Is your horse over reaching bad enough and ripping the front shoes off? Would that pose a risk( to the unshod fronts) if the horse was shod behind?
Also she had a nasty overreach injury in March on the inside of the front left. Here’s what that looks like now.
There’s a school horse at my barn who had both hind suspensories blow out about a month after she had been imported. She recovered and had a successful show career and now has hind shoes only for support. She still jumps barefoot in front.
2 Likes
Well, I will pop in to say that the angles on the front feet appear very different in the full body photo. Left foot the pastern is really broken back, right foot the pastern is more normal but the hoof is running forward a bit. In the individual photo the front foot in profile looks bull nosed. The shoe is definitely poking out behind the heel and the heel looks tall to me. I don’t know what you started with but I feel there is room for improvement in the overall hoof balance.
6 Likes
I’m not a farrier but there’s something a bit odd about them from front-on impo. Have you had xrays? It’d be interesting to see how the bony column stacks and if it’s straight, it looks a bit off-kilter to me.
2 Likes
I noticed that too as I was posting the pictures. I didn’t have anyone holding her so maybe it was the way she was standing? I’m not sure, but yea they don’t look the same.
What do they look like IRL? Sometimes photos distort things but sometimes they show things you never quite noticed before.
I think the hoof pics are more consistent with what they look like irl. I don’t think the full body one looks normal. Here’s another one of the rf I took on a different day.
Her left one is all wonky from that overreach injury. She took a small chunk out of her digital cushion but the shoe pulling was an issue before that happened.
Also this is her first set of shoes this year, she was barefoot all winter
OP-
Just my 2 cents but I would have radiographs taken of all four hooves .
And I would also find a new farrier.
The front hooves are underrun with long toes and no heel.
It takes time to change the angles.
The bullnosing is a big no-no for me.
And also the pic of her rear hooves there is a definite flair .
I would talk to your vet about finding a farrier that is willing to work with her .
Is it expensive and inconvenient?
Yes, it is.
It will also be worth every penny to find a farrier who knows and understands how to trim hooves with not perfect angles or problems in the structure of the hoof.
Don’t settle for less . It may take you some time to find the unicorn farrier but they are out there.
Good luck to you and horse.
3 Likes
There’s a ton of heel on that RF. It’s an upright foot, maybe into Club territory, but the heels do need to come back and down at least a little
Beowulf posted the image for hoof pictures, and those are the angles we really need. Most of the pictures here are distorted because you’re shooting from too high up, and/or not into the center of the foot
Both hinds are high on the inside.
How long since the last trim were these pics taken?
I see slightly broken back HPA on the LF, and quite a broken forward HPA on the RF, but broken forward is a typical symptom of an upright/clubby foot, which that one is.
4 Likes
About a week, I’ll try to get better pics.
1 Like
I think I got my left and right confused. I felt the right fetlock is more broken back with a wierd fetlock angle, in the whole body shot. Hoof farthest away from camera.
1 Like
What a beautiful mare. I agree the photos of her full body look different than the individual photos of the hoof.
I’ll reserve opinions on the trim for pictures taken at less of an angle, but some things here that I do see that angles of the pictures have nothing to do about –
- There are fever rings on all four feet. These can show up for a variety of reasons: fevers (as they are named after), low grade inflammation in the hoof (usually from thin soles or improper balance), a shock event to that particular hoof (like an abscess) or to the horse’s body as a whole – typically when you see fever rings show up, you are looking at a past event, however, fever rings on all four feet are usually present in cases of low grade inflammation in the hoof.
- NPA on hinds is more severe than front
- Lateral imbalance on hinds
That is an UGLY injury on that front! Wowza, you weren’t kidding about her grabbing herself.
I went down this road about seven years ago so I feel for you OP. I learned a lot from this forum about how to recognize a pathologically unhealthy hoof, that was never taught to me by farriers, vets, or horsemen in my life that I trust. It can be very difficult to find a farrier who is receptive to criticism and also can shoe well; it seems you get one but rarely both.
4 Likes
Thank you!
It was nasty and of course she did right before one of the worst blizzards we’ve had in years! It was my own dumb fault. She had not been overreaching and she didn’t have shoes on and I thought was out of that growth spurt/ overreaching phase so she’d be fine without bell boots. 
1 Like
There’s some dishing on RF also. It may be clubbed. In which case you want to be careful how much you try to trim it to be normal. Radiographs would help.
I’d also probably shoot images of all 4 feet
3 Likes
A photography question for the hoof care experts.
Do the instructions for taking photos of feet ever address the distortion typically present in cell phone photos? People’s noses in selfies often end up too big from holding the camera too close. Plus a wide angle lens, which the default phone cameras are, distorts the edges—objects that are straight up and down will look like they’re leaning inward on the left and right edges of the photo. Seem like a solution to both issues might be to take the photos at a greater distance from the subject?
