DJD in hocks & Unbalanced front foot - Farrier or just bad luck?

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MJ_1993

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Hi people!

My horse has just been diagnosed with DJD in his hocks, he's only 10 bless him. During the lameness work out the vets also spotted he was lame in front, they x rayed that front hoof and he is unbalanced quite badly which has caused his bone to go more like " / " than it should be " | " like so. This seemed to be a farrier issue and i had decided to let the vets speak with the farrier and come up with a plan of action.

So i done some research (of course!) and a couple of articles say Poorly fitting/unbalanced shoes can cause DJD, I have been using this farrier for over 10 months now, Could this have all been created by poorly fitting shoes?
This put with the unbalanced front foot does leave me wondering....

Part of me wants to sack the farrier (Scream and cry because he seemed so good) and part of me knows full well it could just be bad luck. Has anyone experienced this before? Any general thoughts on what i should do?!
I don't want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire or anything but i would hate for my choice of farrier to have caused my boy all this pain! xx


* Side note - am i allowed to post this in the Tack Room aswell? (generally get a bigger response) Wouldn't want to double post and couldn't find a rule on that *
 
Get a farrier who can balance the feet and educate yourself so you can catch things before disaster strikes .
This may sound harsh but many people including myself have learnt this lesson the hard way .
If I don’t like my horses shoes I call the vet ask him what he thinks then most likely X-ray the feet a farrier can’t argue with an X-ray .
I am lucky now I have a great farrier who works closely with the vet to prevent issues ever starting and this includes regular foot X-rays just to see what going on .
It took me years to train myself to get to this point .
 
Most likely your horse’s natural crookedness or not being ridden straight has caused him to compensate. This in turn has caused his front hoof to start to change shape and the farrier has followed the shape of the hoof.
Sounds exactly like my own horse. I bought him 3 years ago, he passed a 5 stage vetting but I know now he had the start of djd in his hocks and navicular in his right fore. Caused by lack of straightness and bad riding & training before I got him. He went lame and we treated his hocks, he then went lame in front. X-rays and MRI found slight navicular bone deterioration plus a torn DDFT, navicular bursitis and collateral ligament damage. The vet said his hoof was not balanced, my farrier was adamant it wasn’t but did tell me he’d noticed the hoof changing shape (but never thought to mention?)
I took the shoes off and rehabbed him barefoot, that sorted the hoof issue and his feet look fantastic now. We’ve also done a range of straightness training to get him straight and moving freely. Manolo Mendez’s in hand and Simon Cocozza’s ridden horse yoga have worked really well
He’s now moving straighter and is more free & forward. He’s developing new muscle and is taller due to not holding himself tight and lifting up off his forehand. The turn in his pastern that I was told was due to the way his foot was put on his leg has now straightened too.
 
Puddleduck said:
Most likely your horse’s natural crookedness or not being ridden straight has caused him to compensate. This in turn has caused his front hoof to start to change shape and the farrier has followed the shape of the hoof.
Sounds exactly like my own horse. I bought him 3 years ago, he passed a 5 stage vetting but I know now he had the start of djd in his hocks and navicular in his right fore. Caused by lack of straightness and bad riding & training before I got him. He went lame and we treated his hocks, he then went lame in front. X-rays and MRI found slight navicular bone deterioration plus a torn DDFT, navicular bursitis and collateral ligament damage. The vet said his hoof was not balanced, my farrier was adamant it wasn’t but did tell me he’d noticed the hoof changing shape (but never thought to mention?)
I took the shoes off and rehabbed him barefoot, that sorted the hoof issue and his feet look fantastic now. We’ve also done a range of straightness training to get him straight and moving freely. Manolo Mendez’s in hand and Simon Cocozza’s ridden horse yoga have worked really well
He’s now moving straighter and is more free & forward. He’s developing new muscle and is taller due to not holding himself tight and lifting up off his forehand. The turn in his pastern that I was told was due to the way his foot was put on his leg has now straightened too.
Click to expand...

Pretty much as above.

IME shoes will not solve your problem but time out of shoes will.
 
What is the horses limb conformation like? One of mine has naviucular because she is quite upright in front and she did have a poor farrier as a youngster, the farrier wasnt the cause but it didnt help. One of our others has hock OA because he doesnt have the best hocks in the world. I would doubt that its anything a farrier has created in 10 months
 
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