I have an Arabian I recently purchased for cheaps who has high/low syndrome in front. My farrier is involved and it will take a while to mitigate the difference in hoof angles. While that is going on, I wondered if putting him in a single hoof boot on the low side might help him travel more evenly? He appears to be a little clubby on the high hoof. He’s “linebred” :rolleyes: 6 times to the same stallion. I dont think the farrier at the big time show barn he came from did him any favors. He is only 3 and not yet under saddle. Body work is in his future. Sweet and gorgeous aside from the front hooves anomaly.
Check out Esco Buff’s opinions on high/low/clubs. He’s a farrier so “lifts” the club with a thicker shoe. I didn’t want to shoe my weanling so tried a boot with a pad, but had trouble keeping it on him so decided to go for the check ligament surgery while he was still young. He still has a club foot, but of course I have no way of knowing whether it would have gotten worse if he didn’t have the surgery. ,
And of course, that’s the problem: there’s no way to know whether any of the available treatments help, do nothing, or hurt, because there’s no way to know what would have happened if we did nothing.
I think I’d prefer shoes on both, with either a thicker shoe, or adding a pad, to accomplish what you want. The corrective material would need to be on full time, and that’s not a great job for boots. You also can’t do a lot of variations with the boots without starting to affect fit.
If it’s really just “a little clubby”, then it doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal at the moment?
Make sure to get body work done on him. Uneven feet take their toll in the low shoulder and high triceps in particular, but everything in general, and helping keep spasms and shortened musculature to a minimum really helps when combined with regular trimming.
A pad would only crash the heel further and shoes really dont allow the heels to expand which is what needs to happen on the clubby foot. Yes, I said he would get body work as I am aware the toll the unevenness takes.
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Having owned a high/low horse horse for the last 10 years, I would advise caution in trying to make fundamentally mismatched feet match. Every farrier who has started messing with hoof angles has lamed my horse. Conversely, he is a consistently sound and competitive dressage horse with a talent for medium trot when each foot is trimmed and shod according to its conformation.
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Very much agree with JB and a rim pad, for example, would not crush the heel…don’t understand how a thicker shoe would either if the farrier was any good…
My farrier who is excellent is not recommending shoes of any kind and I am good with that.
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Nails don’t (shouldn’t, with exceptions) go behind the quarter, which means heels are fully able to expand with movement.
Pads don’t crush heels. Wedges can, over time, which is why they aren’t recommended long-term (but sometimes you just must, and choose the lesser of 2 evils), and are generally only used to correct alignment while the farrier is working on getting the foot itself much better aligned.
But we’re not talking wedges for something like this, we’re talking about same thickness pads to create a bit more lift.
That’s fine if the farrier doesn’t recommend shoes, but boots aren’t going to do what you’re looking for, since they are not (well) designed to be worn full time. They could be used something like 12 on 12 off, or similar, if you want to try to affect some changes
If the differences really only are mild, then the best thing is frequent trimming to 1) keep the low foot’s toe from getting longer, and the heel from crushing further, and 2) keep the high foot’s heels down where they belong, and then compliment that trimming with regular body work.
Also, there’s lots of room for purposeful in-hand work to teach more balanced use of the body which will also help minimize issues.
Boots can be awesome when the horse need additional protection for specific activity, but correction is really for shoes. You wouldn’t want to just offer correction for part of the day–the horse either needs correction, or he doesn’t. Taking him back and forth will just cause more problems.
Yes, we are doing frequent trimming and he is out 24/7. He was a bit foot sore when he first arrived but with better trimming and better nutrition, this has improved. He travels straight and will stand square but his stride is just slightly uneven hence my thought of wearing a boot on the lower hoof. My thinking being the more malleable sole of the boot would mimic the natural expansion and contraction of the foot, while giving that hoof a little extra lift. Sounds good in theory at least to me.
It’s not that you can’t affect hoof changes with boots. There are certainly a variety of inserts to affect frog support, adjust heel and toe height, etc. They can be used for focused work, and as therapy for X hours a day. This is where a really knowledgeable body worker and hoof specialist can come in handy.
For fun, look into the Sure Foot pad system and see what you can find in relation to the high/low situation.
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Huh, but holy shit those are expensive for pieces of memory foam! And I can’t find any science to back up whatever it is they’re supposed to do?
This article by Dr. Kerry Ridgway has been the most educational/helpful and using hoof boots during the rehab period is mentioned. https://drkerryridgway.com/2016/07/0…heel-syndrome/
Sure, boots can be used. They just bring a whole different set of issues, such as holding moisture when worn for extended periods of time. It’s a much bigger management issue any time you’re using boots longer-term.
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My choice would be both barefoot if possible. If not, raising the club foot with a leather rim pad and doing the usual trim management on the low heel was the gold standard for my old hunter, Robbie. It made a significant difference in his range of motion through the shoulder.
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Barefoot does seem the preferred approach. Though depending on the level of disparity by the time he’s going under saddle, one boot might be worth consideration for riding purposes. Ugh, i said i would never take on a high/lo horse again. facepalm
True, but without something within the branches of the heels to stimulate the frog and digital cushion into developing more bulk, I think it’s unlikely that those structures will develop enough to expand the heels. Whether frog support pads do that or not, I don’t know as I’ve never used them for long enough to be able to tell if they help with frog development.
That’s fine if the farrier doesn’t recommend shoes, but boots aren’t going to do what you’re looking for, since they are not (well) designed to be worn full time. They could be used something like 12 on 12 off, or similar, if you want to try to affect some changes
I think with effort it is possible to use different boots to achieve full time lift, but it would be a project. My horse steps too far under and is too active for either shoes or boots, so check ligament surgery was the better option for him.
