uneven hoof wear in barefoot horse

F

Fat_Pony

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 November 2011
Messages
443
Visit site
One of my horses is wearing the outside of all 4 of his hooves more than the inside. Not just slightly, but quite noticeably so. He is only 4 and recently backed so this is a new development. He hacks out on the roads about 3 times a week. He was trimmed 5 weeks ago and I spoke to farrier then. He obviously doesn't move straight, although it is not that noticeable looking at him move. Farrier said it'll improve as he fills out and strengthens. But a week after the trim and the foot was unbalanced again. Farrier is coming out early to re-balance feet, but I am worried about long term damage this might cause? I loathe to put shoes on him, but would if that was the only option. what should I do in this situation?
 
Mine did this aswell when barefooot, i think its just their natural way of moving but mine had to be shod due to the amount of wear from driving on the roads

I think of it like our own shoes, we all wear different parts of the sole down quicker :)
 
I'm always wary when I hear the term 're-balance'. What makes you so sure that the farrier knows how the foot should be balanced better than the horse? Tread carefully.

If your farrier's name is Pete Ramey; fine - let him get on with it :D. Otherwise, I would investigate why the horse is moving asymmetrically (a good body worker can help), and wherever possible, allow the horse to demonstrate the correct balance of his own hooves.
 
my horse does the same, I can have him shod to 'make him more balanced' but he doesn't move well with the shoes, if you really level him up it makes him lame and his coffin joints inflamed.
Think you can make there hoof level, but its there confirmation that makes them land that way in some instances.
I try to stop my horse wearing to much outside wall by hacking in hoof boots, and leave him barefoot the rest of the time (or shoeless which ever way you look at it!)
 
what is a body worker? bit too much of a generic term for my liking!

the foot itself seems balanced - he has a lot of flare on the inside that he doesnt wear away. If you look at the sole the foot looks fine, but with flare to the inside. If you look at the heels you can see that the outside is much lower than the inside, which must be putting pressure on joints, tendons, ligaments etc. When he wasnt in work his feet were fine. he is totally sound, but am worried about damage int he future
 
Equine Body Worker is someone trained, qualified and registered to perform sports and remedial massage.

Have a look on www.equinology.co.uk for practitioners in your area.

Not sure if your horse was shod before but horses transitioning often change the way they move and use new muscles/ old ones differently. It's also worth keeping a very close eye on saddle fit as most horses muscle up requiring wider fits.
 
TPO said:
Equine Body Worker is someone trained, qualified and registered to perform sports and remedial massage.

Have a look on www.equinology.co.uk for practitioners in your area.

Not sure if your horse was shod before but horses transitioning often change the way they move and use new muscles/ old ones differently. It's also worth keeping a very close eye on saddle fit as most horses muscle up requiring wider fits.
Click to expand...

that website doesnt work :(
 
Have a look on the Rockley blog at horses who don't have text book " balanced" feet but have grown the feet they need to be sound.

Is there stretched white line at the flare or is it a tight WL with thicker w wall?

I think someone said that if you take(trim/rasp) the flare away but it comes back then it's needed. Although if needed taking it away could have consequences until it grows back.

I think it was SpookyPony that posted an interesting thread and pics about SP's flared foot; it was very interesting.

Do you have any pics of your horses feet!
 
will take some tomorrow, think the white line is stretched - just changed from equimins metabalance to something with higher copper and zinc, so will see what that does
 
it seems about half and half with the barefoot lot - some say leave feet alone to balance themselves and the other lot say to keep them in balance - I am clueless. I just know I'd rather not shoe as had issue with shoes and previous horses
 
By body worker I really meant a Physio/chiro/osteo or whoever you use and trust to look at the overall picture of muscular and skeletal alignment etc.

Ime the solar view is MUCH more telling than looking at the hoof from other angles. If the solar view is balanced - leave the hoof alone.

I have a horse who wears his feet unevenly when starting back in work, but with sustained work the hooves balance themselves. The times I've had problems are when someone has attempted to 're-balance' the hooves.
 
Fat_Pony said:
If you look at the heels you can see that the outside is much lower than the inside, which must be putting pressure on joints, tendons,
Click to expand...

Not if the joints aren't straight. This kind of foot wear is almost always a result of a lack of straightness in the limb above it, or the body.

What often happens, in time and with careful build-up of work, is that the part of the hoof which is wearing too fast will grow thicker to slow down the wear. Without a track system to create this naturally, it is a very fine balance to know when to trim or not, advice which I don't feel can be given on a forum.
 
Mine wears his feet like this and I find the best way to manage it is to trim the side that doesn't wear down little and often. A quick check & tidy if needed after each ride on the road works best for me. The side that he wears has got thicker but still not enough to even the wear out.
 
Ben does this and as far as I'm aware always has ( at least the 4 years I've had him ) He lands heel first then sort of rolls onto the outside of his hooves. My trimmer has always just left it as it never seems to wear right down, as cptrayes says it must be stronger than the inside which grows quite a lot.

He's 22 years old and fit as a fiddle with no joint problems, not sure how you would address the problem with yours as he's a youngster, agree though to get a body inspector :D
 
The only thing I would say is that I took my horse barefoot 12wks ago because the farrier mullered his heels so he ended up with underrun heels and long toes which hit the ground before the rest of his foot! My main problem was the farrier (a master one at that!) did not balance the foot properly and i think this would have been the case with or without shoes. Not only were all the heels different heights on each leg but on every foot the balance was unlevel side to side so he ended up absolutely crippled and had uneven wear.

I now use an equine podiatrist who only rasps the foot and is trying to get the heels level again but only time and growth will solve it, but he is looking so much more comfortable and is starting to be able to move better again. I would make sure your farriers idea of balance is right - if you can get a properly qualified equine podiatrist to discreetly check your horse that might help clarify if there is an issue with the way he is trimmed by your farrier - although go carefully as the podiatrist won't want to criticise a farriers work!

There are alot of trimmers out there but my gut feel would be to look at this site www.epauk.org also have a read of this http://appliedequinepodiatry.org/ so you can investigate your options.
 
Fat_Pony said:
the foot itself seems balanced - he has a lot of flare on the inside that he doesnt wear away. If you look at the sole the foot looks fine, but with flare to the inside. If you look at the heels you can see that the outside is much lower than the inside, which must be putting pressure on joints, tendons, ligaments etc. When he wasnt in work his feet were fine. he is totally sound, but am worried about damage int he future
Click to expand...

My cobs hooves wear exactly the same, the apparent flare on mine is caused by an increase in the thickness of the wall, only thing I do to them is rasp the wall so it is the same width as the wall at the toe, and roll the edges. I leave the heels alone.

He moves completly straight if I do this, whereas when he was in shoes and being balanced by a farrier he dished a bit on his LF.

This horse does about 20 miles of roadwork a week without boots, so I guess he just has the feet he needs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top