Uneven hooves question?

[GrecianDawn]

Hey all. What could cause uneven heel growth in otherwise sound 12 year old horse? On his left front leg, heel grows so fast and before shoeing time approaches, it is 2-3 cm higher than the heel on the right front. I was told it could be navicular, but horse never rests or points that hoof. BO told me I should shoe him every 30 days, so the hoof never gets to grow that much, but I am curios to know what is causing this. I’m a bit worried now. Thanks all!

 

[FFAQ]

Could be inflammation or uneven weighting of the forefeet. Pressure stimulates growth...

 

[ycbm]

Uneven weight on the legs, normally. Has your farrier tried leaving the heel higher, because it sounds like as fast as he takes it off the horse is putting it back because it wants it for some reason.

A physio might shed some light. What's a BO?

 

[Arzada]

Barn owner?

 

[ycbm]

Ah, so probably U.S. then?

SML it's as often the flat heeled foot that's the problem as the more upright one in an unmatched pair. Do you want to show us some pictures so we can have a look?

 

[ester]

have you observed his grazing position, this can cause high/lo issues with the front feet if they spread and always have the same leg forwards.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

What's a BO?

I've see that on COTH, the US based forum and there it meant Barn Owner.

 

[GrecianDawn]

Yeah. BO does stand for barn owner. I just went through my gallery to see pictures of him grazing, and he is grazing with the right leg forward and left leg behind. I will attach the best pictures I found. Farrier always tried to make feet as even as possible. :/

 

[TPO]

Yeah. BO does stand for barn owner. I just went through my gallery to see pictures of him grazing, and he is grazing with the right leg forward and left leg behind. I will attach the best pictures I found. Farrier always tried to make feet as even as possible. :/

How long after being shod were those pictures taken?

 

[ycbm]

They look extremely tall SML, it will be interesting to hear the answer to TPO's question.

They also, though photos can be deceptive, look as if he's weighting his left one more than his right one. Does he often push the right one forwards like is obvious in the first photo and less in the second?
.

 

[GrecianDawn]

How long after being shod were those pictures taken?

I actually don’t know, I just browsed through my gallery and saved the best looking photos. Nope, he usually stands square. Here is one more photo.

 

[TPO]

I dont shoe anymore so probably biased however those dont look like well shod hooves.

You need to get down on the ground and take floor level pics from front, side and back then lift the hoof and take a sole picture for an accurate view.

From the angle of the posted pics the heels look high, toe long and bull nosed toe (that rounded shape). They look too tall and left fore looks narrower/boxy and taller.

Personally I'd take shoes off and rehab them barefoot to allow them to find their natural shape. At the very least some time out of shoes to let them relax and recover. I'd also be looking for a new farrier.

People on here recommend a good farriery page on facebook but the name escapes me, hopefully someone will be alig to recommend. I think maybe @sbloom has posted about it. Anyway you'll see pictures of good shoeing jobs on there and that might give you an idea.

I dont know if it's available in america but the book "no foot, no horse" is a good guide about the hows and whys of shoeing, although even it says to give hooves 12wks continuously out of shoes annually to recover from the damage that shoeing does. Just checked and I can't see the book on Amazon.com but it's available on .co.uk and might ship to america. The authors are Gail Williams and Martin Deacon.

As to why any horse starts laying down more hoof it is usually to compensate for something higher up. For example if the saddle wasnt fitting well it could restrict the shoulders that in turn alters stride length therefore the hoof is hitting the ground sooner/harder therefore the hoof compensates. Often if one part is acting in that way the hoof wall becomes more upright and looks higher/the corner band is no longer level.

My first port of call if hoof shape changed would be to look higher up the horse and take a holistic view of what was going on.

 

[ester]

Progressive Equine Services is the facebook page.

 

[GrecianDawn]

@TPO Thanks a lot for taking your time to write all this! I will take more pictures asap. So if he is growing more hoof/heel on the left front, presumably the left front is troubling him? Another thing that is worrying me is that he doesn’t have wide round hooves. I’m adding a picture from 2015, he was not mine back then, but to see how his feet looked back then. Always kind of small, left heel taller than right, and unusual shape. :/

 

[ycbm]

Do you know why he was shod then with wedge heels/calkins/studs?

The problem foot looks like the right, to me, with extra growth on the left possibly from bearing more weight on it.

