Opinions on hooves please (pic heavy)

I think I wouldn't worry too much about the hinds - all the elements of a decent foot are there and work a=nd the right diet will improve them

The fronts have some good things too - the heel bulbs aren't that bad - but they are underrun - the buttress is too far forward - but don;t look from these pics to be too badly contracted. The farrier must be aware of it as he's set the shoes back from the toe a bit.

It's nothing that getting the shoes off and getting plenty of roadwork wouldn't sort out.

It may be the photographs, but the dronts have that slightly bow fronted appearance - so it's worth watching the amount of sugars this horse gets.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all your input it's been really interesting listening to what you all had to say. Hopefully in a while I will have much better feet on my lad. Hopefully he's not to bad once his fronts come off. Didn't take any notice off his hinds and walks over stones fine
 
Keep the shoes when they're off and take pics each month.

It's really interesting to look back and see the changes.
 
As others have said those are NOT NB shoes. Its a regular horseshoe (hence the fullering) which has been squared off at the toe. NB hind shoes come with and without clips.

My horse has these http://www.centrefit.com/index.html

They are the next generation NB shoes, the breakover is much better. IMHO they would be perfect for your horse until his hoof pastern axis is better.

The surgical farriors (both of them) use these at Liphook Equine Hospital and they have been a godsend to my horse.
 
Last edited:
shoes are bog standard quarter clip hinds which are usually used on the front of dressage horses as the toe over the shoe can help improve back end impulsion (or something like that, farrier bf was banging on about it but i was only pretending to listen) I personally would stay well clear of a bare foot trimmer until the heel has grown back as they usually tend to leave the toe long which with heels like that would think would cause massive strain on the pasterns etc. If your not going to work him then best thing to do is probably take shoes off, tidy up feet and sling him out in a field. Farriers formula is fab for building feet and biotin
 
thatsmygirl said:
Amandap which feet do u think has thrush in? The back under the frog? None are smelly or anything
Click to expand...
I think the front and second hind pic are the worst but the other pic shows evidence imo. The deep central cleft is the main pointer, look between the heel bulbs and you will see a crevice between in which the thrush is eating away. A healthy frog doesn't have the crevice. Also there is black on the frogs and in the collateral grooves from decaying tissue. I've learned these are all signs of thrush and not to ignore them no matter how slight the black might seem. This link might make it clearer. http://www.thenaturalhoof.co.uk/28.html
Here's another link. They are barefoot sites in US so ignore some of the treatment options.http://www.barefoothorse.com/barefoot_MoreTopics.html

We all have thrush to deal with. I don't mean to be insensitive just trying to say what I've learned to help. It's no where near as bad as one of my ponies had. The frogs are also fairly well developed which is great.

Forgot to say best of luck.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
misterjay said:
Fronts are way too long and the shoe is pulled forward, in NB shoeing the shoe should be about 1/2 - 1 inch away from the point of frog, with heel support.
Looks like a broken back hoof/pastern axis.
Glad it's not your ponio :D
Click to expand...

No expert at all but I agree my gut instinct is the shoe doesnt look right at all??? Looks too far forward and the frog on one of the pics looks very sunken?Again Heels look wrong and big?

Unless you have great faith in your farrier I would get someone else on a good solid recommendation. I would be inclined to keep shoeing front now to get that heel corrected/growth etc as sometimes taking shoes off a horse it can take quite a while for the holes to grow out which will cause hoof weakness/ breakages anyway(which looking at these fronts they need to grow out a lot on the heels). The backs dont look as bad and with good trimming etc should be ok.
 
mrogers said:
I personally would stay well clear of a bare foot trimmer until the heel has grown back as they usually tend to leave the toe long which with heels like that would think would cause massive strain on the pasterns etc.
Click to expand...
Imo the heels on the front hooves in TMG's horse are very long already. They are under run and if you look at the photo of the front hoof you will see that the heel is lying under the hoof and what he is actually walking on. many people assume if the bulbs are near the ground that the heels are short. Not in this case.
I can't draw lines on photos to show where the heel is, perhaps someone can?

Trimmers don't let toes grow long, long toes and long under run heels often go together as the long toe pulls the heels forward and they collapse under the hoof. The whole hoof tends to distort forward.
 
Just been looking more carefully at the pics and the clefts don't look as open as I first thought. Apologies. If you can open any with your hoof pic I'd suspect deep thrush. The last back hoof does look more likely imo.
 
