Barefoot and medial lateral balance

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Daisy2

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My horse is barefoot, lame and poor conformation in the front legs, knock knee's. I have had various trimmers and farrier's over the years and none of them have looked at the whole horse anyway an absolutely fantastic guy was recommended to me. First thing he said is he is not balanced so he trimmed him and ping his legs went straight, he showed me what he had done and bacially left the inside quarter longer/higher than the outside which has now made him stand straight. SO what are your thoughts on balanced hooves, ones that look symetrical (sp) or legs that look straight and central with the cannon bone??

Anyway he said it would take a few weeks for him to learn to start standing straight, he also left me with a rasp eek! and showed me how to keep the setup he has achieved and would come out once a month to assess. I feel quite confident to do this as its just a bit of filing each week to stay on top, he has left an old rasp so not to aggressive. So what are your thoughts on balanced hooves and straight legs.
 
Horses tend to grow the hooves they need, so how they wear is quite an important consideration.
Very little and often is the key your looking for here I feel.
 
Are you not concerned that this change of balance through his leg would hurt, I mean, if I changed the way I used my legs in a "ping" I'm pretty sure my joints would scream the place down for a while? Genuine question.
 
My thoughts are that probably how he was trimmed before took into account hoof balance only - i.e. trim to the sole plane. Trimmed regularly like this, the horse would not have been able to grow the hoof he possibly wanted.

Left to self-trim perhaps the hoof would have grown the new way anyway to help the conformation but it's hard to tell as the wearing down has been done for him with a rasp.

he could have been experiencing aching perhaps before the "ping" just like if we had our backs manipulated or wore orthopeadic shoes. My knees stopped hurting once I wore orthopeadic shoes instantly.

Time only will tell, however, I think it can be a good thing as it will stop uneven wear on the joints. Better to have healthy wonky hoof than wonky creaky joints :)

The rasp is there for the owner to help keep the balance, not make radical changes I'm sure. I rasp in between professional visits for the same reason.
 
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Daisy2 said:
My horse is barefoot, lame and poor conformation in the front legs, knock knee's. I have had various trimmers and farrier's over the years and none of them have looked at the whole horse anyway an absolutely fantastic guy was recommended to me. First thing he said is he is not balanced so he trimmed him and ping his legs went straight, he showed me what he had done and bacially left the inside quarter longer/higher than the outside which has now made him stand straight. SO what are your thoughts on balanced hooves, ones that look symetrical (sp) or legs that look straight and central with the cannon bone??

Anyway he said it would take a few weeks for him to learn to start standing straight, he also left me with a rasp eek! and showed me how to keep the setup he has achieved and would come out once a month to assess. I feel quite confident to do this as its just a bit of filing each week to stay on top, he has left an old rasp so not to aggressive. So what are your thoughts on balanced hooves and straight legs.
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I've only ever seen unhappy outcomes from this approach - including a PTS when the knee joints were damaged from the attempts to straighten the legs.
 
Any conformation correction via foot balance should be slow and done by degrees and in reality in young horses where bones are still soft and growing.

I agree that dramatic change can result in a disastrous result. OP does state this horse is lame which would suggest that intervention maybe needed to support a poorly conformed leg.

I have said in my posts before - people pay top money for well bred horses and this is exactly why - you pay for excellent straight and true conformation. A horse with excellent conformation has the best chance of going on to do a high level job which is demanding without breaking down and being a moneypit with the vet.

Farriery can only correct to a degree - you need the good basis.
 
I'd be quite concerned by such a drastic change, tbh. How has the change affected the position of the hoof capsule around the pedal bone?
 
You have to trim in accordance with conformation and you can't magically make legs straight. You will just create stress and problems elsewhere.
 
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