Calling all hoof nerds! Contracted heels

[ToTheNines]

I have a 16 hand Oldenburg, 12 years old that is a wonderful horse. He does max 2’6" hunters with me. He is being a perfect boy.

I got him last July and his feet are fine except he came with too tight shoes and contracted heels in all four feet. Little butt cracks in all four heels. Thrush in one hind foot.

I have a great farrier, so no issues there, and I have an expert I trust. But I do love anecdotal information!

I pulled the hind shoes and he is doing great barefoot behind. Thrush is clearing up. Heels starting to spread a bit I think.

I don’t think he’s a candidate for barefoot in front. Farrier says not much we can do except make sure trim is correct and shoes fit property. He says it’s been tried and tried, and even if you take them barefoot they contract again when you shoe them.

Here is my question! In your experience, do horses feel pain from this? He does not seem to feel any discomfort, in fact, he has a huge stride. However, he does have a slight stumble at the trot on his right front toe, which seems to have a deeper butt crack than the left. Not awful, maybe once or twice per ride. But could he be slightly avoiding a heel landing? Out of caution, I started treating it also for thrush, using a pipecleaner to push medication in there.

[IPEsq]

It can cause problems yes. It can also be a sign of soreness that makes the horse not load the foot correctly. There are definitely ways to shoe to not promote contraction. If it’s corrected barefoot, they shouldn’t contract again just because you put shoes on, unless something is wrong with your shoeing job.

[ToTheNines]

IPEsq, so you have anecdotal experience to share with a horse with contracted heels that was corrected by pulling shoes, then you put shoes back on and it stayed corrected?

[beowulf]

My family has a geriatric QH (halter bred) prone to contracted heels. I’ve noticed thrush makes it infinitely worse. His shoes were pulled after he healed up from a coffin bone fracture, and for years he had great feet barefoot, no contracted heels, and was happy and comfortable to be barefoot in flatwork.

Fast forward fifteen years and he’s suddenly gimpy on the ground again. We put shoes on him and it goes away but the contraction and bad thrush keeps reappearing. He goes through a few cycles of good, not so good, and we discover he’s cushingoid too.

In his case, I really think a bad farrier played a part. The thrush didn’t help, and, looking back him needing shoes again should have been our first sign he was in early stages of Cushings.

Not super helpful, sorry, but my anecdote that farriery plays a big part, as does the age and breed of the horse. We’re still working on getting his heels back to regular shape. It didn’t help we went through a farrier swap (our old farrier was not doing us any favors), and then COVID hit and we had to go a few longer cycles. With him it’s really important to stay on top of the thrush (I use Durasole, I think it works better) because it’s amazing how fast it will eat away at the frog and heels.

[IPEsq]

@ToTheNines

IPEsq, so you have anecdotal experience to share with a horse with contracted heels that was corrected by pulling shoes, then you put shoes back on and it stayed corrected?

I’ve seen a good farrier improve contracted heels while keeping the horse shod on a horse I was riding. What he did was do a better job trimming the foot and use the appropriate shoes. A friend of mine also used to pull shoes on her horse every winter in part because of this issue. But her horse’s feet contract again because she uses the same farrier who puts on a way too small shoe and does the horse only every 8-10 weeks.

Tendon issues, uneven loading, unsoundness, club foot conformation, and other things can contribute to contracted feet, but this would also tend to be a problem barefoot because it’s more the horse’s way of going that exacerbates it. So, if you have a contraction easily corrected by just giving the horse room to spread the heels for a few cycles, then that indicates to me that the shoeing was the problem. And so you can’t just go and trim and shoe the horse the same way again or it will come back. A lot of farriers don’t set the shoe right and use shoes that are too small. For a foot that isn’t going to contract no matter what, what you might get is the quarters growing over the sides of the shoe instead in this situation. But a lot of the time the foot contracts and distorts instead because the shoe limits the amount of expansion.

It’s kind of the same as some of the LTLH (long toe low heel) horses that somehow do better barefoot because they move in a way that gradually brings their toes back and they start loading the heels better. If you put a shoe back on that horse and the LTLH gets out of control again, wouldn’t you think something went wrong with the trim/shoe job?

[JB]

We really need good pictures to make any recommendations. There are just SO MANY incompetent farriers and trimmers.

Good Hoof Photos - How to take Good Hoof Photos

[wildlifer]

I am constantly worrying about heels, they are tough & to add to that, have a horse now who is super sensitive about them. I recently saw EXCELLENT results from putting flip flop pads (with half shoe) up front. I did a ton of research beforehand. That’s exactly what they were designed to address.

[SporthorseFun]

OP, in my experience, contracted heels are ripe for deep sulcus thrush. You are wise to get in there and medicate it. I like to pull my horses front shoes for three months during the summer to let the heel bulbs spread back out and allow the structures to get healthy and strong. However, what I have found lately is that a really good farrier can shoe a horse with a shoe big enough to allow for a healthy foot so they don’t contract so much, and maybe it is inevitable with the year-round humidity. I know the shoe size front and the shoe size he should be on the back, and while he may lose a shoe because they are not so tight on his foot, they come off much more cleanly, which is a big relief. I had another farrier try to have a bigger foot with bigger shoes, and while the thought was good, the hooves just turned into pancakes, so find the sweet spot!

[Weezer]

I had a boarder who had been too tightly shod for all of her almost 20 years. When they switched farriers and started shoeing her correctly, she seemed quite off at first. We realized it was that she had spent so many years moving her body a certain way in response to the tight shoes. It took a few months for her to recondition and she was tripping a fair bit in that time but she was great after that. I guess it’s like wearing high heels all the time and then switching to flats. They never put shoes back on, so I can’t comment on that.

[Cruiser12]

I follow David Landreville. He seems to have significant knowledge. He has a Patreon sight where for $5 /month you can watch his videos and learn. He also has a FB page called hoof builders. I prefer the Patreon sight. It has really helped me to understand how the hoof works

[BoyleHeightsKid]

IMO the best and fastest way to correct contracted heels is pulling shoes, treating for any thrush present and using boots with pads to make them comfortable enough for correct movement and landing heel first. But if you’re not comfortable with pulling shoes I think someone who specializes in rehab with composite shoes can help quite a bit.

[joiedevie99]

@wildlifer

I am constantly worrying about heels, they are tough & to add to that, have a horse now who is super sensitive about them. I recently saw EXCELLENT results from putting flip flop pads (with half shoe) up front. I did a ton of research beforehand. That’s exactly what they were designed to address.

Same. I’ve seen farriers make decent progress while the horse is shod normally, but I’ve seen even more progress when the horse switches to flip-flops for a few cycles.

[kashmere]

Hmmm.

So JB is correct (as usual) that we need pictures to give really accurate feedback. That being said - Are contracted heels painful?

In short: yes. You say you are seeing some toe-first movement, and that is a big red flag. Toe first landings are incredibly detrimental to the structures of the hoof and limb and are a clear indication of discomfort in the caudal (back part of) hoof. Even if you were not seeing toe-first movement, contracted heels alone are cause for significant concern and an indication that your horse’s feet are fairly compromised and in need of some rehab. Your farrier’s comment that contracted heels are essentially inevitable and not really worth addressing is quite worrying.

An interesting exercise for you to do would be to wrangle a helper and video your horse’s landings at walk and trot at ground level in slow motion on a flat, level surface (like a driveway or barn aisle).