They wont stop!

[Cracked!]

Hey guys, I am new to the board.

Some background info on my mare: She has always had bad feet, her old owner tried to "trim" then herself which led to a bad angle and bad cracks. I had to quit my jumping training for over 4 months to let the foot grow back out, and she had shoes put on with an okay to jump, about 5 weeks later the cracks are becoming terrible that she is not jumped anymore. She is on Bioten and hoof heel conditioner and the best farrier around my town.

Here are some pics-

RF- http://community.webshots.com/photo/394599251/2465889070054937227GsQxpS

Front- http://community.webshots.com/photo/394599251/2533398900054937227oWHgWa

Sorry about the dirty hoofs and the unlevel ground...

From what I can see the RF needs less heel to take the pressure off the crack. And the LF possibly needs a tad more. The weak hoof walls are being pulled apart by the nails when the hoof tries to expend.

The farrier is coming withen a week for the trim and maybe reshoeing.

[Rick Burten]

Both feet are in serious need of better care. The shoe on the right front looks too short, and nailing behind the cracks is counter productive. It looks to me as though the crack in the first photo(left front?) is jammed full of environmental crud and probably has infection undermining the wall. Its harder to see the other one, but I get the sense that the same is true of it.

Were this horse in my practice, I'd resect all of that necrotic material/wall, put the horse in heart bars(most likely an egg bar-heart bar), side clipped and rockered toed, and probably add EquiPak to the commissures. No nailing behind the crack and probably no more than four slim blade nails/shoe. I'd float the wall under the cracks all the way back to the heel and would probably add a rim pad to the shoe package with the pad cut away under the floated wall. If adding EquiPak, that area must first be isolated so that none of the Equipak gets in there and defeats the purpose of floating the wall. No jumping until the wall is solid and I'd keep the horse out of the mud too.

[Cracked!]

Thanks, I am going to see what the farrier says, there seems to be no good farriers (like you) that can deal with her feet, we even have the best around, and he still is not good with the cracks. There is no way for me to keep her out of the mud and we just had several inches of rain last night....

[Rick Burten]

Where do you live?

Any farrier who is not knowledgeable enough or skilled enough to remediate basic quarter cracks needs to quit calling him/herself a farrier. Absent trauma or horrificly bad conformation, quarter cracks are the result of improperly balancing the foot with the trim, and then exacerbating the problem by incorrectly shoeing the horse(assuming the horse is not to be left barefoot.

Even though you have to turn this horses out in mud, my Rx for the shoeing remains the same. As for trimming, well, the feet need both medial/lateral and Anterior/Posterior adjustments. The conformational challanges presented in the hooves must first be recognized(and apparently they are not) and then correctly dealt with.

On the bright side, at least neither of these cracks is a bleeder. :o

[Cracked!]

I am in Kansas...

I am waiting to see what he says in a week,

[calshoer]

Rick said....Where do you live?

Any farrier who is not knowledgeable enough or skilled enough to remediate basic quarter cracks needs to quit calling him/herself a farrier. Absent trauma or horrificly bad conformation, quarter cracks are the result of improperly balancing the foot with the trim, and then exacerbating the problem by incorrectly shoeing the horse(assuming the horse is not to be left barefoot.

Even though you have to turn this horses out in mud, my Rx for the shoeing remains the same. As for trimming, well, the feet need both medial/lateral and Anterior/Posterior adjustments. The conformational challanges presented in the hooves must first be recognized(and apparently they are not) and then correctly dealt with.

On the bright side, at least neither of these cracks is a bleeder
DITTO. Patty