Thanks amandap I will take a look later, you are being most helpful and all I can learn and look at/treat if he has got thrush is all good. And hopefull with the help off everybodys input his feet can only get better.
He really is worth it .... To me anyway, he's a big soft sod who my daughter often handles as he's so quiet and put his head down so she can wrap her hands round his head and kiss him. And the best thing is iv known him since a foal and loved him than and followed his racing career than had a call from his trainer saying would you like to buy him, oh yes. Over paid a few hundred but I would off paid a lot more
 
Yes, he's very lucky. No doubt it will be a bit of a detective journey to find out the best ways to help him but he's off to a good start in your hands by the sound of it.
 
I've been having a try with NT the dry powder that you can put around the frog to dry up thrush. There may be dry bedding material and other powders that people know works the same. I pick out, use a toothbrush/wire brush to get clean and then squeeze bottom so dust squirts into all the creavises around frog. Underun heels need horse to be confortable on back of foot so it uses the back part of the foot which will be a better pump to get the blood circulating and repairing/healing the hoof. Want strong frogs but hard when we get so wet. Check food so not lots of sugar and that bedding is good. Stress also doesnt help on hooves if horse has been changing environment etc and everything will show in hooves. Exercise good for circulation as long as not confortable. Shorter toe can make heel first landing more likely but only if heels not in pain. If on own land pea gravel great for making horses more comfortable on heels as a conformable surface or getting them into boots temporarily so comfortable to land on heels and start the back of the foot working for efficiently. I'm just training to be a barefoot trimmer, so just some thoughts from the stage I'm at, hope helps your friend, Hannah
 
gypsy cob said:
i would say bad farrier
Click to expand...

I don't agree.

The farrier has taken on a horse straight from a racing stables whose feet have been completely corrupted by shoes and a high carb diet since he was, probably, 18 months old. In the circumstances, he has done a great job in his first attempt at shoeing the horse.

In particular he has:

Shod wide and long at the back, providing the best possible support that he can for badly collapsed heels.

Followed the adage "the foot will follow the shoe" and attempted to get the heel to start broadening out to where it needs to be.

Set the front of the shoe back from the toe, to bring the breakover point back to somewhere nearer what is normal, to compensate for the long toe. Failure to do that would leave this horse a walking time-bomb for navicular syndrome.

Used double clip shoes to allow him to bring the toe back without losing the gripping power of a clip. Most farriers reckon one clip does the work of several nails and is less invasive.


ps in answer to your question, OP, I think his back feet look astonishingly good!
 
Late to the party but to encourage you, I'd just like to share a couple of pics of my TB's hooves.

This is the day I took him on...

0809132.jpg


0845731.jpg


Following nearly a year of not wearing shoes and decent trimming...

DSC02138.jpg


Ultimately I did relent and have him re-shod as he didn't have the right shaped feet for various style of hoof boots and really never got 100% happy when ridden... but to show the same hoof as above how it was shod the day he arrived... to how it looked when it was re-shod....

0809130025-2.jpg


DSC02774.jpg


At 16 and having been a racer, I felt he was never going to have absolutely perfect hooves but I learned a hell of a lot about environment and feeding whilst he was transitioning.

He's not with me anymore but at least I felt that I sent him on to a new mum in far more comfort than when he arrived.
 
I would expect to see a much greater improvement, even in one shoeing, if the farrier really understood NB principles and of course had used the right shoe! The heels can be brought back much further in one go, the shoe should be set even wider and further back. There is no classic side-to-side removal of the toe - the toe should overhang the shoe much more and be brought back not by the mild bullnosing that has happened here - a rasping from the top giving a rounded dhape, but instead around from the side, giving a straight profile to the hoof wall and then a 90 degree angle at the toe with the last cm or few mm sloping backwards - hard to explain but any pictures of a good NB trim and shoeing job show it clearly. The breakover has barely been moved on this horse and the bullnosing, though it may be from a previous shoeing, is simply weakening the hoof wall.

And to anyone who thinks that those front heels have been overtrimmed, please read up about what underrun heels are - a LACK of trimming leaves them too long and the forces on them from above cause them to pull forwards, following a too-long toe. There is no digital cushion above those heels - not surprising as there is no support for the bony column, no heel function at all.

I have never seen a decent, or even a not so decent, trimmer leave toes too long. A good trimmer will start a more radical programme to get those heels shorter and back under the horse, coupled with, of course, shorter toes. It's no wonder so many horses' feet look like that if owners think that those heels are overtrimmed!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top