Shoes mask weaknesses, barefoot highlights strengths
A lot of comment is made about 'long toes' and many a poor horse has had their toes dumped or worse in an attempt to correct a problem by addressing a symptom without a complete understanding perhaps of the anatomy of the hoof or the consequences of addressing symptoms not cause.
The following photos are of three different horses, Horses One and Two had a toe shape typically criticised for being overly long. The last one, Horse Three, was considered to be fine.
Horse One
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Long toe? Look at the shape and size of the heel,
particularly the lateral cartilage. Can we just cut the toe off? |
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Can you see the lamellar wedge? The heel is weak.
See picture below. |
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| Collapsed heel - very weak digital cushion and lateral cartilages |
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Same foot a few months later, still in rehab but
compare heel and lateral cartilage with first picture |
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| Lamellar wedge almost gone |
Horse Two
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| Is this a long toe? |
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Solar view of above foot. Which bit of the toe
would you cut off to shorten?
Notice contracted heel and thrush |
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Still a work in progress, but notice how the heel
has bulked up apparently shortening the toe |
Horse Three
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| This is a genuinely long toe. Shod every 6 weeks |
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| Front view of above |
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| Same foot two months later, sound, no longer tripping |
So what is often considered to be a 'long' toe is actually one with a shallow angle, often caused by a weak/atrophied caudal hoof. This can be only be properly fixed by developing the back of the foot through proper diet and exercise.
A truly long toe is often completely missed - they are even considered normal or desirable in some circles. Despite the fact that they can cause secondary problems such as tripping or injury. The truly long toe as shown in Horse Three is easily remedied by a competent HCP.
This foot was never 'officially' diagnosed as suffering from laminitis. But the signs were there. Stretched white line with blood at the toe. Significant stress rings and a dropped sole.
The first picture is beginning of Sept 09, the second is today Feb 2010. I have edited this post to put in today's picture. If you click on it you can clearly see how the foot is still scooting forward, but we are getting there. Both pictures right fore.
It's easy to see how distorted the hoof capsule is in the first photo. The toe is too long, the heel underslung and there is a wave in the coronary band where the quarter is out of whack.
In the second photo (apologies for the mud) you can see a much shorter hoof capsule overall, the heel is back in the correct position and there is no distortion in the coronary band. The mustang roll is less than pretty, but we are working on that :-)
These pictures have a bigger time frame between them. The first is beginning Sept 09, the second is today, beginning Feb 2010. Both right fore.
You can easily see how the foot has decontracted and the concavity has improved signifcantly. There is still more to go, but we are making progress. This hasn't been achieved because of the trim, but because the whole lifestyle of the horse has been addressed (DEET).
The horse was allowed to self trim its sole and bars which happened very quickly once the shoes were removed. The bars were badly overlaid and had become embedded in the sole.
Underneath the overlaid bars were substantial, weeping corns.
The 'live' sole was more convex than concave and there was a significant amount of bloody torn laminae at the toe. All in all a very sick and painful foot.
Despite the difficulties we are making progress and today the horse was able to walk comfortably over a patch of large, fairly sharp stones.
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