low heels and suspensory injuries??!!

italylyns

italylyns

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Hi all,
I am driving myself mad as i have bought an ID who has very low heels and i bought him to do a bit of everything, especially local level showjumping and XC.

A few of my friends have made comments on how horses with such low heels can suffer or are more prone to pulling their suspensory ligaments etc.

Should i worry about this or not?

paranoid to jump him now lol!!
 
Not heard this before, although its interesting as mine does have quite low heels, and had PSD last year :rolleyes:

Would be interested to hear more, esp ways to help it :)
 
My boy tweaked a hind suspensory earlier this year and my Vet commented that his low heels hadn't helped as it added strain to the area. I changed the person who looks after my horses hooves and they have now improved in shape and he has heels again, Vet was happy with that.
 
Often low heels can mean that the pedal bone is reverse rotated. This is often seen in conjunction with suspensory problems. Horses do not 'naturally' have low heels. Usually it is many years of shoeing that is to blame. My farrier was saying the other day that all horses should ideally have a break from shoes for several months of the year. But that nowadays that did not often happen. Many years ago, lots of horses were worked seasonally, for example, they would hunt in the winter, and then get turned away during the summer and the shoes would come off. Low, underrun heels were much less common in these horses.
 
My boy is only 6 so he naturaly has low heels but think i will chat with my farrier to see if there any way of getting more heel and trying to level out the hoof a bit lol if that makes sense!!
 
Hmm, interesting - I have taken my boys hinds off for the next couple of farrier visits, as his heels are low on his back feet, and in general has some wonky confirmation there in the pastern.

I will no doubt be doing a 'how to my horses feet look' post sometime soon, currently 5 weeks sans shoes I think :)
 
Stencilface said:
Hmm, interesting - I have taken my boys hinds off for the next couple of farrier visits, as his heels are low on his back feet, and in general has some wonky confirmation there in the pastern.

I will no doubt be doing a 'how to my horses feet look' post sometime soon, currently 5 weeks sans shoes I think :)
Click to expand...

I never used to question shoeing until around 5 years ago. Now the more I learn, the more keen I am that horses go barefoot if at all possible. When I first removed my horses' hind shoes 7 years ago, it was mainly for financial reasons. If they could cope well without them, why pay an extra £25 to have them on? Then I started to notice how the hinds started to change shape, and how the heels that had been low and underrun started to look better and stronger, more developed. So five years ago I began to think about going totally barefoot. It took another two years to take the plunge. Now four out of the seven horses at my yard are barefoot, two have fronts only, and one is shod all round. He could easily go barefoot as his feet are fab, if a little underrun, but his owner says she's too wimpy to take them off.
 
I actually took them off after a physio visit and she mentioned that his heels looked pinched and that could be a contributory factor in his previous PSD and this year tendon swelling (although nothing diagnosed) as all the tendons and ligaments go through the heel. After spending a lot of money on both issues, I thought it can't hurt - and I might as well save some money for once :D

I haven't changed his feeding regime really, and he gets a minimal amount of food, with supplements and has varied available forage in the field. His feet are great so far, although he's not all that keen on v stony tracks yet (which is to be expected) so I just take it steady.
 
Low heels are not a risk per se... This is a healthy, extremely strong wild hoof:

feral-horse-hoof.jpg


Note the low heel.

However, if the hoof is not healthy, and the heels are collapsed rather than simply low, then yes, it can cause issues higher up the limb.
 
It figures that weak heels will affect the strength of a limb but IMO the killer for suspensorys Is poor medio/ lateral balance .
 
What a stunning boy! I guess it all depends on why the heels are low. Are they just low, or are the heels underrun? If the latter, then he may need some time out of shoes. They do look exceptionally low.
 
Vets advised me that it was horses with long pasterns that were prone to suspensory ligament injuries......my TB has really long pasterns - and yes you guessed it - suspensory ligament damage!
 
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