Hoof Rads - Correcting NPA

[FromTheGalaxy]

9 year old OTTB mare that I have owned for 4 years now. Her feet are pretty typical TB, low heels, long toe, thin soles. She just recently returned to work after having a foal in 2023 and being barefoot for the past 3 years. She was comfortable barefoot just out in the field, but needs front shoes when in work. When barefoot she gets trimmed every 4 weeks, but now with front shoes on she is on a 6 week cycle.

Her feet tend to grow out instead of up, if that makes sense. She never grows heel, and her quarters flare out and are prone to cracking. My farrier has done a lot of work in the time I’ve owned her to improve the cracking/chipping and try to keep her feet in a decent shape without taking too much off and making her sore. I’ve always suspected due to her anatomy and the way she stands (almost always camped under in her hind) that she had negative palmar angles. Finally decided to have the vet out to x ray, and confirmed my suspicions. Negative 2 degrees in both hinds, and negative 1 degree in the left front, level (0 degrees) right front.

I plan to chat with my farrier before his next visit on his suggestions to correct the NPA, but would love to hear some input from others who are more familiar with this or have dealt with this in their own horses. Is negative 2 degrees very significant NPA, or minor? Sole depth was measured at 16 mm in front, 18 mm in hinds. Would love to increase this as well if possible. Mare currently gets a hoof supplement from SantaCruz, but open to suggestions of other products that have worked well for others.

[JB]

Do you have a solar view of these feet? The whole “doesn’t grow heel” is almost always not correct, as they ARE growing heel, but it crushes and doesn’t stand up. Tooooo many farriers see the lack of vertical height as a sign they shouldn’t trim them, so they continue to grow crushed and run forward. That, combined with often not trimming bars, easily causes quarter flaring

Any NPA is significant. Flat is significant. Ideal is 3-5* above 0.

The only way a supplement could really help with this is if it can affect faster growth, which means more frequent trims which may help correct or at least improve this faster. What’s the diet now?

[FromTheGalaxy]

I do not currently have a solar view, would have to try to take those this weekend.

Current daily diet: 24/7 pasture access plus ad lib alfalfa/grass hay
3 lbs ProForce Fuel
1 lb Tribute Essential K
1 lb Unbeetable Forage Only
handful of beet pulp to feed powdered supplements
SantaCruz hoof supp
Cool Calories
2,000 IU Natural Vitamin E (Santa Cruz)
Salt

[JB]

that’s pretty decent, nothing obviously “off” with that diet.

The SC product has 17gm biotin in a 1 scoop/32gm serving, which isn’t quite enough to be the most effective, unless it’s a smaller horse (like < 1000lb or so). You really want at least 20, usually at least 25 for the average horse (1100-1200lb or so)

It also only has 14mg copper and 48mg zinc, which isn’t a lot. This is sort of an over-priced biotin supplement

I’d probably drop that, and either add cu/zn/biotin separately which you can do cheaply, or use Hay Harmony which combines all 3, or in between with a cu/zn mix like MadBarn 3:1 and add cheap biotin to that.

whether that impacts the growth rate is just something only time can tell. It may start improving the quality of the hoof material, but that takes even longer to see.

I think if it were me, I’d to it anyway - adding cu/zn/biotin, which has to go along with better/different trimming/shoeing, and then it’s just a matter of seeing how each trim improves things, or not

[FromTheGalaxy]

Thanks for the supplement suggestions!

Do you have suggestions for helping to fix the NPA in the immediate with shoeing? I’ve heard of wedge shoes, wedge pads or rocker shoes as some options. I’m sure each is individual horse dependent on what works best, but I would like to get her in something to help alleviate any pain/discomfort that the NPA may be causing while we work on correcting the anatomy.

[blue_heron]

I never got rads to double-check, but when I was suspect of NPA on one of my mares (hinds only), my farrier brought the shoe back slightly and shaved off the toe. Helped her immensely with using her hind legs and reducing her back and hind end soreness. We later added a tiny wedge and with a bit more strength work her hind end soreness disappeared. She had also been dragging her toes a tiny bit which went away with the minor corrections and strength.

[GraceLikeRain]

Currently I’m doing glue ons with wedges for my neutral angled horse. I’m hopeful we can cycle out after 3-4 rounds as I don’t love them being in wedges too long. My vet also said to really focus on how much the toe can be brought back and down because that improves the angle as well.

