The article did not say it was wrong to
have matching hooves. It said matching hooves with unequal coffin bone angles
can cause problems. You did the right thing getting x-rays because that is
the only way to tell if you have unequal coffin bone angles. What you did was
not a mistake at all, just expensive...ugh. Hopefully your x-rays were done
with all the frog tip and heel markers and toe wires. Those things are needed
to determine how the coffin bone is sitting with regard to the existing toe
horn and hoof plane and sole thickness. Make sure you get a copy of the
x-rays.
Redden's second to last paragraph and I quote:
"Significance Most light-breed horses will have a bone angle
around 50-51°, but variations of up to 15° can occur between feet on the same
horse. Matching feet with such different bones can cause unwarranted problems
(see "The Myth of Matching Feet" on page 82)."
His paragraph
says to me that most light-breed horses CAN have matching hooves and most will
measure 50-51° . BUT if a hoof seems way off then get x-rays and determine the
coffin bone angle because variations of up to 15° can occur, then trim that
particular hoof accordingly. Basic common sense stuff.
Don
Huston
At 01:47 PM 7/22/2008 Tuesday, Kitley, Carrie E Civ USAF
AFSPC 30 MDSS/SGSLF wrote:
That's a very interesting
article. If we could just convince all the ride vets of this, then we
wouldn't get pulled for being a little "off"? I just spent a bundle on
x-rays and diagnostic imaging and a "specialized" farrier, trying to get my
girl's feet all even (she was low on one heel, but it never seemed to bother
her much), and now I'm wondering if it wasn't a mistake. She's now
having some minor back pain after riding this weekend, that she never
suffered from before. I'm so frustrated I could scream. I sure
wish our furry friends could talk! Sometimes I think I'm doing the
right thing by her, and then I get more information and question what I've
just done.
Carrie Kitley 30th Medical Group, Vandenberg
AFB DMLSS Database Sustainment Specialist (DSS) CACI International
Inc www.caci.com dsn 276-1077, Comm (805)
606-1077 fax dsn 276-1179 <\_~ //
\\
carrie.kitley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original
Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [
mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
firedancefarms Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 1:40 PM To:
ridecamp Subject: [RC] hooves
This is an excellent article from
the horse.com Here is a quote from part of it. I think it will ease
a lot of worries! The rest of the article is: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=7630
Most
horses do not have perfectly matching feet. Why? Often, the shapes of the
coffin bones inside them are very different. When the bone angles vary by up
to 15°, is it any wonder that the hooves are shaped differently?
Matching hoof angles when bone angles are significantly different
has an inherent risk of causing unwarranted lameness because the forces
within the foot are drastically altered.
If you try to make feet
like these match externally, you might create a lameness problem. It's a
mistake to think that forcing one to match the other or making both conform
to a vague standard will make them healthier. A horse's feet can be
perfectly healthy and functional at very high levels of competition without
matching each other or some "perfect" standard. They just have to be in
equilibrium with their internal structures to stay "happy."
