RE: tucking butt/forging/tendon strains/ navicular??????

["Snodgrass, Bonnie" <snodgrab@ncr.disa.mil>]

From my own experience and observations horses that forge or overreach
typically will benefit from squareing the front and back toes and raising
the angles on front and hind feet. Certainly there are exceptions to this. A
horses hoof angle may be good but they may forge because they are very short
backed, built downhill, heavy on the forehand, ridden poorly, etc. 

The old standard concept of lowering the angles of the back feet (and not
squareing the toes) is in my opinion detrimental to the hind legs. It may
delay breakover but is stressfull to the joints and soft tissue plus tends
to cause a foot flight pattern that is longer and reaches further forward.
Shortening the toes and raising the heels (which a lot of horses need)
causes the breakover to speed up (also easier on the joints) but changes the
hoof flight to be a little higher and shorter, there by hopefully avoiding
the contact with the front heels. 

Having progressed from hunters to Saddlebreds to race horses to ranch
horses/mustangs to dressage to endurance I've seen the whole range of hoof
angles used to achieve various movement. Of course a lot farriers simply
shoe the same old way they were taught with out ever questioning their
methods and lots of farriers either don't ride or have very limited
experience with riding/competing performance horses. There are vets and
farriers out there that firmly believe that the long toe/low heel may be a
significant cause of navicular syndrome and tendon strains and bad hocks. It
sure causes a lot of lost shoes! One of the poorest shod equine groups are
the Quarter horses and western breeds. I've argued with many people about
the idea that navicular syndrome is hereditary. Poor conformation is
hereditary and is commonly purposely bred for, i.e. upright conformation,
straight shoulders, pasterns and hocks. Then, the typical farrier shoes LTLH
on these poorly built horses and bingo. Lame horses. I've observed a local
farrier over 6-7 years cripple horse after horse of a wide range of breeds
and conformation. You know it's just amazing how many navicular and
arthritic horses he ends up shoeing!

Wow, what a soap box speech! Can you tell I have opinions about this
subject?

Bonie Snodgrass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Nancy Mitts [SMTP:mitts_n@hotmail.com]
> Sent:	Tuesday, April 27, 1999 4:40 PM
> To:	Ridecamp@endurance.net
> Subject:	RC:  tucking the butt
> 
> Actually, doesn't squaring/shortening hind toes lead to a faster 
> breakover & increase the likelyhood of catching the front??? It's 
> typically the front toes that are too long, preventing the front foot 
> from breaking over & getting out of the way.
> Nancy Mitts
> >


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