This is really interesting – I hadn’t heard of this working for anyone before, but it came up a few times in responses. I will definitely ask the new farrier about it because it sounds like it would fit with what we know she likes/dislikes as long as it didn’t get too full of mud, etc.
Thanks for all the other responses as well. I’ll definitely be sharing several of these ideas with my vet and farrier.
I’ll update the thread after the new farrier sees her on Monday, hopefully.
Just a quick update in case anyone reads this thread for a similar situation in the future: the new farrier came out today. We took new radiographs for him to work off of. Both vet and farrier were very happy with where things were on the radiographs, which is good news but unhelpful for the lameness mystery! Both also thought her foot and frog looked healthy once the pads were off, eliminating, most likely, the thrush theory. The new farrier was very thorough in looking at her and listening to how she responded to all the shoe changes. Her frogs hoof tested as somewhat sore, and we’re generally hypothesizing that her symptoms are consistent with navicular syndrome (with no changes shown on X-ray or issues shown on previous MRI).
We ended up putting her in Natural Balances with a leather pad with frog cutout with Forshner’s under and equithane to seal. We’ll see what she thinks over the next few days!
You could try Equine Slippers over the shoes to see if that helps. They would wear out but it would be a cost effective way to see if debris under the pad was the culprit.
@Mareish I think I own your horse’s twin. My experience - sound shortly after shoeing is a clue and it has everything to do with breakover point. Not lame enough to even block but you could feel it a week or so after shoeing. Rads were clean, MRI showed very minor thickening of impair ligament, more consistent with chronic loading, no evidence of traumatic injury. Bar shoes didn’t help, and she hated any type of full pad, pour, anything that added frog pressure. Horse has tendency to grow more toe than heel. Both vet and farrier agreed that breakover point that existed when she was freshly shod was her foot’s happy place. In any kind of regular shoe we tried, as soon as her foot grew even a tiny amount, especially at the toe - it didn’t work for her, a minor change in breakover was enough to cause the problem. Basically the same diagnosis - no absolute findings on rads or MRI but consistent with caudal heel pain/navicular “syndrome”.
What worked - the Natural Balance shoes with rim pad and trimming her toe back. Loves them. But it was a bit of process. It took some time for her foot to settle down. First shoeing she got three weeks. Next shoeing almost made it to four weeks, etc. It may take a while for farrier to be able to get her trimmed to where heel/toe length work AND keep angles correct. Two other things helped once vet and farrier felt they had a good idea of what was going on. Decided to inject coffin joint even though that wasn’t the issue - the idea was more to bathe the joint and effuse the area to address possible residual inflammation since we’d been messing around with this for a while. Six weeks on Equioxx for same reason.
She’s been sound for over a year now. She grows a good amount of foot so we are diligent about keeping her on a 4.5 - 5 week shoeing cycle year round. If the ground is hard and for horse shows, she is perfectly happy to have he feet packed with the Magic Cushion/shavings concoction.
Best of luck. It might take some patience but the fact that she can be sound right after she’s shod is a good sign.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
