From the time it’s diagnosed and treated with trimming, with proper adjustments to lifestyle, feed, etc, how long until the foot stops flaring?
Hoof flares are usually conformational and a management issue rather than something that is “gone.” It can look fine in a few cycles, but IME it will resurface unless you continue with a competent farrier managing and aware of the issue.
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@fordtraktor so it’s just a matter of managing the flare? My horse has only one hoof that pancakes out at the quarters. It grows out while the opposite front grows up.
Mostly, yes. Be sure you trim often enough to stay ahead of the flare.
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Yup, good trimming and just let the new hoof grow in. It takes almost a year for a completely new hoof capsule to grow in. Heels take less time since they are shorter.
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It’s an aspect of conformation and trimming, not an injury or illness.
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Sometimes a flare grows and keeps recurring for a reason – horse needs the support (often for a problem further up) and the hoof tries to accommodate.
Example: One of my elderly retired mares started growing a flare on the inside of a hind foot. With that flare (that we mange with care so it doesn’t get out of control) she is sound. Without the flare she is very uncomfortable. We can’t pinpoint the problem – could be stife, back, hock, pelvis – so we let her have her flare and all is well. She needs it.
One of my elderly geldings who had mecahnically caused laminitis in one front foot started growing flares at the back of this foot. He needed the heel support – so we kept those flares too.
Since your horse’s flare is only happening in one foot, you might want to examine the possibility (with your trimmer and vet) that the flare is happening for a physical reason unrelated to diet and lifestyle.
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The hoof wall takes just under a year to grow out from the coronet to the ground. Any damage or distortion to the wall will grow out at that rate until it is trimmed or worn off.
If there is a balance issue or founder that is causing the distortion then you will keep getting new distortion in the same place until that is addressed.
You will know the problem is solved when you see the flared hoof is moving down the wall leaving correct wall above it.
The damaged wall will never reattach it will just grow down and eventually be trimmed off. Like split ends on hair.
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This is fascinating, and makes sense!
Yes! I learned this from my natural trimmer who took one look at my mare and said, “She needs that flare.” Explanation followed and now I’m a believer.
Another interesting story in the same vein: One of my OTTB’s has progressive arthritis in one hock – he started to grow a flare on that foot. Once the arthritis had been treated and he felt relief, the flare started to chip in between trims. He was naturally trimming himself. The flare is almost completely gone now, coaxed along with trimming to help get rid of it.
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“Flare” is too generic.
There is flare caused by poor trimming allowing toes to get too long, and have excess leverage placed on the toe, stretching the white line
There is flare from underrun heels, causing quarters to flare.
There is flare from overlaid bars causing quarters to flare.
There is “flare” that develops in a lot of hind feet over years due to how hind feet tend to load.
There is “flare” that develops on feet that toe in or out.
“Flares” never go away - they are part of the foot.
Flares caused by poor trimming, stop their progress as soon as the balance to the foot is restored, and the flare will be all gone, visibly, in the time it takes for it to grow out. That might be 1 trim if it’s new, it might a a full growth cycle if it’s been that long or more since it was allowed and never fixed.
Whether injuries fit into the “flare” or flare category depends on the injury and subsequent situation.
If diet is the cause for chronic, low grade laminitis which allows flaring because of a weak connection, then it fits into the poor trimming category in terms of the time between the cause stopped, and the flare growing out.
In some cases, you might well know the cause - genetics and weak hoof structure - but still can’t do anything about them, so the best you can do is manage them.
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@JB, i think you hit the nail on the head. Only one of my horse’s hooves flare. Instead of growing up like her other three hooves, this one grows out like a saucer. It is incredibly round. That leg had an injury several years back, leading to a chronic low heel and this flared, wide hoof structure. My farrier manages it but he says there is not much we can do as it is suggested it was the result of the old injury. I can talk to my vey next, I just wanted a second opinion. That hoof itself also needs a different shaped shoe than the other three feet.
What kind of leg injury causes a pancake hoof?
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I am not really sure, i am simply repeating what I have been told. That foot is unlike the others, it is the one with the fracture and we are constantly fighting to keep the heel on that hoof up.
Is your horse 100% sound with the lower heel and saucer shape?
When I got my TB back in 2005, he had a very pronounced flare on the inside of his RF as well as a fairly offset line from knee to hoof (viewed from the front, his fetlock was easily 1/2" to the outside of a vertical line from knee to hoof). Because the flare appeared to support the offset, the farrier left it.
