fine. Most upper level competitive horses have "something" wrong, from all the years of hard training they've gone through to get there. They are like pro athletes, you do what you must to keep them going as comfortable as you can make them and maintain the level of performance that they have achieved.


Dave

[Moses Shaw]

Ron in regards to your question on the bannana shoe, i cant speak for that particular shoe but i can testify to the fact that Scott Morrisons roller motion shoe has been used with outstanding results ( not a silver bullet) but outstanding results i myself have been making his shoe, now buying it for over 3 years and have used on grand prix level jumpers and dressage horses and eventers, with no adverse effects only positive. biomechanically it is very similar to Reddens but much more practical and less extreme. Be Safe Mo Shaw CJF

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Moses,


Sofar I have only had favourable results too with maybe one or two exceptions that were caused by unrelated factors. I hope.......

Could you describe how the shoe full roller by Scott Morrisson looks (maybe post a picture?) and explain how you make it? I always thought they were similar.


Thanks,


Ronald Aalders

[dean selvey]

hi ron i enjoy your comments can you give me some more info. on the shoe that you have posted onthis site. i think you are calling it a banana shoe thanks.

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Dean,


I'ld be happy to give you more info but there is a lot of it already on this board.

Please let me know what kind of information you're looking for. I'll be glad to share what I know about the banana shoe. (I borrowed this picture from Ric Redden.............)


Ronald Aalders

[dean selvey]

hi ron the shoe in the picture labeled colleoni doesnt look like the last one you just posted .maybe just adifferent view what iam looking for is what ithouht i was seeing as aflat plate with a raised rim to the center of the nailholes more like a doublenail pad system or ringbone system i like the idea and would like to try can i buy them

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi Dean,


Within the mechanical demands I need, I don't really care about the name or actual shape of a shoe.

If you want to bring back breakover the tipping of the foot should start back towards the center of articulation of as much as possible. Either dorsally, medially and/or laterally. It really is as simple as that.

There are lots of ways to do this and lots of shoes that have such mechanical properties. The banana shoe is one of them. I like that one because you can make it out of almost any shoe and it will work. Shoes of the colleoni type are rigid and need all kinds of tricks to get them on properly. You know, special nails and stuff.

I don't know how experienced a shoer you are, but if you wish to start out here maybe have a close look at a Natural Balance shoe. How that one brings back break over with its square toe. If you let that one sink in properly you'll start to see other ways to bring back breakover, or reduce DDFT pull. Because that's basically what you're doing when you bring back breakover.

Shoes that combine ease of dorsal, medial and lateral breakover the interested shoer will see a lot of here in Europe. Such shoes are usually based on a flat aluminum plate to attach the shoe to the foot and somekind of "dome" shaped aluminum extra on the ground surface. This allows the horse to easily roll to the left and right and forward, and sometimes like with a banana shoe backward too.

You'll want to read an article in Hoofcare & Lameness, issue # 78 pp. 50-53, Flying saucers and Rock 'n Roll and visit the website by the author Mr. H.H. Castelijns at www.mascalcia.net

The pictures I posted here are from that website, I hope Mr. Castelijns doesn't mind my copying them without prior approval...........



Ronald Aalders

[John Trammell]

Ron,
I have a 21 yo QH mare that has abcess' in the toe of each front.Would you suggest banana's.She is in flats now,travels well and is turned out in small pasture.
Thanks John

[Double C Forge]

Thanks for posting that link Ron. www.mascalcia.net I have only briefly looked over it but it seems to be very imformative. I will look over it much more thoroughly when I get a chance. I was just wondering if you may have a few more links that may help us all to learn more. I have never came across this one before. I think its harder for us here in America to find the foreign websites.........Thanks again.

Chris Clark

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi John,

I can not answer that one without knowing exactly what is going on with your horse. Why do the abcesses occur? Is the horse laminitic? Are there other reasons for the abcesses to occur?

The only thing a banana shoes does guys, is bring back breakover. That what a square toe shoe does too, the banana just brings it back even further. Because of its mechanical properties it has some other advantages too, but it is not a cure for everything that can go wrong with a horse.

And Chris, the thing is not all websites are in english. This is Europe remember? I wish everyone here would agree on english as second language, but try and explain that to the French, Italians, Greek to name just a view. I myself can read adequate german, but that's it. Websites in other languages I get stuck too.



Ronald Aalders

[John Trammell]

Ron,
No laminitis or wall seperation,just abcesses in the sole.I have shod her pretty short in the fronts and is breaking over nice.I was just wondering if she had some curvature to the shoe ,would it help to grow the sole back in a little quicker?
Thank You John

[Ronald Aalders]

Hi John,

There has to be a reason for the horse to run into abcesses all the time. If you really want me and others to have a close look at least post some pictures. I would not be surprised if the feet you're working on do have some dish, proving breakover is still to much to the front. Or maybe you left a little too much heel. I'ld like to see the feet for that.

On not well shaped feet at times you have to bring back breakover a lot, to even get to the apex of P3, let alone to the center of articulation of P3. On some feet the banana is about the only way to get there at all.

Increased sole depth may well help out a horse that has re-occuring abcesses for several reasons. If there's any type of shoeing that helps sole grow, it the banana type of shoeing. It's by far the best way to obtain a nice thick sole in "no time".


Ronald Aalders-

[dean selvey]

hi ron thanks for the info. im a little better at shoeing than the ***puter. i aways like to try new things that make sense to me. until my next question ill kept reading your post.