Posted by Patty Stiller on April 21, 2000 at 23:00:29:
In Reply to: 1300lb TB with no heels all around - EDSS or NB? posted by Noah Regis on April 17, 2000 at 09:34:41:
: Hello:
: We don't have a full time shoer in our area to be found and need some assistance for our part-time shoer.
: Our TB is 8 years old and a great athlete with sound feet but he just has never had heels on any feet and flat pancake soles. The heels are so bad that the bulbs are almost touching the ground and the shoer has always used a shoe with a straight bar across the back and a wedge pad to pick him up which has always worked as far as soundness. But, the darn heels just seem to stay the way they are and our shoer is out of ideas.
: Is there a way to shoe this horse to get better heels or to at least get better angle alignment? Perhaps EDSS or NB types of shoeing?
: If someone will share the information we will gladly print it and pass it on to our shoer who says he is willing to try anything.
: Thank you.
: Mr. Noah Regis
Yes, EDSS should be of help in getting heels to grow in the correct direction.(down instead of forward)
The heels of the foot need to be trimmed back to a point near the live sole plane of the foot, AND the breakover point of the shoe needs to be placed in a correct position in relation to the coffin bone. Natural balance guidelines,followed carefully both in the trim procedure and shoe placement, will achieve the proper application.
After the foot is prepared to Natural Balance specifications,there may still be a need for wedge pads, to properly align the boney column for a while.
Frog support aids in distributing the load over the correct structures to keeop the wall at the heels from taking the whole load and collapsing again. The video on applying EDSS would be a good aid the basics of the system. Even though the video is aimed at treating pathologies such as laminitis and navicular, the application of the system, and the principles in weight distrubution and support are the same. The video is available here through the website, or call Gene Ovnicek or his staff at EDSS at (406) 892-2977