Toe First, Heel First or Flat…Which is Best?

nikicb

nikicb

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Since Cam has had his injury I have been trying to learn as much as possible about all sorts of things, especially biomechanics, hoof balance etc.

I came across these articles/videos and thought they were sensibly written and that others may find them of interest. Feel free to add comments below. I am not sure I am qualified to, but would definitely be interested in hearing other views on this. :) x

https://www.cavallo-inc.com/toe-first-heel-first-or-flat-which-is-best/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS0MMwF9uFM&feature=youtu.be

http://enlightenedequine.com/2013/11/27/the-myth-of-the-heel-first-landing-part-1/

http://enlightenedequine.com/2014/03/16/the-myth-of-the-heel-first-landing-part-2/

http://enlightenedequine.com/2015/01/25/the-myth-of-the-heel-first-landing-part-3/

http://enlightenedequine.com/2015/03/09/the-hoof-landings-tower-of-babel/
 
Do some research on opposition (correct terms escape me) of ligaments and tendons and see how they work together to keep friction and jarring forces to a minimum. That was the clincher for me.

I only read a short part of the first EE link. The phrase "correctly trimmed hooves" put me off immediately as once again, human thinking is foisted on the horse and there are in practice tons of theories of a "correct trim". Imho horse and hoof health and fitness and development are the crucial factors.

Horses land in all sorts of ways depending on terrain, speed, degree of collection, rider influences and health of hooves and body. I am firmly in the slightly heel first on flat, level terrain at a good walk camp.
 
I agree to all amandap says. I'm heel first. The frog and heel is there to buffer the blows and feel the floor.
 
The Enlightened Equine article uses as its example of a horse with a perfect flat landing and a correct trim an animal with low heels, a long toe and a broken forward hoof pastern axis. The horse also appears to have spectacularly loose ligaments to allow that level of pastern drop in walk, so much so that I would be testing it for DSLD.

I will stop believing in what it calls the 'myth' of the heel first landing when I stop seeing every single healthy self trimming horse landing heel first or when the first recovered lame horse walks sound away from Rockley without a heel first landing. I think this will probably be when pigs fly.

FACT- horses which have no disease, where rate of growth is matched by wear from work and humans do not trim ALL land heel first on a hard flat surface in walk. What incredible arrogance to believe that man knows better than the horse how it should walk.
 
Just purely from watching my 3 barefoot thoroughbreds I'm in the heel first camp. When everything is right & they are rock crunching sound they land heel first. If I see them land flat or toe first then I know there's a problem. Heel landing seems to come with soundness, I don't need to read a bunch of articles to see that :)
 
I'd agree with heel first in walk on a flat, level surface. But ground conditions and surface (road, arena, grass etc) and inclines (downhill seems to make heelfirst landing more pronounced, uphill can create flat or toe first landing) can alter how the horse decides their foot needs to land as can degree of collection. (If very collected this could produce toe first landing also) My own horse is impossible to judge the landing of on the arena surface at the yard as it's not the best surface in the world and usually not 100% level (Put him on a very good quality, well levelled and well cared for surface and he is definitely heel-first). I've also noticed that when my horse is tense and worked up that also seems to alter how he's landing (maybe because he's not moving freely and instead takes horrid choppy little strides?)
 
All my horses are barefoot self trimming with no (touch wood) foot problems. Most have never been shod. They all land heel first. As people have pointed out it has to vary over different terrain of course but the control is surely flat level surface and look at what the horse does on that.
 
Another in the heel first on flat ground camp. There is an excellent video that's been posted a few times, about 'is the hoof smart' indicating if the tissues in the hoof are adaptable to change. There is some pretty excellent images in the video showing the protection a large digital cushion provides to the internal structures of the hoof. My boy has never been shod and has 'good' feet, in the sense that the heel is lovely and big and has good frogs. He lands heel first pretty much all the time, except if he gets on the forehand/tired when in the school. You can see the improvement in their movement, it becomes light footed, as opposed to the heavy, grinding look of a horse landing heavily toe first.
 
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