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My friend and shooting partner Cristy Cumberwork wrote this post on  
the fuglyhorseoftheday blog today, and I feel this concise info is  
worth sharing, am sure the content is old news to many of you.   
Cristy's been riding competitive trail since she was a kid along with  
her family, they manage rides, and she did take the horse mentioned  
below to Tevis though before his feet issue had been identified much  
less resolved.  She's the editor of Hoof Print, the NATRC pub. (I'm  
oversensitive about proper trimming/shoeing anyway, but my own  
horse's ideally shod feet were nearly ruined while recently on trial  
for sale, wearing shoes that had only been on for two weeks but that  
shoer had done everything wrong--it's going to take 3 shoeing cycles  
to fully restore his fronts, one down, two to go, though he is  
rideable.)

---
For those that are having a hard time with evasiveness while ridden.  
(Popping shoulders, not wanting to round) You can make sure the horse  
is physically ABLE to do it first by taking a good long look at their  
feet. So much bad and undesirable behavior comes from unbalanced  
feet. Especially long toes and underrun heels and medial-lateral  
imbalances too. Most of us just love our farriers and assume they are  
doing the best job....... but how do you really know?

Here's a few clues to look for. Get down at the foot level and look,  
REALLY look, at the coronet bands from the front. Are they level? If  
they are tilted then the medial/lateral balance is off and can cause  
pain (and eventually remodel the bones too, but doesn't take as long  
as you might think). Are there flares? Usually the pain from medial/ 
lateral balances are not enough for the horse to show unsound (at  
first anyway), but still.... ouch, think of the canters, gallops and  
landing a jump!. Are there any humps or curves in the top of the  
coronet band? If there is, that is a place where there is pressure  
pushing the coronet band up.... a spot where the hoof wall needs a  
wee bit extra trimming or rasping to allow that section of hoof to  
"drop".  Sometimes you can have the foot "leveled" and wait overnight  
and some of it will drop, telling you exactly where the pressure is  
and allowing it to be rasped again before shoes are applied.   
Sometimes all you need is 20 minutes for it to drop.

When you look at your horse from the side, is there any hoof under  
the cannon bone? If not, the hoof has migrated forward. (this  
appearance can also be caused by long slopey pasterns, in both cases  
the horse needs trailers on his shoe to help give support under the  
cannon bone) Also look for a smooth unbroken line from the pastern  
joint through the hoof. if that angle is 'broken' the hoof is likely  
out of balance. The angle of the shoulder, pastern hoof and head  
should all just about match. I see lots and lots of 'broken back'  
angles on horses, meaning the angle of the hoof is less than the  
angle of the pastern and is usually accompanied (and caused by) long  
toes, underrun heels. (X-rays will tell the truth but it's often very  
apparent by just looking.  This condition put major EXTRA forces on  
the suspensory and other tendons and ligaments and will often cause  
suspensory soreness that no one can quite figure out how to make go  
away. It also puts TONS of pressure on the P2 (short pastern) P3  
(coffin bone) joint and guess what is right under that joint.... you  
guessed it.... the navicular bone!!!!! It can actually be squished up  
against the joint and become misshapen by the pressure on it. Many  
many cases of "navicular" (I use that term lightly 'cause many people  
call the many things that CAN go wrong there by one name, including  
vets). Just so long as you know 'navicular' can be any number of  
things happening in that particular area. Hopefully that will be  
enough info to help you talk to your farrier (and vet) about the  
condition of your horses feet a little.  All of the above issues can  
be corrected or helped with REAL balanced trimming, more can be  
corrected with therapeutic shoeing except conformation but some of  
that can be even be fixed if caught when the horse is under a year old.

Horses are really pretty damn stoic, by design, and often there are  
little things about the feet that cause pain that they don't tell you  
about in an obvious way. They often opt for what we refer to as  
behavioral problems, many of which are little (or big) evasions.   If  
you horses feet are properly balanced according to its individual  
conformation, it's amazing how many of these evasive behavioral  
issues will just fizzle away.  You may not know it but if your  
horse's hooves are not balanced, they are probably slowly  
degenerating.  Hoof imbalances can impair circulation to the hoof  
which, in turn, can cause bone and tissue degeneration, which can  
cause more circulation issues....vicious cycle.  Eventually the horse  
can't help but show the pain and sometimes by the time he "tells"  
you, it's too late.  He gets retired.

Not all farriers are created equal!  Not all vets are either. (I have  
met plenty that are clueless as to the P1, P2, P3 alignment as well  
as lateral/medial imbalances, all of which can mold the bones and  
misshape them and it doesn't take as long as you think.) How do I  
know all this? The hard way.  But with therapeutic shoeing, he is  
doing much, much better and it much happier and is moving better than  
he ever has. He will hopefully be balanced enough able to go barefoot  
again. (One proper trim is not gonna fix it.  It takes time because  
the foot takes about one year to grow one full cycle.)  Lo and  
behold, the horse that was given to me with the only half-joking  
nickname of Widowmaker is pretty happy these days.... and guess what,  
after 17 years of walking around like a banana shape (upside down,  
from ears to tail) the horse now rounds himself when he works. (But  
don't fret--he's still capable of calling out Mr. Hyde :-) but he has  
fewer reasons to do so.)  Once we balanced the feet, THEN we worked  
on the training part.  Lots of bending exercises and longeing (with  
side reins placed as close to the withers as possible, NOT down by  
the girth) to get him to step under and quit evading straightness,  
and even lots of riding time cutting across hills to keep the weak  
side uphill to force it to work.  He's 23 and remolding the muscles  
is slow but progressive.  The important thing is now he physically CAN.

Some cool references: Horseshoeing by Anton Lungwitz, translated by  
John Adams (a book). The Principles of Horseshoeing, 2nd or 3rd  
edition by Dr. Doug Butler (another book) Equinestudies.org (Dr. Deb  
Bennett, how to achieve straightness, see article "Lessons from  
Woody" at the minimum).   SustainableDressage.com (really really nice  
section on tack as well as true vs. false collection).

I hope that help some of you and your horses out. Proper balance in  
the feet (based on the individual horses conformation, you must trim  
the WHOLE HORSE) does not matter if it's shod or barefoot. THAT is  
the core, whether you put shoes on or not after the balancing has  
been done properly, fine.  There is soooooo much more to the story  
but that is a decent starting point I hope.  No Hoof, No Horse.

Post Script:  Even since taking my horse through the process of  
rebalancing his long out-of-balance feet, I have become intensely  
interested in hooves.  I have since gotten all my mom's horses' feet  
balanced and we have a lot of much more comfortable happier horses  
now--and the young ones, well they aren't getting the chance to  
become imbalanced.  They are much more fun to ride and teach things  
to!  I continue to work with my vet AND farrier on other clients'  
horses documenting the progress they are making.  Many, many of the  
clients report back that the horses are more willing and feel like  
they are moving more free and easy especially once their long toes  
are disposed of.  My job is to watch horses, I am a pro equine  
photographer and I go to many many events.  I can't help but look at  
feet now too, it's like an obsession and there are lots and lots of  
horses out there with problems.  Hopefully this will inspire you, the  
horse owner, to take a good long look at your horses feet and ask  
questions of your farrier AND vet and take the time to educate  
yourself so you can make a good informed choices on who helps you  
care for your horse and give it longevity as well as many many  
comfortable days doing its job.





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