Post your Feet Pictures! (AKA: Good Hoof Stuff Every Horse Owner Should Know!)

[mcmIV]

Bensmom, this means you!

Fairweather and I were recently looking at Java Feet and she mentioned how much she enjoys looking at all feet!

Well, my newest obsession with feet has led me to post this request. I would like to know what a GOOD shod/unshod foot looks like, truly.

We all know there are plenty of healthy looking feet out there that aren’t actually well shod. It’s misleading.

I want to keep my eye on Java’s new feet so I can point my farrier in the direction I want each shoeing in order to avoid getting into the mess I find myself in today!

We can critique feet too! In fact, if you are afraid of critiques don’t post em, cause you know these people won’t be able to help themselves…

martha

[This message was edited by mcmIV on Feb. 21, 2003 at 02:46 PM.]

[HossShoer]

DQ. good question, suggest to your farrier to take a look in the American Farriers JournalSeptember/October, 2002, Volume 28, Number 5.
Brian Gnegy from California has a article about cracks. His suggestion is to back up the foot, use a swelled heel shoe and burn a small hole at the apex of the crack with a 1/4 " diameter Phillips screwdriver. Alot more complicated then this explanation, but I think ya get the point.
Anyone in Ca. have Brian as a farrier?
I got his email address from The AFA and was thinking of asking him to take a look at this thread on the BB and maybe throw in his ideas.
Let me know.
Regards John

[slb]

You have to be kidding!
From my experience, I have seen some of the worst looking feet taken back to good form and function in just a year. This is simply a matter of correct trimming. This is of course a generalization, and I expect that somewhere there is a horse or two that simply can’t be fixed…but so far, we haven’t found one yet.

[Gallop_On]

My farrier and I are going to have a long discussion this morning about how the vertical cracks on my guy’s front feet will never heal if his toes stay so long. Anyone have any other pictures of good side views with good hoof angles that I can print for the farrier?

[Bensmom]

I want to thank you guys for looking at Ben’s tootsies and will post pics of the others as soon as I can catch my breath to get it done and hopefully tonight at home, I can answer the couple of questions I saw up there, which will probably lead to more from me

But, in the interest of time, I’ll just ask my question that is on my mind today.

The vet said today that when heels are severely underrun the only way to fix it is to get another horse. He was told this by a noted lameness expert. Can this really be true?

What do you guys think?

Libby

[Robby_Johnson]

RF Solar

“Don’t mince words, don’t be evasive
Speak your mind, be persuasive”
Madonna

[Bensmom]

I LOVE the Raytek – unfortunately, it isn’t perfect. It doesn’t automatically find the problem, but it has helped to monitor that annular ligament. I have not gone through my video yet – I let the vet have both for a while and had to steal them back – since I did that, I haven’t been home awake long enough to make it through 90 mins!

I lost my whole other post about Ben last night when my provider went AWOL, so in a nutshell:

How do you know when you’ve cut a horse too short in the toe?

We went to less than 3" on his rear feet – maybe even 2.5" – the radiographs showed that this was appropriate, but now I’m really doubting myself. He was resting the left rear foot after he got trimmed, so I packed him with a hoof packing based in icky-thamol, for three days and got a totally negative response to the hoof testers on both hind feet last night, but he still isn’t quite Right under saddle.

The tough thing is that he isn’t fit, and so that may be part of what I’m dealing with. But, I still have a nagging feeling that this is more than that – the vet did find a positive response to flexion on the right rear leg – about a 1 on a 1-4 scale, so maybe he does need his hocks injected, but I hate to do that if it isn’t necessary.

Thanks!

Libby

Proud member of the Hoof Fetish Clique

[Bensmom]

Cool, other night owls

slb – Buzz is allergic apparently to, among other things, bahia grass. When the seed heads are long on the grass stems, the poor little guy makes a bee line for the grass, stuffs his nose in it, and immediately begins sneezing, sniffling, and trying to scratch his poor nose. He hasn’t figured out what causes this yet, so he still goes through it.

