barefoot mediolateral balance

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vicky_sut

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Ive been thinking about this and wondered what the general thought is.
As I understand it when a horse is barefoot the greater the amount the horse works and wears its feet the more the hoof grows in response to the wear. If the horse consistantly central loads heel first then the hoof grows correctly. If a horse has an injury or conformation fault the hoof will grow to support the leg causing hoof deviation as opposed to flaring.
But if the horse isn't landing heel first or loads one side more than the other the hoof will continue to grow the support for the movement unless the enviroment/footing changes such as pea gravel that helps change the landing to heel first.
If the enviroment cant be changed due to being on a livery yard do you trim to 'rebalance' and 'correct' the movement over a period of time or do you continue to allow the hoof to 'sort itself out'.
But if the horse habitually moves the same way due to muscle memory and continues to wear the hoof the same way wont it continue to grow that way even if an injury has mended.
Hope that all makes sense :-) Any ideas? Of course said barefoot horse would be on good diet, its more that if diet is as good as you can get but horse still doesn't walk heel first how do you get the heel first landing when there is mediolateral balance issues. I know there are a few 'hoof people' on here and wondered that they thought.
 
So happy that you raised this issue. Partly because I see so many cases of it not been addressed correctly. Sometimes even caused by the way the horse is trimmed and/or shod.

Often the odd wear is caused by a problem higher up - sometimes it becomes chicken or egg in that the odd balance can cause problems higher up which then make the foot worse.

The sad (?) thing is it is incredibly easy to address if you know what you are doing, but it equally easy to mess it up if you don't or think you do, but don't really.

This is one example, but there are others http://barefoothorseblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/deviated-hooves-now-you-see-it-now-you.html

This is another http://barefoothorseblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/scare-mongering-and-deviated-hoof.html which is very interesting because regular work and trimming keeps the hoof in reasonable shape, if the horse stops working even for a relatively short time it starts to go awry again.
 
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I have one stonkingly sound horse who always puts the outside of his off fore down first and always has. He wears the foot level and moves straight, so I don't mess with it.

My hunter had a fairly strong imbalance in the fore and hind on the diagonal he was reluctant to carry me on when I first backed him. A year or more of schooling has straightened him up and his front foot is now symmetrical and the hind has a radical change of angle on the outside wall grown half way down.

I had a toe in horse who I tried to trim to straighten him up but his problem was cannon bones that twisted from the knee down and it made him worse. He wore his feet unevenly and I trimmed him to stop the unevenness getting too excessive, but not to correct it.

My horse with spavin in the hocks loaded the inside of his hind feet more than the outside, normal for spavin, and grew higher heels on the inside too. Since standard spavin shoeing is wedges on the inside, I left well alone as he was coping with his hocks by doing it.

So as an owner/trimmer, not a working trimmer, my own limited experience has been that the imbalances of horses I have had have been a result of things higher in their bodies.
 
The whole ''must land heel first to be correct'' theory is the human again deciding what is ''normal''.
Look at nature - a horses hoof naturally lands heel-first in some conditions, flat in some and toe-first in others. Like humans, all horses are different - we must not try to make all horses move the same way. Balance the foot, and the horse decides how he wants to land on his hooves, and this varies greatly.
 
Caroline are you a farrier or pro trimmer? I ask because I know of no other trimmers who do not think heel first is the horse's preferred way of loading its foot.

Every single hardworking sound barefoot horse I have ever seen lands heel first on smooth tarmac and smooth concrete. The first sign of improvement in navicular rehabs is when they move to a heel first landing, documented time and again in video on rockleyfarm.blogspot.com (Thanks must go to Nic for posting such a marvellous resource for us all to refer to and NO I do NOT have any commercial relationship with Rockley, nor am I a friend of Nic's but I really value what she is doing with foot lameness research).

Toe first landing on a smooth hard surface is incorrect and has been shown to damage the DDFT in experiments with cadaver horse legs. Therefore only flat or heel first can be correct and personally I would always listen to the horse and every darned one I see is heel first on a smooth hard surface. My own rehab horse was so toe first that his foot double-clicked as it hit the floor toe-heel, and he came sound soon after going heel first landing and has remained so ever since.

I strongly believe that if a horse is toe first landing on a smooth hard surface, (shod or unshod) that you have problems brewing which will show sooner or later with lameness if the horse is in work.
 