Due to a laundry list of learning-curve circumstances, he ended up with VERY severe white line disease in that flare area. He ended up with the flare area respected, and under a different farrier (we’d moved by then), the new hoof wall grew out without the flare, and the crookedness of that leg became much less pronounced. In fact, it never really gave us any more problems after that. It did want to flare if left too long, but my diligence in pointing it out to different farriers kept in under control for the following 10 years.
If it is decided to leave a flare in place, I would discuss with the farrier and/or vet considering a protocol of WLD prevention. Just because the flare may be structurally necessary doesn’t mean there isn’t strain on the internal structures, which WLD microbes like to take advantage of.
I wonder about cause and effect.
Does the horse injure a leg because the hoof is wonky on that side? Or does the hoof deform after an injury?
I haven’t yet seen a hoof deform after an injury and if the horse is going to get mechanical founder it logically ought to be on the supporting leg not the injured one.
At any rate if the injury is healed so that the horse is going sound any deformity in the hoof caused by favoring one foot ought to resolve.
Also here’s a question. Is the pancake foot the abnormality? Or is the pancake foot the “true” foot and is the other foot actually clubbed?
Another place to look for sources of foot problems is in asymmetries between shoulder height. If the shoulders are different heights the lowr shoulder could squash the foot a bit.
It might be interesting to get a knowledgeable body worker in to assess overall posture in relation to hoof angles.
Also yes get a good vet who is also a farrier, a good lameness vet, to evaluate treatment going forward. Sounds like mare has issues in both hind and front end. You need to look at whole horse because they are all going to interact.
@danacat Yes, 100%. She’s had 3 complete lameness tests with flexions this year by 3 different vets spaced out months apart, and she has passed every one.
@Scribbler, a lot of questions cannot be answered because the old owner cut off all communication. we only paid her half of the asking price because she did not pass the PPE with the first vet, and as soon as we told her that she disappeared… She blocked my number and removed me from facebook. I have no way to contact her, so a lot of my answers are simply assumptions based on my conversations with her track trainer. A lot of the issues she has now he says she never had with him, and she was only at the OTT trainer for a few months before being sold to the woman I got her from. I didn’t do enough inquiry in the beginning, now we are piecing together what most likely happened.
\A horse injures their leg because a rider pushed them too hard and created a situation where the horse had to oblige or be punished relentlessly. Thus, the horse pushes themselves too hard and falls prey to a fracture.
She’s had a low heel on that foot always. We manage it with farrier, current vet has said it’s just her, first vet said it was an angle issue that would never resolve (???), It’s hard to know who to believe because everyone has vastly different opinions.
Scribber, she is high/low most definitely, but her high foot is not clubbed. My friend’s horse has 2 clubbed fronts so trust me I KNOW what clubbed feet are. The left foot is a healthy heel, the right foot is a low heel, not underrun but doesn’t have any height either. I’ll take some photos today.
I haven’t considered shoulder height. Her knees are level, though, despite the differently shaped feet. Both angles are correct for her different foot conformations. My farrier works very hard on this horse because she is very prone to soundness issues. The saddle fitter said her left shoulder is more muscular than her right, though.
I’ve actually had a bodyworker and two chiros come to see her twice. Body worker said she’s fine and I shouldn’t worry and both Chiros, even though a lot of them can be masters at making horses LOOk sore, said they couldn’t find much out besides her poll (she is a cribber). So the mystery continues…
That foot has x rays from a year ago. We are planning on doing back x rays and x raying all 4 feet in the spring of next year to look for potential arthritis (want to be ahead of the ball). It will be interesting to see if anything has changed in that fetlock. I have insisted against my vet’s wishes for this.
Do you know there is evidence of an old fracture from the xrays or is this just a guess?
A fracture can be caused by stress, in racing. It can also be caused by trauma, a kick or getting caught in the fence.
For OTTB, yes, it is most likely to be a racing stress injury but it could have been trauma with her post-track owners as well.
Your story makes a good case for simply not buying a horse that doesn’t pass the PPE. On the other hand, a PPE is meant to be functional: is this horse sound to do the job you want the horse to do? If the horse turns out not to be sound for the job you want to do, buying it half price is no bargain. On the other hand, if the rads show funny things but the horse is functionally sound, then the horse has in fact passed the PPE.
If the horse is going sound and vets and farriers agree there is no issue with the hoof angles, why worry about changing them?
Given that, I’m inclined to say that you should leave the flare well enough alone – sort of an ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ kind of thing – she might need those flares. I would mange them and keep an eye out for white line creeping in there. In time she might start to self trim them…but they are there for a reason is seems. Of course I could be totally wrong.
