Your experience with NPA behind?

[RJC]

We’re living such similar lives.

I’m going to take pics to update the other thread, but last night my boy’s hind right shoe had lost the two medial nails and shifted, causing him to step on the clip which embedded itself in his hoof wall. Que frantic calling of new farrier, who happened to still be in the area, and a late night emergency reshoeing situation. My boy was so sore behind (suddenly? he was fine the day before) that he kept kicking out trying to get his leg back and we had to give him a bucket of cookies to get him done and even then it was a sweaty, tense, miserable affair.

Puncture in the hoof wall was cleaned up and packed with artimud. He was immediately more comfortable behind in wedges when he was done. Old farrier texted me this AM to see how horse was doing in the hind shoes he put on last week I answered but did not fully explain that horse is now wearing another man’s shoes.

[knic]

Another man’s shoes

[Ottbaxel]

Haha that last line made me giggle. It’s so tough to explain though! We are cheaters

[Amberley]

I just switched back to me farrier after a long frustrating year living elsewhere. My mare has had NPA for months and the farrier at the place we were, while very nice, just couldn’t figure it out. My farrier pulled her shoes, trimmed toe and rolled it and told me to walk her an hour a day on abrasive surfaces, we have gravel/ rough asphalt roads all over here so no problem. He trimmed her every 2 weeks behind, he’d just stop by and trim her whenever he was nearby. The NPA is gone in less than 2 months. The bullnose is gone, she’s landing flat again. What fixes NPA is growing the caudal tissue in the heel. You can trim the toe all day long but until the horse is landing on the heel as they are supposed to and building soft tissue back there in the heel bulbs above the sole it won’t do a damn thing.

He kept her front shoes but fixed that too. With the last farrier she wore the shoes heavily at the toe and nowhere else (and not evenly!!). With my farrier she’s wearing all the nails down evenly again because she’s not landing on her toes. Her feet on the concrete make a single noises as she puts them down. I’m so glad to be home.

[teatime0714]

I had a similar experience with mine. We caught him at right about neutral. He was slipping behind in the canter and the stifle was locking. Blistered the stifle to see if that solved it and it massively descreased the slipping, but didn’t eliminate it. We had the chiro take a look and she saw him camped under behind and very sore in the lower back. She recommended looking at the hind feet and lo and behold that was the problem.

We fixed angles and added 3d pads behind and the slipping stopped within a couple weeks. We took xrays every 3 months to fine-tune as needed. His angle is improving and potentially in another year he can try coming out of the 3d pads. If that timeline holds, then it would have been a 2 year process to fix the issue.

[knic]

I’ve been hesitant to make an update because I haven’t wanted to jinx things, but we are a month out from adding wedges and things are currently trending positive.

I’ve spent the last two weeks slowly easing him back into work, first on the lunge and now I’m a couple rides in and no return of the lumbar spasm! I have been keeping things short and just walk trot and he is on methocarbamol, but this is the best his back has been…probably ever.

His body worker was out last week and immediately commented on his back and posture having changed. He is standing less camped under.

I’m cautiously optimistic, still a lot of reconditioning needed to see what his capacity for work will be. But this has made a bigger difference than all of the injections etc we’ve done before this. So fingers crossed!

[jvanrens]

Hope you didn’t jinx anything! Sounds like you’ve seen some positive progress.

[knic]

Well he did pull a shoe this weekend. Horses!

[jvanrens]

Of course he did. Horses gotta be horses…

[SusanO]

Don’t flame me because I am trying to understand this phenomenon. Is this an American farrier thing? I think some of it might be due to the way TB’s are shod for the track but I see this in other horses too. WB’s and QH’s with the same heel on the ground and under run with a bull nose toe. But looking at European sale horses, and stallion pictures I don’t see that hind foot conformation. Is this because I am only seeing the good pictures and there are lots of horses over there with this same problem? My WB mares do not have it probably because they have never had hind shoes and quite frankly they do not do much besides eat and spend money. I am thinking this is not an underlying conformation problem but a man made problem with management. But maybe I am wrong. Trying to get to the root of the problem so it does not happen to me.

[Obsidian_Fire]

It’s possible. Here in the US, there are no “standards” for becoming a farrier. I don’t know about Europe. I do know that my farrier has taken the US Journeyman’s exam, passed, studied hard for a year to take the British exam and didn’t quite pass… it was very extensive. So possibly there are more stringent standards over there.
ETA: also, European breeding is generally a regulated industry, right? Whereas here, anything goes.

[knic]

I think this type of issue is so common, not sure if it is education or apathy on the part of farriers, that an abnormal hoof capsule behind doesn’t raise the red flags it should.

MULTIPLE vets looked at my horse, repeatedly, and not one ever even hinted towards taking a look there.

Frustrating failure for lots of horses on many levels.

[teatime0714]

I don’t think it’s a US-specific thing. I do think it’s a poor hoof management thing though. The horse I posted about above came to us from Europe with godawful feet and super long toes. We fixed the outside by bringing back the toes and a 6 week shoeing schedule, but that didn’t resolve the interior issue until the chiro pointed us in that direction noticing his body position when standing.

I recently imported another horse from Germany that also arrived with terrible looking feet (thankfully the interior angles are still ok, but being monitored closely), so the blame here cannot be solely placed on American farriers.

[knic]

Since this got bumped. My horses back is feeling SO MUCH better but he feels so weak now that he isn’t braced and tight behind.

Strengthening will be a process but hoping things will finally come together for him.

[Ottbaxel]

My guy seems to be doing a little bit better-I’ve been walking him under saddle to just get his body moving around as much as possible since he doesn’t do a whole lot in the paddock all day.

The good news is he’s sound on his right front now which he wasn’t before. I haven’t taken updated radiographs but I suspect with the way my new farrier has been trimming him, he’s less negative than before. His feet look more upright even to the naked eye and his heels don’t seem so low. The farrier said he thinks his feet look incredible-so hopefully we are on the right track, I just don’t truly know yet.

[Amy3996]

@knic

Since this got bumped. My horses back is feeling SO MUCH better but he feels so weak now that he isn’t braced and tight behind.

Strengthening will be a process but hoping things will finally come together for him.

So glad your horse is feeling better! You summed up perfectly where we are with my horse right now too. We’ve unlocked his back and hind end so there’s so much more range of motion, but we’re still developing the strength to support that. It can be kind of disconcerting to ride because there’s so much power there now and yet it kind of comes in fits and starts.

[Calvincrowe]

I’m just joining the NPA group— mare was seen today for chronic periodic front end lameness/NQR. Extensive exam and far too many radiographs later, NPA in all four feet and coffin joint inflammation. Ugh. This has developed over the last 11 months since switching farriers with a barn move.

So a consult with said farrier complete with vet’s instructions and radiographs for a little show and tell will happen next week. I’m also going to beg my former farrier to take her on. He doesn’t work in the area she’s boarded at (damn you, Portland traffic!) but he’s an incredible farrier— clearly better than the one who did this to her.

[Ottbaxel]

Here’s a pic of my gelding’s feet right after previous trim and right after the last trim last week. Top is last trim, bottom more recent trim. I think they are starting to look better-not sure if I’m imagining it though?

I know these angles are not completely the same but close enough for now

[jvanrens]

Unless my eyesight is totally messed up, I see an improvement. Unfortunately fixing feet is a baby steps situation.

[Giddyin]

That looks like a huge improvement for 1 shoeing cycle, not only is there more heel the angle is less run under. I agree though it’s definitely baby steps and small improvements, that being said that much of a change that quickly is really cool to see!