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 Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
  
Location: Woodstown, NJ | My new farrier loves wedges. He's straightening my horses' feet out. They're a mess in various ways from all the bad farriers I've had. Mostly underrun heels. I've lived here for three years and this is my fifth farrier. But I have high hopes for this guy. Haven't heard anything bad about him plus he seems knowledgeable and is passionate about what he does. But he loves those wedges. I'm a little nervous about them especially since one of my guys recently got a suspensory injury after we put one on. About a month later, he came up lame. Never had anything like this happen before. I'm not necessarily blaming the wedge. But I'm paranoid. I've never used wedges before. What do you think about them? |
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| I think sometimes they are a necessary evil. They help raise the angle but then the heels get crushed. I have a broodmare in them due to a tendon injury. She is not a performance horse, but without the aluminum wedge on her previously injured limb, she wouldn't be very comfortable.
I think the most important thing with using wedges is a competent farrier and vet. It's just like anything else, a great tool when used appropriately on certain situations. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 538
Location: Nevada | My old mare has absolutely no heel and she kept coming up lame had xrays done after we thought she had foundered but couldn't find anything wrong so vet recommended wedges and next day perfectly sound. No limping no tenderness no short stride. She wears them 100% of the time now with no problems. I really like them for her. Not saying every horse needs them but they worked like magic for her. Hopefully your new farrier would use them on your horse because he needs them not just cause he likes them. |
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  Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
 
Location: ND | They have their place....but I feel very over used / used wrong. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | SmokinBandits - 2014-12-21 9:44 PM
My new farrier loves wedges. He's straightening my horses' feet out. They're a mess in various ways from all the bad farriers I've had. Mostly underrun heels. I've lived here for three years and this is my fifth farrier. But I have high hopes for this guy. Haven't heard anything bad about him plus he seems knowledgeable and is passionate about what he does. But he loves those wedges. I'm a little nervous about them especially since one of my guys recently got a suspensory injury after we put one on. About a month later, he came up lame. Never had anything like this happen before. I'm not necessarily blaming the wedge. But I'm paranoid. I've never used wedges before. What do you think about them?
They are a great tool when used properly. However... I always recommended a day or two in a stall after raising the heels because the tendons and ligaments will be loosened somewhat and they need time to tighten up before the horse is worked or is turned loose to cavort. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 639
Location: God's country...aka TEXAS | My husband is a farrier and he ONLY uses these if there is a certain type of injury calling for them. Most of the time, they make the foot over load the toe, causing more problems with the coffin bone/foot being un level. Also, they can mess up the ligaments in the legs. They are definitely not going to help with the under run heels. |
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 Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| My horse runs in the 2 degree wedge, natural balance, aluminum shoe. This was recommended for him per our vet after he tore scar tissue in his front leg. My gelding has very upright pasterns, check ligament surgery didn't correct it fully.
These shoes have made a world of difference. He's gotten faster and faster and you can tell he feels better. He did lose some of his stride because they brought his breakover back but the vet was dead on. KNOCK ON WOOD, no issues (leg related) in 2.5 seasons.
They have their purpose... and can make a world of difference, least I believe. But I think they can be overused just like anything. |
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Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | We have a filly who has to wear wedges on one foot only. That foot the coffin bone is tipped so she has to be shod at an exact angle to keep her sound and wedges on that foot is the only way to achieve that. We use the vets farrier, and he re x-rays her every 3rd shoeing to make sure we are staying on course. |
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Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
Location: Woodstown, NJ | Thank you for all your replies. Hmm, I just don't know if my horses need them. My one guy was not having any soundness problems until he got the suspensory injury. May have just been a bit of bad luck. We were stepping up the pace of his training. The other guy was never lame but often stumbles. This has been going on for years. He grows a long toe. He definitely has an underrun heel. X-rays were inconclusive. Nothing blatant as far as navicular or rotation of the coffin bone however he does have sidebone but he's had it a long time and vet said it shouldn't be causing the stumbling. I might have to just trust this new farrier. |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | My farrier came well recommended so when it came to a mystery soreness in one of the horse's front feet, he and my vet worked together and I let him take the reins. He put front wedges on and the horse is now mostly sound. He has good days and bad but overall is much more comfortable than he was w/o corrective shoeing. |
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Not Afraid to Work
Posts: 4717
| SmokinBandits - 2014-12-22 5:21 PM
Thank you for all your replies. Hmm, I just don't know if my horses need them. My one guy was not having any soundness problems until he got the suspensory injury. May have just been a bit of bad luck. We were stepping up the pace of his training. The other guy was never lame but often stumbles. This has been going on for years. He grows a long toe. He definitely has an underrun heel. X-rays were inconclusive. Nothing blatant as far as navicular or rotation of the coffin bone however he does have sidebone but he's had it a long time and vet said it shouldn't be causing the stumbling. I might have to just trust this new farrier.
