Opinions on how to shoe a club foot/ high low

[DD13]

I have a 4 yo, coming 5 in July Oldenburg with a slightly clubby foot (about a grade 1). He just had his 4th shoeing cycle and I’m second guessing what my farrier is doing with him. Here’s the low down:
-Horse was barefoot and starts to feel choppy and unlevel so I decide to put shoes on him. Farrier puts aluminum shoes, with a full pad on the RF (clubby foot) preventatively to protect against bruising and potential soreness. Puts a 2 degree wedge pad on the LF (low foot) to even him out.
-Horse feels the best he’s ever felt in shoeing cycles 1 and 2.
-Half way through cycle 3, Horse starts to feel choppy and unlevel again.
-I tell farrier about this and he bumps horse up to a 3 degree wedge on the LF
-Today we are 5 days into cycle 4 and he feels amazing again.

When I felt his choppiness came back in the middle of cycle 3, I had a consultation with another farrier with a totally different view on how to shoe club feet. This farrier said he’d take the pads off completely, and trim each foot as an individual. He believes he would be better off taking the toe back on the LF and this would correct the break over enough to even him out. He says its too late to change the way horse develops so the wedge pad will just throw his spine out of whack and cause other muscle problems in the long run. He also preferred a front clip to side clips and would do an even lighter shoe for him. But mainly the difference was his theory that it’s too late to make the horse “even”. I worry with this theory, my guy will revert to the choppiness he had when he was barefoot, since this is essentially the way he was trimmed before I put shoes in him. Would trimming him this way and just having shoes on him really make that big of a difference?

My current farrier says he is still young enough to bite this in the bud and we can in fact even him out by using this method with the wedge pad. He’s suggested trimming down the RF every 3 weeks because that heel just grows soooo fast.

I’m stuck because I can make sense of both theories.

I worry about that wedge pad crushing an already lower heel. I can stomach waiting out the choppy feeling days with this farrier, so long as this means I will have a sound horse in the long term. I understand none of us have a crystal ball, but I’m wondering if anyone else has had any experience in this type of horse’s shoeing, especially long term.

[stb]

I much prefer farrier number two’s approach. Wedge pads are going to crush the low heel further.

[ToTheNines]

Farrier No. 2. Plus be sure to keep him on a five week schedule. Mine has a grade 1 also. He does not wear any special kind of shoe.

Don’t let the club foot go too long and flare. Once it does, it’s difficult to get rid of that concave look.

Keep him out of soft footing. Club foot is a ligament/tendon problem.

Let farrier No 2. do his job. I bet your horse feels better with shoes, and the “choppiness” may have been because he simply needed shoes.

[walkinthewalk]

My less than Grade One trail horse has been barefoot 95% of his life without issue.

Were I in your position, I would pay money for a consultation with either Rick Redden or Stephen O’Grady, then have the farrier with the most sense in his head, and the least “all up in himself” proceed from there:)

[luvmyhackney]

I hate wedges on a club foot. It really doesn’t fix anything, just has a tendency to screw up the heels and make them stay in shoes.
Pull the shoes and go with farrier 2 or have both farriers work together and come up with a game plan together. Do you have x-rays or even pictures of front feet? They would be very helpful.

[pezk]

My farrier would like farrier no 2. My mare has a club ft and we shoe her like we find her. Each foot is different and my farrier treats it that way. My vet agrees.

[DD13]

Thanks everyone for your input so far, it’s tough for me because with farrier 1, when he feels good, he feels SO GOOD. It’s hard to deny that feeling, but I’m open minded.

@luvmyhackney

I hate wedges on a club foot. It really doesn’t fix anything, just has a tendency to screw up the heels and make them stay in shoes.
Pull the shoes and go with farrier 2 or have both farriers work together and come up with a game plan together. Do you have x-rays or even pictures of front feet? They would be very helpful.

luvmyhackney, the wedge isn’t on the club foot, it’s on the low foot to raise it up, if that makes any difference in your opinion? I’ll take some pics tomorrow.

[luvmyhackney]

@DD13

Thanks everyone for your input so far, it’s tough for me because with farrier 1, when he feels good, he feels SO GOOD. It’s hard to deny that feeling, but I’m open minded.

luvmyhackney, the wedge isn’t on the club foot, it’s on the low foot to raise it up, if that makes any difference in your opinion? I’ll take some pics tomorrow.