 

[TPO]

It's not a great angle but he looks like he is shod too small. I'm guessing he has studs in too in this picture.

If you look up Dr Kerry Ridgeway he talks a lot about the "high heel, low heel" occurrences in horses. There is definitely at least one video on YouTube about it. That will describe it much better than I can!

If you can film your horse in slow motion (i think most phones have this function) walking on flat solid ground towards you and past you then you might see what aspect of the hoof if hitting the ground first.

When you say left front heel is it one side or that while foot is higher compared to right hoof?

 

[ycbm]

I actually don’t know, I just browsed through my gallery and saved the best looking photos. Nope, he usually stands square. Here is one more photo.

Photos are deceptive, and that one is cut off, but even then, the pastern angles are different and he looks to me as if he's trying to unload the back half of the right foot. Has a vet seen him?

 

[ester]

It's hard to tell from these pics but fwiw on the grazing point of view right leg forwards/left leg behind would lead the left hoof to be boxy in appearance and the right to be flat/under run.

 

[sbloom]

I would say in all photos the feet are long, a bit like the "coke can" feet often recommended on US boards looking at dressage horse photos (the UDBB was where I used to see it mentioned all the time) - all horses will vary in how long their feet should be when healthy, but these are long. The older photos show some evidence of toe dragging, and the hooves also being narrow, they look a fraction wider now.

I would get a team together - farrier, bodyworker, vet and saddle fitter, probably instructor too. You could go from one to the other with no-one getting to the bottom of it, you need to tackle it from all angles. The uneven feet do usually go back to grazing patterns, and arguable before that the position in the womb, but it affects the body and vice versa.

On Facebook, and probably websites - Mark Johnson Farrier - Another Way?, Progressive Equine Services and The Equine Documentalist. Rockley Farm is also fascinating for barefoot rehab.

 

[GrecianDawn]

He lands flat. His whole left foot, whole heel is higher than the right. I think, without farrier work, he would get a club foot. I don’t know why he was shoed like that, I just saw that on owner’s instagram, and I bought him 4 years later. My farrier is trying to make them wider, but says horse generally has narrow feet. Yeah, vet has seen him, but not lame, but I’m worried about his future. Barn people got me all scared with navicular. So I’m paranoid right now. Thanks all, I will check all your suggestions!

 

[ycbm]

I agree with SB, he looks to me like a horse who needs a barefoot rehab. It's probably more likely that shoes are making a potential club foot worse than the other way around.

Sideways shots with the camera very close to the floor would be interesting, the right foot looks as if it might be quite underrun.

 

[sbloom]

Navicular is such a tricky word and subject. Many many horses have caudal heel pain, and I would recommend doing a proper ground level slow motion video of his hoof landings as I'm surprised you're getting a flat landing. Mild caudal pain will cause toe landing, and that can come simply from poor hoof balance. Some horses show massive navicular symptoms yet have no visible changes on xrays, other horses have awful xrays yet no symptoms. Have a look at the three/four FB pages I mentioned, learn as much as you can about hoof function, get your vet, bodyworker and farrier talking, it's no good trying to get to the bottom of these issues with only one of them, and if they won't take on board what you learn from those, and other, cutting edge sources of information, consider changing the team.

There is SO much to know about horses, this is your chance to really learn about feet, it's how most of us have become lay experts in certain fields (well, it was for me until I became a saddle fitter of course!).

 

[GrecianDawn]

@ycbm Sideways shots and back of the hooves..
@sbloom I will check the facebook pages and everything. I’m not looking for quick fixes or masking anything with shoes. I want long term sound horse and healthy hooves.

 

[GrecianDawn]

Update: it says file is too large! What do I do?

 

[PurBee]

Update: it says file is too large! What do I do?

depending on your device, download an app to reduce the picture file size, then upload them here.
I use ‘image size’ app on my ipad.

most apple devices give the option to upload small, medium, or large versions of a pic. But my pics are organised with an app that blocks that really useful inbuilt function!

 

[GrecianDawn]

@PurBee Thanks!

 

[sbloom]

Again, do go to the links I posted, if you have a look at them it honestly won't take long until you can start to see the issues here. Contracted heels, see the deep crease inbetween them? Almost certainly negative palmar angle, though without the cannon bone shown it's not definitive. Here's one post that covers a quick skim through of both these issues, and others:

https://www.facebook.com/hoofscanandhoofcarecentre/posts/4905973986142702