Re: RC: paring of sole and frog

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/31/99 10:05:58 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
mmoore@imcnet.net writes:

<< For those of you who
 subscribe to this method,  what is your opinion of full pads on a horse? 
 Does it serve to act in the same manner?  Beneficiary?  Or  a negative
 impact?  My horses don't have full pads, but I do have a mare who is  very
 "ouchy", and I am wondering if it's the farrier job...or if she just has
 ultra-sensitive feet.  Nonetheless, I'd like to hear further information on
 the non-paring of sole and frog (if, indeed, I caught that information
 correctly in the first place).
  >>

The title of the article in TB Times is Nature's Gel-filled Insoles, the sub-
title, "Researchers find that blood in frog serves to cushion impact of hoof
striking the ground."

The primary researcher, Robert Bowker, VMD, of Michigan State was
investigating navicular syndrome and he and master farrier Gene Ovnicek looked
at the feet of wild mustangs for clues. "What they found was that Mother
Nature had a definite plan in forming the frog that man often alters in his
effort to produce a tidy trimming job."

Ovnicek: "We noticed a lip that the frog forms over the sulci (clefts)".
Whenever we cut it out to keep dirt from packing underneath it, it grows back.
We asked ourselves what purpose it served and it was obvious that nature
intended it to keep the dirt packed in the hoof."

The purpose, Bowker concluded, was what he calls hemodynamic cushioning. In
navicular syndrome, there is a breakdown of this type of cushioning, the
navicular bone is compressed, and all sorts of pathology follows. Between the
frog and the navicular and coffin bones is the digital cushion, a network of
blood vessels that expects to receive pressure from the frog at hoof impact.
This sponge full of blood then squashes--sending blood to the rear of the foot
while protecting the bone structures in the same way that a sponge would
cushion a hammer blow. Without the frog, there is less blood flow and less
cushioning effect for the navicular structure. 

Bowker noted other contributing factors, especially the long toe, low heel
shoeing technique, which changes the center of rotation of the hoof--this
center of rotation should be at the tip of the frog--a callus typically grows
there to take up a significant part of the force of rotation, again, pumping
blood to the rear of the foot and easing the stress on the navicular and
coffin bones--also relieving stress on the laminae of the hoof. 

There's a lot more to this article. I assume that TB Times can provide
reprints. Their phone is (606) 260-9800, their fax (606) 260-9812. 

ti


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