The United Kingdom Horse Shoers Union
The voice of the farrier.
Posterior Third Lameness.
Part Five: Practical help for heel conditions .
In the previous texts a case has been made to show that the shape of a horses feet are determined by the way it moves, thus an animal that has had its gait influenced by injury or imperfect conformation can reasonably be expected to have a changed hoof capsular shape. This is a normal process: nature is the finest farrier and encourages an animal to maintain itself by adapting the shape of its feet to meet the needs of its environment.
The crunch is that human beings make requirements that horses conform to the needs of the hostile twentyfirst century. The requirement is that their feet are protected, and to meet this metal plates are attached to them.
In the simplest terms the application of steel to a horses feet prevents wear of the ground surface of the hoof capsule. However feet continue to grow, and not only does the shoe prevent wear, it also stops nature contouring them in the way needed in order to meet the animals physiological needs. Man thus inflicts stresses and pressures upon the horse which differ from those of nature. This now turns the argument back upon itself, as man can now be seen to be influencing the shape of horses developing feet, which logically can inflict change to their physiological structure. It is therefore simple to see that in horses with conformational abnormalities, whether they be congenital or acquired, a farrier can within limits beneficially alter the way the equine develops, (especially in the immature equine).
Conversely errors in farriery husbandry can cause physical deterioration of both young and mature horses, which may be contra indicative to its well being. To balance this a system of complementary farriery has to be developed to meet the horses required efficiency of movement, and allow it to have the best possible quality of life. This must demonstrate the need for a system of sympathetic farriery, after all the farrier is the only person that can exercise any physical stresses on the horses limbs, which demonstrates the great responsibility placed upon us as tradesmen, it is by our skill or otherwise that we hold the power of life or death over a particular animal.
Now getting back to the topic of these articles, what can be done at farrier level, to help, interrupt and arrest the progression of the above mentioned heel conditions?
In the young not fully developed horse, the answer surely lies in identifying, assessing, stressing or unstressing the animals framework, in order that its body can develop in a physiologically correct manner.
In the fully developed animal, by unstressing its framework when its limbs have developed in a less than desired way.
Farriers can only achieve this by balanced trimming of the equine’s feet, and if necessary, the preparation and fitting of a correctly balanced type of shoe, of a type to meet the horses physiological needs. By doing this, it can be seen that the farrier is complimenting and assisting nature, and thus the natural development of the animal from which we derive our livelihood.
Identifying, evaluating and correcting imbalance of the equine, has been dealt with extensively during the last decade. Repetition in this text is unnecessary. The author refers you to work produced by, Birdsall (Forge 90), Ware and Colles (FWCF Thesis), Caldwell (FWCF Thesis), Deacon (FWCF Thesis), and Price and Fisher (Shoeing for Performance). As well as contributions made at the Worshipful Company of Farriers balance weekends, presentations at several other privately organised seminars conducted during this time, and at the many other courses run by the Rural Development Commission.
Within this practice success has been experienced in stabilising under-run heels, and broken back hoof-phalangeal axes by the use of shoes with some or all of the following features: extended heels, broad webbed fitted wide, upright and spooned heels, bar shoes of several different types, with and without frog supports. With some acutely distressed animals, the short term use of wedged heeled shoes, or plastic wedges fitted under the heels of the shoe and use off a proprietary brand of hoof hardening compound to desaturate the heel horn. All of the above have had the effect of stimulating heel horn development, probably due to an increase in blood supply to the coronary heel area, leading to accelerated horn growth. It is not suggested that all of the shoeing techniques described above, and those below resolve heel problems in all horses, but depending on each particular case there is some sort of remedy for most animals that have been encountered.
At this point, I also refer you to the article published in Forge 97 (Aug/Sept), regarding the field trials of rolled toe shoes, the foot conformation that these animals developed revolutionised the authors style of shoeing, and in the longer term, gone are the insidiously developed performance horse foot problems seen in his practice prior to the trial. You may be interested to note that the rolled toe shoe is not now extensively used by the author, although the toe features and the resulting heel form noted in the paper are adapted into his every day work. The method of dorsal wall preparation needed to fit the described rolled toe shoe, has been modified for fitting a normal clipped shoe.
The next and final article will look in more detail at these types of shoeing.
First published in Forge Magazine 1998. Copyright Peter N Baker.