If the differences really only are mild, then the best thing is frequent trimming to 1) keep the low foot’s toe from getting longer, and the heel from crushing further, and 2) keep the high foot’s heels down where they belong, and then compliment that trimming with regular body work.
This seems to be working for my horse, who has a true club foot. He’s always been barefoot except for a few weeks of boots and an extended toe shoe after surgery, and he’s very active on challenging footing so has strong hooves. I keep the club trimmed to the sole, and am aggressive with the heels so that they end up very close to the widest part of the frog (which is underdeveloped compared to the down hoof).
I’m not comfortable with the idea of lifting the club, as I feel that might have the same problems as trying to trim the club to look more like the down hoof. IOW, I’m not convinced that it’s even possible to change the asymmetry in his body by making changes to his hoof, and attempting to do so could actually be counterproductive when it comes to long term soundness. So I keep him trimmed short, ride him as straight as he can manage, and hope for the best.
Weight inherently makes the heels spread, though I see now I read “spread” a bit differently than what the OP meant. But, the rest of it I still stand by 
Proper shoeing ensures there is ample frog-ground contact, even if that means using a pad to fill in where a frog is not full enough. Plenty of contracted feet have decontracted while in shoes.
In my horse, his upright foot is definitely a club. It’s hereditary. The only other hi/lo horse I owned was of similar bloodlines and this guy has 6 crosses to the stallion I’m pretty sure it stems from. Just another reason I am no fan of linebreeding a/k/a inbreeding, no matter how you want to window dress it, but I digress. He doesn’t appear to have a “contracted” tendon in the truest sense where the forelimb structure is a bit over a the knee and the tendon is pulled tight. He just has one club foot with the attendant contracted heels. The club foot actually looks like the foot I see on a lot of show shod quarter horses; upright and small and normal in that context. I am not the least bit interested in shoeing that hoof for any reason. In my experience, the best thing for that hoof is full contact with the ground and keeping the heel trimmed down as much as possible without soreing the horse.
It is this guy’s right front that has a rather run under heel and long toe. Why this was not properly addressed at the show barn he came from blows my mind. He has good hoof quality, but someone was obviously neglectful in allowing the toe to become so long and heel so down and under. It is this right one that might could use some sort of support either by way of a boot or shoe to add a little lift. His heel is not contracted in this foot. I do not think his front feet will ever match but some lift might make the disparity between the two a little less which is all I am after.
If you read the article above which I attached by Dr. Kerry Ridgway, a hi/lo horse is a crooked horse and will always be a crooked horse. You’re just trying to minimize the crookedness in a healthy way. All I can say is it’s a good thing he was cheap! Another case of buyer beware too. I bought him at the request of a friend who vouched for her friend who didn’t bother to disclose the hi/lo issue and I had not seen the horse’s papers. Knowing the bloodlines and hearing about the hi/lo issue, I probably would have passed. But it was a distress sale involving divorce and I had the room. This gelding is gorgeous and sweet, so at least he’s nice to look at and I will probably never do more than trial ride him.
Yes, keeping heels from getting taller is important. Body work and therapeutic riding, aka good classical Dressage work, go a long way towards helping the horse use himself to his best ability, which inherently helps improve the quality of the feet
It is this guy’s right front that has a rather run under heel and long toe. Why this was not properly addressed at the show barn he came from blows my mind.
Sadly, some farriers/trimmers think “that’s just how it grows” and do nothing to at least minimize the preference, let alone work to correct as much as can be corrected 
:mad:
He has good hoof quality, but someone was obviously neglectful in allowing the toe to become so long and heel so down and under. It is this right one that might could use some sort of support either by way of a boot or shoe to add a little lift. His heel is not contracted in this foot.
Feet can’t get chronically long in the toe and underrun in the heel (crushed or not) without some degree of heel contracture
I do not think his front feet will ever match but some lift might make the disparity between the two a little less which is all I am after.
From the description no, they will never match. The only question is - how much more similar will they be once both are trimmed properly over a long enough period of time
If you read the article above which I attached by Dr. Kerry Ridgway, a hi/lo horse is a crooked horse and will always be a crooked horse. You’re just trying to minimize the crookedness in a healthy way. All I can say is it’s a good thing he was cheap! Another case of buyer beware too. I bought him at the request of a friend who vouched for her friend who didn’t bother to disclose the hi/lo issue and I had not seen the horse’s papers. Knowing the bloodlines and hearing about the hi/lo issue, I probably would have passed. But it was a distress sale involving divorce and I had the room. This gelding is gorgeous and sweet, so at least he’s nice to look at and I will probably never do more than trial ride him.
So many people have no idea what to look for in feet, which leads to the continuation of poor farrier and trimmer work - blind leading the blind
Functional limb length disparity is the biggest issue with these. That high foot gets the shoulder pushed up, which is part of why body work is important. That, and good correct riding to encourage stretching and strengthening of both sides - one side needs more strength than stretch, the other needs more stretch than strength, so you’re not always going to be working an exercise equally in both directions. And some exercises you might not even do in one direction on a given day.
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Not sure, but I think hi/low is different from a club, as there’s p3 remodeling with a club, but not with a “hi”? It likely is a matter of degree, but the way I understand it is that a “hi” is a “normal” hoof with a normal p3, but a club P3 has a characteristic shape (ski jump on the lower edge and a bulge in the middle).
On my yearling I could see a visible bulge just above the front of the coronary band where the bottom of p2 was (on the club), and that did go away after the surgery and hasn’t returned. The club is still clubbier than the down hoof (which is healthy and normal looking), but I don’t know what P3 looks like now because I haven’t had any more rads done.