A good farrier should be thankful for radiographs so that’s a big thing for me. If someone shrugs off rads I’m going to find a new professional. They are the expert but they don’t have x ray vision.

[JB]

@FromTheGalaxy

Do you have suggestions for helping to fix the NPA in the immediate with shoeing? I’ve heard of wedge shoes, wedge pads or rocker shoes as some options. I’m sure each is individual horse dependent on what works best, but I would like to get her in something to help alleviate any pain/discomfort that the NPA may be causing while we work on correcting the anatomy.

it really depends on the xrays, and what your farrier has found works best in that situation and with his skills. Wedges don’t help all. They’re a requirement for others. The faster you can get things aligned, the better, and then it’s a matter of whether the foot is, or even can be, corrected. Occasionally, NPA feet simply won’t be fixable

[IPEsq]

Depending on what’s going on as far as the rear foot being crushed or not, increasing sole depth will give you a foot that you can work with more on the trim to correct the angles versus applying an external wedge of some kind.

If the horse will tolerate a pour in pad, that can help increase sole depth.

[FromTheGalaxy]

Here are the solar views @JB. Sorry if these aren’t the best quality, took quickly at evening chores tonight.

These are 1 week after her last trim.

[FromTheGalaxy]

I definitely think my mare has some back and hind end soreness caused by the angles in her hind feet. She’s had lots of little niggling things that I am slowly trying to figure out and tackle one by one. I hope getting the feet sorted will be a big step forward for us

[FromTheGalaxy]

I also don’t want to have to keep her in wedges long term, but willing to try them for enough time to correct the hoof. Do you use wedge shoes or wedge pads? My farrier had mentioned wedge shoes (before I had the X-rays) but I worry about elevating the heel too much without providing any frog support. But maybe pour in pads would help solve that problem like @IPEsq suggested

[Obsidian_Fire]

An “instant fix” is going to be wedges. What happens long-term can be a different story. As JB mentioned, some NPA horses are just not fixable, mine happens to be one of them. At this point we’ve just let her be barefoot behind. Her angles are no better but no worse; best we can achieve with trimming is 0*. I don’t like it, but it is what it is.
This question has been on my mind lately:
How short can you trim a horse, over time, each time, to affect a ‘permanent’ change?? I came across in my emails from Farriers Journal, about constantly trimming ‘short’ causing damage in the long-term. I haven’t read the article yet. It made me think about hoof size; many farriers (that I know) trim pretty short. I call it cowboy shoeing. They want them short(hooves) and (shoes)tight. But a sporthorse farrier is more likely to let the hoof be a lot bigger, which in my mind gives a lot more room for a flawed hoof structure to play out like it wants to.
When I think about my own mare, one front foot wants to grow forward and down, and is indeed NPA. It wasn’t that way when I bought her - BUT she was trimmed really short, as in too short. Kept that way over time (before I got her), the hoof stayed more correct in its angles. Now, as she’s allowed to have more hoof, it’s doing what it naturally wants to do, which is NPA. We use a wedge to correct this foot.

So, who’s right?? The farrier who trims short all the time, or the one who allows more hoof and then we resort to artificial means to correct a bad angle?

[SinMiedo]

We’re currently working on this issue with my “nephew” horse. The plan my farrier and I came up with is 1-2 cycles of frog support pads + a baby wedge, then transition to frog support only with the heels floated very slightly. He’s 4 weeks into the first set and there’s already been a very noticeable improvement so I’m hopeful that we’re on the right track

[GraceLikeRain]

@Obsidian_Fire

It made me think about hoof size; many farriers (that I know) trim pretty short. I call it cowboy shoeing. They want them short(hooves) and (shoes)tight. But a sporthorse farrier is more likely to let the hoof be a lot bigger, which in my mind gives a lot more room for a flawed hoof structure to play out like it wants to.

Super interesting observation. I had a QH guy shoeing my horse. He kept her in 0s and her foot looked “small” but it was really clean and tight. We moved to a top sport farrier who immediately bumped her to a 1 and was respectfully critical of the hoof size. Six months later her natural tendencies of crushed heels and long toes and flaring are full force and we are having to essentially backtrack. I love a big healthy hoof
But big for the sake of big allows for a lot of things to go wrong.