RE: RE: Re: Toe Length/Low Heel

["Snodgrass, Bonnie" <snodgrab@ncr.disa.mil>]

Your horse is now stuck in a viscous cycle. Because his heels are low, they
are being over weighted, i.e. the weight on his feet is not being evenly
distributed from front to back. Your farrier can't take enough toe off to
redistribute his weight. This excess weight "crushes" his heels. If you look
closely from the side at the slope or angle of the heels from the hair line
down to the ground and compare this angle to the angle seen on the hind
heels, you'll probably see that the angle is more acute. The heels actually
angle forward towards the toes. You may be able to see the faint vertical
lines that run up and down on the exterior of the hoof walls. You'll see the
lines at the heels angle forward. These acute angles indicate crushed under
heels. From what I've read and been told the heels will stay crushed under
unless they are unweighted. In fact I've been told that the crushed under
portion actually needs to be trimmed off (which is really hard to believe in
doing when you've been preserving what heels the horse has) which actually
drops the heels down more. Then something must be done to shift the horses
weight off the heels. Some farriers believe in using a wedge shoe at this
point to shift weight forward and get the horses angle back up so he doesn't
pull his shoes from forging. Also relieves stress on soft tissue structures.
One very good farrier that I really trusted would actually trim the heels
shorter than the rest of the foot so they didn't bear any weight at all.
Then he used a wedge pad under a bar shoe. The wedge brought the angles up
and the bar shoe gave support to the leg. Which ever way you go, you have to
shift weight off those heels before they will grow and grow straight down
again.

Bonnie Snodgrass
-----Original Message-----
From:	Ruth Abair [mailto:shakesbearides@texoma.net]
Sent:	Tuesday, April 18, 2000 10:41 AM
To:	ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject:	RC:  Re: Toe Length/Low Heel

Dear Ridecampers,

My Arabian gelding - coming 5 - had his front heels taken down to
nubbins prior to my purchasing him January 1999. I have had him on
Biotin Plus - in addition to what I consider a balanced diet which
includes 12% protein, vitamins and minerals - ever since that time. The
overall condition of his hooves have improved "greatly" - both front and
back - with one exception. The heels - up front - have had "no"
measureable growth. He has "regular" shoeings - nothing fancy -
approximately every six weeks, and the farrier keeps the toes short to
promote growth of the heels, "but" we have had little/no real success.
Any comments, ideas, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ruth Abair in Texas
shakesbearides@texoma.net


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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
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