Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Club footed horse

>so it sometimes appears that he is slightly off or lame.    It seems worse
the longer his feet get.

Our mare has a clubfoot also. You need a really good farrier. we finally
found one that is willing to work with us to keep Jazzy sound. We noticed
that when wearing an easyboot on her clubfoot, she appeared more sound. It
didn't matter what kind of surface she was on. We thought maybe creating an
artificial toe changed her breakover. Rob made a shoe that stuck out in
front of her hoof, so that the measurement from heel bulb to end of toe was
closer to the other foot. Then, over several shoeings, he lowered her heel
just a little. he didn't try to correct her, just get her to the optimum for
her foot. He also is gradually raising her other heel, just a little, to get
the two feet closer together. She goes with hardly any sign of lopsidedness,
now.

And since a clubfoot seems to get too long, too fast, we have her clubfoot
reset every 3-4 weeks, instead of 5-6 weeks, like the rest of her feet. Not
sure if there is any precedent to back up what we are doing, but it works
for Jazzy. We had tried the barefoot idea and just let her be natural with a
good trim, but she breaks her toe off of her clubfoot and gets worse.

Good luck,
Maggie Pritchard


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