The vet’s office said that he’d probably test positive to so many things that we would be unable to remove from his environment, so we just put him on the antihistimine in his feed last year, and it really helped. Unfortunately, I bought a batch of alfalfa a couple of weeks ago that was really dusty, and appeared to be really blooming when it was cut. It took me several days to realize that he was once again sneezing, sniffling and coughing. I only give one flake of alf at night, so it wasn’t until I rode him that I realized his allergies had reappeared. I took him off of that batch ofhay a.s.a.p, but he’s still having some issues. The vet did several tests today, and trachea and lungs seem ok, just during exercise we sniffle, sneeze and get desperate to itch our nose on stuff. <sigh> We are working on it, slowly but steadily. It is pretty bad when you talk to the vet around 6:20 p.m. and the first thing he says is “I’m not avoiding you, really!”

The young cousin of the guy that I bought him from is now working at our barn and since he started him under saddle, is a great source of info about him. I asked him on Saturday if they’d noticed allergies before (I was trying to see if maybe they were getting worse with age or better) and he told me that no, they’d not seen that, but while he was racing, he got lots and lots of colds. They figured that it was from riding to the track and back in a stock trailer and coming home damp, rather than it being environmental in general. <sigh> They still don’t quite understand why this guy bowed. When I mention his feet and balance, I get that “hey, this is a kook!” look. I guess that would make people feel responsible so it is easier to blame it solely on the track surface. (This is local bush track racing – not recognized racing)

I’m totally in the dark about the x-rays – how often do you see rotation in hind feet? I’ll find out more in the morning.

HH – I can’t wait to see Kip’s remodeled feet. They looked like they were pretty bad – kudos to you for getting a good farrier to get him fixed!

Libby

Proud member of the Hoof Fetish Clique

[slb]

Bensmom…don’t remember seen a reply to this…does the same farrier do Ben’s and Buzz’s feet?

Proud member of the * Hoof Fetish Clique *

[slb]

WOW…that’s a big step up in shoe size…it just goes to show you how bad things can be

Hope you stick around for more discussion…I think it will get more interesting as we go

Proud member of the * Hoof Fetish Clique *

[Bensmom]

slb – thanks for the links and I really don’t mind taking more pics – I don’t have anything more important to do with my time!! (Must remember to take solar view of Buzz’s wedge shoes too!)

Spring – Gayla is beautiful! I don’t know that much, but I didn’t see much to dislike in her foot. These other guys are much better than I am at this, but depending on where her heel actually is, that foot looks good. Ok, someone with a more technical eye, what did I miss?

Libby

Proud member of the Hoof Fetish Clique

[Lisamarie8]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by slb:
Bensmom…this is too good…I love this thread…I for one, will be looking forward to more pics. Wish more people would participate.

Waiting for pics (hurry)…
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Now that I have the ponies in my back yard, I will innundate you with pics! Since I leave before light and get home right at dusk, it will be this weekend, but I’ll take a bunch!

wheeeeeeeeeeee!

— And how did you feel about being denied these Hungry Hippos?

[mcmIV]

Erm! UH OH… HOld on!

HOLD ON AGAIN. Jeez… Ben’s pics were like 389K! This should work. hrmph.

martha

**Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks. **

[Bensmom]

Hilary, keeping in mind that I have no idea what I’m talking about . . .

It may be because I almost never see my boyz without shoes anymore, but I would venture a guess that perhaps Clancy has a tad bit too much toe in front, and I would prefer to see heels back a little farther, but it isnt’ near as bad as Bear … .

On his hind feet, if he is having his sacrum go out, I’d look hard at his medial/lateral balance. I don’t know enough to look at his hind feet and state that he is probably carrying an unequal distribution of weight on the outsides of the hind feet. I’ve gone on and on about what a revelation finding that imbalance was for Ben and how much it is helped him – there are several threads that I give my testimonial to the computer balancing stuff, but I’d take a hard look at that.

