What do yall do with your low healed horses… We are looking at a horse who has a wedge in her shoes, and then they took the wedges off and injured herself, do yall think this because she had no wedges?
Wedge pads tend to crush heels…so taking them off could certainly leave a horse at a drastically different angle.
Yes, sounds like she needs that wedge in.
a good farrier should look at angles and whats best for horse.
I am not happy with the farrier the barn uses and I need to be out there when he comes to talk with him.
Ask him what he looks for and why the wedge was taken off to begin with.
Hope this helps
Heel - not heal.
It’s a relatively slow process, changing hoof angles. The wedge may be there to immediately help the leg, pasterns, but a price will be paid. Try to get to the best foot at this time, with the best farrier you can afford. Listen to the farrier that speaks of where you’re going, not how s/he can make the foot ‘look’ right away. It takes patience and a good farrier. My OTTB is now barefoot, will never have QH hooves, but hey, now he does have his own heels.
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What do you mean exactly by a low heeled horse? Do you mean under run heels? Or something else.
Exactly. Why does the horse have low heels to begin with?
Usually people attribute underrun heels to a less than optimal trim, but obviously there could be other issues.
I have a horse in a wedge pad but she has hi/low hooves and it helps keep her symmetrical. So, it’s not necessarily that wedges are bad, but they aren’t the answer to “low” heels that are caused by a bad trim.
If you’re saying all or both front feet have low heels, I’m thinking what you’re actually seeing is very long but crushed and underrun high heels. It’s the result of poor trimming, and if it’s been like that for a long time, she’s had a lot of undo stress put on her tendons. I wouldn’t touch it without xrays to confirm everything is in good shape.
If they are indeed low heels, the wedge pad is there to make up for the angle that will not be there until a new hoof capsule grows in at the proper angle.
