RE: Hoof Angles/Pastern Angles (1)

[Karen Standefer <hrschk@yahoo.com>]

>>Karen, can you give us a better description of what
you do over time with a horse with a rotated P3 that
will bring the hoof into alignment? Have you ever
encountered a situation like those I've had where the
hoof will come down and improve to a certain point and
then dish, with tendon soreness, knuckling fetlocks,
and lameness? What did you do?<<

Welp, to get into this discussion, I'll have to get
into the barefoot stuff and I really didn't want to do
this in this forum again.  But, if everyone can just
bear with me and not get caught up in this as being a
barefoot disccusion, then here goes:

I'm only going to deal with a club hoof here.  I would
be happy to discuss underrun heels in another
discussion.  On a horse that has both club hoof and
underrun heel (Roy did, in fact), you need to deal
wtih the underrun heels first as they are a source of
pain.

First, I would determine where the coffin bone is
inside the hoof (x-rays are preferrable).  My main
goal here is to bring the hairline angle to 30 degrees
while maintaining a decent amount of heel so that the
horse does not get sore and consequently begin toe
walking which will cause the horse to knuckle over. 
This is the paramount concern when working with this
sort of horse.  

We need to get the heels down somewhere between 2.5
and 3.5 cm on the first trim.  I would prefer 3.0, but
sometimes that is not possible (the measurement is
take below the lateral cartiledge, measuring the
height from the bottom of the hairline to the ground,
vertically).  After lowering the heels, I'll check the
hairline angle.  99 degree of the time I won't be able
to achieve a 30 degree hairline because the horse
needs more toe height (vertically, not breakover). 
So, it's a waiting game at this point.  I don't want
to shorten the breakover too much at this point
because I could cause some knuckling over which will
REALLY cause issues.  There are several other things
that need to be done now to insure that the heels are
going to decontract and spread (because I've never
seen a club hoof yet that wasn't contracted).  The
bars need to be trimmed down to be 1 cm below the top
of the collateral groove and the sole thickness needs
to be a uniform thickness over the sole.  To do this,
I start at the apex of the frog and clean out the
dirtline of any excessive sole material.  This will
give an indication of the thickness of the sole.  It
is equally pared over the sole.   Next I would clean
up the bars and make sure there is no bar material
around the lower portion of the frog because this will
inhibit healthy growth of the sole in this area.  

Next, if the horse is on firm ground or works on firm
ground, I would float the quarters from the apex of
the frog back to the weight bearing area of the heel
buttress.  This allows the hoof to expand on contact. 
If this is not done, the hairline will push up and
eventually, the area will crack and chip while the
horse is working.  

The last thing I do is to make sure the breakover is
correct.  I won't bring it back as short on this hoof
as I would if I were trying to correct underrun heels,
however, because I don't want this horse knuckling
over and I need a bit of leverage to push the horse
back on his heels.  Anyway, to assess the breakover, I
use the x-rays to determine 1/4" in front of the
coffin bone.  That usually gets me about 1" in front
of the apex of the frog on a front hoof.  On this
horse, I would probably rasp the toe, from the front
not the bottom, back to 1 1/4" in front of the apex of
the frog.  

There are many environmental considerations to take
into consideration, but this is the basis of the
methods I use.  

I would now measure those heels every two days and if
they've grown (and they will have), then I put them
back to the point that I started with above.  

Another thing to note:  I also trim both front heels
to the same height and also both front hooves to
matching heel heights.  

Now, I make sure this horse gets daily walks for at
least 20 minutes (30 is better) on a surface like
asphalt.  It should be hard and firm and level.  No
rocks or gravel at this point as the heels could be
tender.  

I have had the hoof dish during this process.  I
believe it has to in order to allow the coffin bone to
reseat itself at the new angle.  It's similar to what
has to happen after a founder, just not as dramatic
and without the discomfort of the coffin bone
dropping.  I have not had seen any suspensory soreness
using these methods, nor have I seen any knuckling
fetlocks or lameness.  The main goal here is to
quickly eliminate heel pain so that those things don't
happen (get the bars down and the heels expanding). 
In my experience, the suspensory soreness comes from
the horse toe walking.  If you can prevent that, then
the other issues you listed won't happen.  Using the
toe height as a leverage will also prevent these
things to some extent.  This is one way that I differ
dramatically from conventional farriery.  I don't
touch the toe area on the bottom of the hoof in front
of the apex of the frog unless it's necessary to solve
a balancing issue or unless one heel is inside the
vertical.   The full thickness of sole is needed there
to support the coffin bone and also to allow the
coffin bone to become ground parallel.  

Karen













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