Re: Sore Foot Dilemma (hole notta sole) long

[Niccolai Murphy <niccolai_m@yahoo.com>]

The results of the study seem to follow intuitive physics. I was
however referring to the average ferrier's line of thinking which is,
'Sole pressure is bad, bad, bad. So I will remove it.' 

My thinking is, 'Thin sole is bad.' In a soft show ring, the normal
'gouge and hack' philosophy probably doesn't hurt unless you hit a
buried rock. For us though, on hard ground or soft, a thicker sole has
to be better than a thin one when you do hit a rock - even if it means
trimming to share load between wall and sole. The only way to avoid it
would be to use pads.

So if you have a horse that has not much sole (as in the case of the
original poster), cutting it away to make the wall carry the load
makes no sense. In this case allowing time to grow new sole is the
only solution. 

It is a painful process, since the tissues that the sole is there to
protect, will be prone to trauma until it grows to a reasonable depth,
causing repeated injuries during recovery which may take several months.

On the point of sliding of the foot on the ground. I would hazzard a
guess that this is small and would be greatest when there is a change
in speed or when going up or down hill (which probably means the
entire ride in this region - our horses would most likely go lame if
made to to 50 miles on level ground). Upon observing foot prints of
many animals (deer, coyote, cougar, rabbits, roadrunner and so forth)
here, I've not noticed much in the way of slippage. There again,
perhaps foot prints are different in other terrain? What do they look
like up your way?




---Duncan Fletcher <dfletche@gte.net> wrote:
>
> Studies at Texas A & M indicate that horses are hard surfaces are
supported
> by hoof wall. Those on soft surfaces primarily by sole and frog.
> 
> Duncan Fletcher
> dfletche@gte.net
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Niccolai Murphy <niccolai_m@yahoo.com>
> >Hal was like this the first time he went bare foot due to pulling
> >shoes and quite a lot of hoof off. I personally don't think that
> >having the sole carry weight is a bad thing, I know that this a
> >contrarian opinion. In Hal's case it took several months of letting
> >him grow his feet again until he could move without looking like a
war
> >casualty. I would guess that what your horse needs is time. Fancy
> >trimming and drilling won't fix this one.
> >
> 
> >
> >==
> >http://freeweb.socal.wanet.com/hlurphy/
> >Nicco Murphy - Poway, San Diego, CA
> >
> >
> >
> >_________________________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 
 
==
http://freeweb.socal.wanet.com/hlurphy/
Nicco Murphy - Poway, San Diego, CA



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