The dead giveaway that you could see on Ben was that when he was stood up in the aisle, more or less “square” he stood with his feet turned out like a ballet dancer, though he didn’t really technically “toe out” Now we know, and when you trim the insides of his feet to make the medial/lateral balance balanced, he stands not straight, as that isn’t correct either, but in line with his stifles, which is much straighter than he was, but not under his body completely. Interestingly, I read somewhere that at each shift upward in gear, the horse travels more under his body, so that if at rest, he was completely straight, at the gallop, he’d be interfering like crazy. Anyone else heard this?

Now, some of you know waaaay more than me – what do you see?

Libby (who is beginning to think that the only place I don’t see underrun heels is on Ben’s clubfoot )

[Dune]

Bensmom-
Regarding your question of whether or not it’s possible that your farrier went too short while using the Metron trimming suggestions, the short answer is YES…it is possible! My farrier(s) used that system and that is one of the problems we had. It may or may not end up being your problem, but I did want to let you know it IS a possibility. It is a great idea in theory, but is not perfect, and you still have to have a farrier that can perform the trim/shoeing job for you. I just don’t see that it is any more helpful than just taking the x-rays and shoeing/trimming from those. Just my opinion, of course. Good luck!

[Cruzinwikelover]

This is such a funny topic! I love it!

[MyShadeOfPink]

Posted by slb:
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>MyShadeofPing…really can’t tell too much from that pic. Could you get more shots straight from the side and a solar view if possible? Looks like there might be some problems, but its hard to tell from the angle.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I’ll try to get some shots this week. She gets her tootsies done monday so they’ll be all spiffied up. I’m very happy with my farrier. He laid everything out to me, and sat me down and told me why he was doing things. He explained me me why he wantd to shoe my mare a certain way because she’s so prone to navicular changes. I’ll get back to you

::Jennie::
“Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everybody I’ve ever known.”-Invisible Monsters

[cassie01]

Ooops, should have been more specific again…

Perpendicular to the ground as viewed from the front, not from the side

[Bensmom]

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Bensmom, tell ya what, I’ll send ya down a wack of money and you follow that vet and lameness expert around and buy up all them poor footed,underrun heals, never gonna save 'em horses, for cash, just ahead of the meat guy.(See if ya can get a few of them thar navicular ones as well.) when you get a trailler load or my money runs out, I’ll slip down and pick them up.
What a great business we are in. Experts creating opportunities every time ya turn around.
Ya all know what a expert is???
An “ex” is a has been, and a “pert” is a squirt under pressure.
Is the heat too much down there or what???
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What, just because it was 70 degrees here today you think we are losing it? Its back down to freezing now, so maybe we’ll come back to our senses! I love this description. The vet that reported this looked sceptical, but said the “expert” never would answer the question of how to fix it. I’ll take him your answers when you know the details on this one – I’ve now decided seeing that this horse of my friend’s gets fixed or managed soundly is my new personal mission!

and:

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Bensmon, another thing, Just had another look at Ben’s feet and they look really good.
The shoeing job looks like a top notch professional job.
And how did Martha set up your pictures???
Thats a great way to present them.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I’ll be printing this for my farrier tomorrow, as he is due to come out and shoe the little monster (that would be my 6 year old TB whose bad shoeing in the past caused one bow and one fetlock with DJD, but I digress) He’ll be thrilled

And Martha set the pics up with her brilliance!! I think she used photoshop to do it, but I know she was exploring other ideas – Martha are you up to doing a couple of more horses for me? I’ll get Buzz’s pics after reset tomorrow and then the lame horse at least on front feet tomorrow.

This is an incredibly informative thread!!

Libby (who will also be printing the info about underrun heels and frog weight bearing for my friend.)

[Backstage]

Hi, I haven’t read the whole thread but, of course, have read enough to get me wondering.

Could anyone take a look at these feet pictures and let me know what you think?

http://pictures.care2.com/view/1/517866294

There shouldn’t be any pop-up adds, and I’d thought I’d save some BW this way instead of attaching them.

The white feet are the hind legs, the black are the front, the one good solar is the left front. I ended up taking them in the barn where the lighting wasn’t ideal, since I kept getting pushed into a snowbank outside.

Thanks, I’d really appreciate it.

By poor, I mean we might have to share a helicopter with another family.