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My mare is pigeon toed, her front hooves are quite asymmetrical & because she breaks over off-centre, she puts a big roll on the outside of her toes when she does roadwork. My bits of trimming basically involve putting a matching roll on the rest of her foot to try & prevent flare but I don't do anything else, she has grown the foot she wants under her so who am I to argue :o I've known horses with funny looking feet where farriers have tried to make them look better and the horses have hardly taken a sound step afterwards, so I just accept that my horse has slightly gimpy paws and that's how it is :) She lands heel first and when her trimmer comes the most she needs to take off to balance her heels is a mm or two, so although the impact her conformation has on her breakover is quite significant, it doesn't seem to affect her heels a great deal ;)

Don't know if this is any help :)
 
I'm beginning to see that the heel first (not excessive btw as my pony with laminitis does excessive heel first landing) landing is measured on flat tarmac or concrete. Horses going over varied terrain land in all sorts of ways depending on the terrain and gait etc. Are horses supposed to ALWAYS land heel first? I see heel first landing on flat as a measure of strength in the foot rather than an absolute way of landing? Is this incorrect?
 
Amandap - I think you have it right. I also think peeps can get themselves a bit .... because of simple miscommunication. Which is why forums can be a dangerous place. Sometimes I really get the shivers with some of the material which is pedalled.

So here is my take (which lines up with yours - just different words)

Foot landing on a dead level flat surface with a sound horse is usually heel first and is a good measure. On a sloping surface, or grass or an arena, trail, mountain etc it is going to be different.
 
Foot landing on a dead level flat surface with a sound horse is usually heel first and is a good measure. On a sloping surface, or grass or an arena, trail, mountain etc it is going to be different.
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Fully agree - although there are times when they choose to go toe first, often on a surface that they are unsure of so folks don't need to get wound up if they see a toe first at times - usually with the horse looking down.

I do think there is a lot of unnecessary mystique created around the ML balance - and to be ruthlessly truthful, trimmers and farriers can only take a guide from the sole plane, heels, heel bulbs and hairlines - no one can tell for sure if the balance is really correct without an xray of the foot!

Like cptrayes, I have one whose feet look unballanced, but I know they are spot on - I have xrays to prove it. The hoof looks longer on one side than the other - but it works for the horse, P3 is level, and if I interfere with that then it is giving him discomfort higher up
 
LucyPriory said:
Amandap - I think you have it right. I also think peeps can get themselves a bit .... because of simple miscommunication. Which is why forums can be a dangerous place. Sometimes I really get the shivers with some of the material which is pedalled.

So here is my take (which lines up with yours - just different words)

Foot landing on a dead level flat surface with a sound horse is usually heel first and is a good measure. On a sloping surface, or grass or an arena, trail, mountain etc it is going to be different.
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Thanks for this. I often read about heel first landing being the aim but it never seems to be quallified and some peeps seem to have the impression it's an absolute thing. Glad I seem to have understood the phrase properly.
 
P doesn't land heel first when she's going up the big hill to her turnout field, I'm not sure she physically could. Similarly, I don't think she has any choice but to land heel first when we come back down again! :o
 
Been reading this thread with interest and subsuquently have been looking at photos of my chap.......difficult to find one caught at the moment of landing, but I did find one where he lands flat behind, but looks to land toe first in front.
This is on a relatively flat surface(schooling field).
I take it, in barefoot terms, this is not desirable?

picture.php
 
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Toe first landing in a shod or barefoot horse is undesirable. The ill effects of this on the internal structure of the foot, and soft tissue structure in the limb, is well documented and generally accepted by vets and farriers alike.
 
foxy1 said:
Toe first landing in a shod or barefoot horse is undesirable. The ill effects of this on the internal structure of the foot, and soft tissue structure in the limb, is well documented and generally accepted by vets and farriers alike.
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I use a farrier as opposed to a barefoot trimmer.......pony was recently trimmed(after this was taken though)......I take it the balance of his feet is wrong then? Can't honestly say I've noticed this with him before, but then it's not something I would have automatically looked for :o
Hmmm, farrier needs a call then.........
 
sleepingdragon10 said:
Been reading this thread with interest and subsuquently have been looking at photos of my chap.......difficult to find one caught at the moment of landing, but I did find one where he lands flat behind, but looks to land toe first in front.
This is on a relatively flat surface(schooling field).
I take it, in barefoot terms, this is not desirable?
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You can't tell naything from working on grass, they often dig their toe into soft ground for grip. You need a slowmo video on tarmac or concrete to be sure what is going on.
 