It depends on what he’s trying to accomplish with the wedge. How does he have the low heel balanced or floating to allow it to grow and not crush.

[RedMare01]

I lean toward farrier 2. My mare sounds a lot like your horse, definite high/low in front hooves bordering on clubby. I kept her trimmed frequently but in regular shoes, never wedged. She’s currently still very sound at 23. I think trying to change angles and use wedges usually creates more issues than it solves long term.

[Kyrabee]

Question though…you have already raised the low foot once. How much more can you go up with the wedges on that side? It sounds like the club is getting away from him and /or the heel is badly crushing on the low foot.

Farrier 2 sounds like a more rational reasoned approach. I don’t think at this age, you can get him “even”. This problem can take a lot of maintenance. He may need to be shod more often.

Good luck.

Susan

[Lusoluv]

I would use Farrier 2. You cannot alter a club foot on a horse this old. In a horse under 2 maybe, but not a 4 year old! Each foot must be treated/trimmed individually and wedges do not help a low heel…it will result in some degree of crushing. Bringing the toe back on the low heeled foot is the correct approach. X-rays would be a good point of reference for Farrier 2.

[DD13]

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[DD13]

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[DD13]

@Kyrabee

Question though…you have already raised the low foot once. How much more can you go up with the wedges on that side? It sounds like the club is getting away from him and /or the heel is badly crushing on the low foot.

Farrier 2 sounds like a more rational reasoned approach. I don’t think at this age, you can get him “even”. This problem can take a lot of maintenance. He may need to be shod more often.

Good luck.

Susan

I don’t think farrier 1 wants to necessarily go higher on the wedge. And I wouldn’t say it’s crushing his heel (at least not yet). The way he described it to me was, he’d like to trim the clubby foot at 3 weeks because as it does grow so much faster, it puts more weight onto the low foot this creating that choppy feeling.

[DD13]

@RedMare01

I lean toward farrier 2. My mare sounds a lot like your horse, definite high/low in front hooves bordering on clubby. I kept her trimmed frequently but in regular shoes, never wedged. She’s currently still very sound at 23. I think trying to change angles and use wedges usually creates more issues than it solves long term.

Thanks for the success story RedMare, good to hear. So hard when there’s so much info out there, I wish our horses could talk and tell us the right answer! :lol:

[stb]

Oh good God, no! Those pics are terrible.

1. Way too much foot.
2. Heels are contracted.
3. Wedged foot shows crushing of heel and starting to bullnose.
4. Club foot is starting to dish - that’s gonna get worse fast.

Seriously, this is really awful all the way around. If it were me, I wouldn’t even wait through this cycle to address this. There is way plenty of foot that needs to come off today.

[Showbizz]

Definitely farrier 2. The pics indicate this is not working out well.

[TequilaMockingbird]

Wow, a picture is really worth a thousand words. Those feet look awful for so many reasons. You need a new farrier stat.

[Dressagelvr]

Yes. Current farrier is grossly incompetent. Those feet look horrible.

Get farrier 2 asap

[luvmyhackney]

Please get your vet out to do x-rays and ask who he would work with to help get your horse on a better path. There are quite a few issues with feet in the pics and if they stay the way they are, you are going to have a lame horse soon, most likely a suspensory or navicular issues with the club foot.

I wish everyone has access to competent farriers but unfortunately that is not the case.

A. Feet are too long, how much is unknown without x-rays
B. Heel with the wedge is crushed and going to keep running forward and crush with that wedge
C. Club foot has a contracted heel and heel is much too high
D. I don’t think its bull nosing, I think its the farrier trying to back up the toes incorrectly using a rasp instead of trimming the toe back. He’s probably putting on the shoe and rasping the toe back to meet the shoe.

To fix this, you need x-rays and a very good farrier that understands floating heels and fixing the contracted heel. Your current farrier is probably overwhelmed and doesn’t know how to fix this and doing the best he can to keep your horse “feeling good” short term vs long term.

I would get a consult with a vet school farrier or a top therapeutic shoer in the area.