RE: PICS: Crushed Heels

[Karen Standefer <hrschk@yahoo.com>]

>>Karen, I'm not sure whether I really get this, or
maybe there are some typos in here ... Do you mean
that the day before the top picture the hairline was
vertical, or really horizontal?  I can't visualize a
horizontal hairline with long toes and those heels.  I
also think you mean "and is NOW ground parallel",
right?<<

Sorry, I should have not posted that late at night
after 2 glasses of wine :-)  Many, many typos.  His
hairline was close to horizontal.  Actually, it was
probably about 20 degrees prior to going on that 20
mile ride.  Believe it or not, he did wear some of
that heel down.  Even though they're crushed, there
was more material to the prior to the ride.  And, yes,
I meant that his coffin bones are NOW ground parallel.
 Sorry for all the typos.  

Another thing I should mention.  The top pic was taken
several months in between the bottom pic.  Roy
actually got worse (more underrun, longer toes) after
the top pic, but I don't have any pictures of the
progress.  Sorry.  Hind site.......   He had gotten so
underrun that his heels were literally coming off.  He
had a slit below the hairline, above the heel bulb
about 3/4" wide that looked like someone cut it with a
razor.  It was just going to fall off.  That's when we
knew we had to do something.  So, in Aug, I started
this trim.  I took his heels down to about 1.5 cm
(took it down as far as we could without getting too
close to the corium).   Obviously, he was not being
worked with this little hoof, but he was lame anyway
from the horribly crushed heels and the fact that the
heel was separating from his hoof!   It took about 6
weeks to grow enough hoof out to be able to work him
again.  I walked him daily on asphalt during this
time.  By Oct, we had the hoof you see in the bottom
photo.  

>>Observers also note that not only are his heels
standing up now, but the bulbs of the heel are much
rounder.  A "flat" heel bulb is very typical
with poor heels like these were.<<


>>Absolutely.  I've always been reluctant to make
changes like that and then go out and work a horse
hard straight away.  I am surprised that after a
radical trim like that and then 20 miles of work he
remained sound.<<

I didn't trim Roy before we did that 20 mile ride.  I
simply pulled shoes and we rode.  I only rasped the
edges so that they wouldn't chip.  So, what you see in
the top photo is how Roy trimmed his own hooves.   Had
I ridden him another 20 miles after those photos he
would not have made it.  He didn't have enough hoof. 
His hoof quality was very poor which is why he wore
his hooves down so much after running on those rocks. 
We don't get a trimming these days after only 20 miles
on rocks :-) because his hooves are good quality and
hard as steel.


>>Also, you had said you seek 45 deg in front - did
you eventually allow his toe to grow out more, or did
you keep it this way?  It looks closer to 55 degrees
to me, with just under 30 for the hairline.  The
pastern is aligned with the hoof as I would set him up
(I use the axis of the pastern, not the ventral face
of the pastern - there's actually a "crease" there
that shows in the picture).  The other one (which I
guess is the one that was clubby?) looks more like the
45.<<

Actually, I seek a 30 degree hairline. But, the result
of that is a 45 degree hoof angle for front hooves. 
The bottom photo has a hoof angle of about 48 degrees
at that point.  We didn't have enough toe height,
vertically, to push the angle back to 45 degrees.  So,
the hairline was off a bit, too.  Currently, it's just
where I want it on both hooves.  I have a program that
reads the stats on the hoof.  This is what is says
about that pic:

Hairline Angle = 27.11 degrees
Hoof Angle 48.56 degrees
Heel Angle 42.88 degrees 
Heel Height 2.3 cm (too short!)

Here are the measurements on the clubby one from a pic
taken the same day as the one above:

Hairline Angle = 20.65 degrees
Hoof Angle 50.45 degrees
Heel Angle 43.91 degrees 
Heel Height 2.3 cm (as I mentioned, we trim the two
front hooves to the same height)


>>Also, I do see that the pastern on the right foot is
much more upright - did this settle as well the way
you described?  Do you have pictures of
that from more recently?<<

Yes, the pastern has settled as well as the hoof angle
has come down to 45 degrees.  I'll get some recent
pics this weekend and post them.  We're still doing
some remedial work on the hooves, so you'll have to
bear with a less than perfectly shaped hoof, but
you'll be able to see the two front hooves have the
same pastern angle as well as ventral hoof wall angle.
 I have some pics from Jan, but they're not really
good quality and I'd prefer to get pics with a bit
more of his boney column showing so that you guys can
see the difference a bit more clearly.  

I wonder if the fact that I was dubbing the toes back
so far is scewing your opinion of the angle of the
hooves.  I dubbed them back so far in order to get the
heels under him.  We pulled the toes back to the
whiteline (which was his breakover according to
x-rays) weekly to keep the heels growing down instead
of forward.

Karen



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