Caroline1239 said:
The whole ''must land heel first to be correct'' theory is the human again deciding what is ''normal''.
Look at nature - a horses hoof naturally lands heel-first in some conditions, flat in some and toe-first in others. Like humans, all horses are different - we must not try to make all horses move the same way. Balance the foot, and the horse decides how he wants to land on his hooves, and this varies greatly.
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I totally agree. Whilst heel first landing seems to be what the healthy, comfortable hoof does on a flat hard surface, this is just one situation. I know just watching my horses at liberty that when going down slippery surfaces they will dig in with their toes to get extra grip. When stopping and spinning the edge of the foot may land first etc etc. Heel first landing on specific surfaces is a good indicator but not the be all and end all by any means.

As for mediolateral balance I pretty much agree with everything that's been posted. Always balance the heels and toes looking at the solar plane, never ever top down. I know one farrier who trims, watches a horse walk away from him, then trims a bit more depending on what he sees - top down trimming... never a good idea.
 
cptrayes said:
You can't tell naything from working on grass, they often dig their toe into soft ground for grip. You need a slowmo video on tarmac or concrete to be sure what is going on.
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I'll be looking at him tomorrow.........we've recently had some issues(pottery infront) which I cannot pinpoint a cause for so this seems as good a place as any to start.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies, glad everyone can agree on something :0)
Sleeping dragon have a look at the rockley farm blog there are loads of great info and videos on heel first landing.
 
Hi CPtrayes,

I am a professional trimmer - and I know a whole association of trimmers that understand the hoof just like this.
To make a statement that all horses should always land heel first to be ''normal'' is at the very least unhelpful, and at the very worst can cause harm to be done in the quest for this ''ideal''.
Humans like to standardise things, and nature does not always fit into the nice tidy little boxes we make for it.
If a horse is recovering through an injury, or has old set damage in tendon, ligament or muscle structure...they may never end up landing heel first.....or taking a while to get there .....and maybe forcing them through possibly invasive trimming to do so would be at the least unhelpful. Totally flat surfaces maybe...but I also think it can be misleading to judge soundness on walking/trotting/cantering on a totally flat surface (tarmac roads etc) - true soundness is soundness over different types of terrain
 
My experience would be that you cannot force a horse to land heel first, you can only give it a trim which allows it to do so when it can, and the right work to help it get there. I'm not sure how anyone could "force" a horse to land heel first - deliberately hurt it's toe so it doesn't want to put it down? There isn't a reputable trimmer in the country who would advocate doing that. Invasive trims are illegal and have been subject to successful prosecutions.

No organisation I know of, and I think I know them all, is saying that a horse should "always" land heel first.

I don't have the problem that you have with saying that a heel first landing is normal for all sound and working barefoot horses on a hard flat surface. The only barefoot horses that I have seen do anything else had injuries. Listening to sound horses, I would always assume that what the overwhelming majority do is what is right. And the overwhelming majority land heel first, just as the overwhelming majority of horses with anything in the "navicular syndrome" spectrum land toe first. It seems to speak for itself to me.
 
vicky_sut said:
Thanks everyone for your replies, glad everyone can agree on something :0)
Sleeping dragon have a look at the rockley farm blog there are loads of great info and videos on heel first landing.
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Thanks, I certainly will have a look......looked at my chap today on a flat, hard surface and he lands flat in front. He has had a stifle problem in the past and I guess has learnt to move in a certain way(he drags his toe rather than picking up and placing the foot).
 
Of my two horses, The Tank has always been barefoot - he lands heel first all the time that I can see.

My elderly Arab was shod for 13 years (always sound), been barefoot for 7 years now. He has the same trimmers, the same environment, same forage as The Tank but he has always landed toe first on all surfaces.

Neither are lame or unhappy.

Horses for courses.
 
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ooh, interesting. I'd love to see him and see if there is some mechanical reason why he does that. In theory, if Bowker and Rooney were correct, he is "getting away with it" but don't tell him that because he obviously hasn't read the book :)
 
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