hoof evaluation

[dustys_girlly]

little background on her, i got her for free because she was lame and the owners would not put shoes on her. they had tried the bare foot "natural" trims with her and it just was not working. after we got her she foundered from eating half a bag of grain and a full 10lb bucket of hoof supplement. luckily it was not bad and only her front left. but our main issue is trying to keep her sound while walking on our rocky ground. without shoes she can barely walk with them she does better and with pad she is doing a lot better. but here are some pictures of her front hooves and a video of her trotting.

one with the rasped toe is the one recovering for the founder
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/hooves001.jpg

right front
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/hooves002.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/hooves009.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/hooves007.jpg


left front
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/hooves003.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/hooves006.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/hooves005.jpg

back view of front hooves. i did not notice they where uneven till i got this picture.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/hooves004.jpg

video of her trotting
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y146/lostinmehead/Sterling/th_hooves011.jpg

[Tiz]

Wow, that is one of the....
How old is that set?

[cheval]

That's not what the farrier just did is it?

[dustys_girlly]

yeah these are the ones he just did yesterday and he took off as much as he could, she has got really bad hooves. when we got her she was all toe and no heel (and i mean NO heel)and we have had her maybe 8 months. and the shoes are set back on perpose. they look bad but she moves so much better than she ever did before.

[cheval]

Huh. Well, I bet Joey will know. He was asking for pictures. Hope it gets better for you and the horse!

[BeachRiding]

BUMPING this up for you!

[peace_baby]

I don't know too much about hooves, but I think Joey's on now so he can tell you.

I just wanted to say that Sterling is beautiful! How do you get her to stay so white? Lol.

[Joey A]

Oh no.....

So... Here's the deal. The corium only has so many papillae that produce the solar horn. If you look at the wall and sole of a horse under a microscope it looks like millions of soda straws bundled together. These "straws" are actually individual "hairs" that grow from the coronet band and the solar corium. When a foot gets distorted like these the sole stretches and thins. Thin soles leave the coffin bone, the circumflex artery, vein, and NERVE vulnerable to direct trauma.

This mare needs a serious "heel-ectomy" and some wedges. Setting the shoe back is a good idea, but the trim isn't right, and the breakover isn't brought back enough for this foot.

Ignore the "angles" they will only trick your eyes, when the wall is this distorted, you need to use other markers to map the shoeing. Trim the heels back so the frog is weight bearing. Right now, with that pad w/o any packing and those long heels, she IS going to have some serious issues.

There's more I was going to say, but I've been in the sun all day shoeing horses on 5 hours sleep, and my brain is fried.

There is a guy on the farrier's forum in "Eureka" CA, he might be able to get you guys pointed in the right direction.