jlthompson
11-23-2004, 01:09 PM
Just wanted to tell you all about what I found out after finally having hoof balance x-rays taken of my gelding. He is recovering from a torn navicular suspensory ligament - we are six months into rehab at this point.
Realizing his toes were too long, my farrier has been setting his shoes back for months (bar shoes - he used to be NBs), trying to encourage more balanced growth. We were doing this by "feel" because I had no x-rays to work from.
Then I read something that Patty Stiller wrote about some horses having abnormally long, skinny frogs, and that in these horses, using the standard NB mapping guidelines to find the proper breakover point based on the apex of frog might not apply. I realized too, that the "1/3 ahead of the frog and 2/3 behind" probably didn't apply either. I realized my gelding has the long frogs she was talking about, so I had my vet come and do x-rays with markers. (I'll attach a pic of his hoof that was taken six weeks ago - I posted it once before concerned about the red color in his white line).
Well, I just got the x-rays back, and on my horse, the distance between the apex of his frog and the tip of his coffin bone is only 1/2" !! That means that breakover should be only 3/4" ahead of the frog apex. We've been setting it almost an inch too far forward all this time, thinking we were making progress! What an eye opener!
So, as of last night, we took him out of the bar shoes, put him back into NBs with 1 degree wedge pads, and they are set waaay back, exactly where the x-rays dictate. He had almost 1" of toe hanging over, which we then rockered. After one front foot was done, the difference between the two was unbelievable. I can't believe we've been so far off all this time.
I thought for sure that my horse would walk funny, or even be sore after such a drastic change in shoeing, but nope, he TROTTED gleefully all the way back to his corral, sound as a bell.
What a learning experience. And I wouldn't have thought to x-ray him if I hadn't read Patty's post about how to find the proper breakover in horses with long frogs.
THANK YOU!
Jennifer
Realizing his toes were too long, my farrier has been setting his shoes back for months (bar shoes - he used to be NBs), trying to encourage more balanced growth. We were doing this by "feel" because I had no x-rays to work from.
Then I read something that Patty Stiller wrote about some horses having abnormally long, skinny frogs, and that in these horses, using the standard NB mapping guidelines to find the proper breakover point based on the apex of frog might not apply. I realized too, that the "1/3 ahead of the frog and 2/3 behind" probably didn't apply either. I realized my gelding has the long frogs she was talking about, so I had my vet come and do x-rays with markers. (I'll attach a pic of his hoof that was taken six weeks ago - I posted it once before concerned about the red color in his white line).
Well, I just got the x-rays back, and on my horse, the distance between the apex of his frog and the tip of his coffin bone is only 1/2" !! That means that breakover should be only 3/4" ahead of the frog apex. We've been setting it almost an inch too far forward all this time, thinking we were making progress! What an eye opener!
So, as of last night, we took him out of the bar shoes, put him back into NBs with 1 degree wedge pads, and they are set waaay back, exactly where the x-rays dictate. He had almost 1" of toe hanging over, which we then rockered. After one front foot was done, the difference between the two was unbelievable. I can't believe we've been so far off all this time.
I thought for sure that my horse would walk funny, or even be sore after such a drastic change in shoeing, but nope, he TROTTED gleefully all the way back to his corral, sound as a bell.
What a learning experience. And I wouldn't have thought to x-ray him if I hadn't read Patty's post about how to find the proper breakover in horses with long frogs.
THANK YOU!
Jennifer