My gelding often stumbles also, its unknown if he does due to his conformation flaw or laziness or what but the aluminums were much more suited for him. It has helped with the stumbling. he also has under run heels. |
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Member
Posts: 42
Location: SE Oklahoma | They have been a lifesaver for my big horse. Off the track he had long toes and zero heel. Still can't really get the heel to come back, put 2 degree wedge in front and he looks and feels so much better. Not sure if he will need them forever, but it's been a year with zero wedge-related problems. |
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Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
Location: Woodstown, NJ | We always thought it was laziness with this guy. He IS lazy. But I just don't know... |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12842
| I had them on one horse as per vet's orders. We just could not keep the horse sound. Her heels started to crush (that is what farrier said--I was not home) and I told my farrier to shoe her flat. It took a few shoeings but she is sound now. My farrier does not like aluminum shoes at all. He even says shoeing her flat was the best choice. |
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Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
Location: Woodstown, NJ | What do you mean by that Streaky? "Shoe her flat?" |
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Take a Picture
Posts: 12842
| SmokinBandits - 2014-12-22 10:27 PM
What do you mean by that Streaky? "Shoe her flat?"
Just plain old steel shoes. rims |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1131
| I used to show a mare who required wedges to stay sound. She had an old injury that was from bad farrier experience, and her heels never did grow out correctly, so in order to stay sound to ride, she got aluminum wedges on. |
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Expert
Posts: 1477
Location: In the land of peanuts and cotton | stayceem - 2014-12-22 6:47 PM
SmokinBandits - 2014-12-22 5:21 PM
Thank you for all your replies. Hmm, I just don't know if my horses need them. My one guy was not having any soundness problems until he got the suspensory injury. May have just been a bit of bad luck. We were stepping up the pace of his training. The other guy was never lame but often stumbles. This has been going on for years. He grows a long toe. He definitely has an underrun heel. X-rays were inconclusive. Nothing blatant as far as navicular or rotation of the coffin bone however he does have sidebone but he's had it a long time and vet said it shouldn't be causing the stumbling. I might have to just trust this new farrier.
My gelding often stumbles also, its unknown if he does due to his conformation flaw or laziness or what but the aluminums were much more suited for him. It has helped with the stumbling. he also has under run heels.
My mare trips and stumbles a lot. She also grows a long toe. We used to keep her cut a little shorter and used regular steel shoes. I started having problem keeping her sound. She was sound on and off for about a year and then went completely cripple. Thousand dollars later vet said she couldn't find nothing wrong with her and she thought she was faking to get out of work but if we were real worried about her then we should retire her. Went to a lameness specialist/performance vet and he found it within about 20min. She had a very large bone spur in her coffin joint. He injected it and had is put wedges on her and it has fixed her crippleness and has stopped the stumbling for the most part. I don't know whether she stumbled due to the spur or what but she's 95% better now. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 239
| SmokinBandits - 2014-12-22 4:21 PM Thank you for all your replies. Hmm, I just don't know if my horses need them. My one guy was not having any soundness problems until he got the suspensory injury. May have just been a bit of bad luck. We were stepping up the pace of his training. The other guy was never lame but often stumbles. This has been going on for years. He grows a long toe. He definitely has an underrun heel. X-rays were inconclusive. Nothing blatant as far as navicular or rotation of the coffin bone however he does have sidebone but he's had it a long time and vet said it shouldn't be causing the stumbling. I might have to just trust this new farrier.
When you say inconclusive I understand there is no rotation, but what was the angle of the coffin bone inside the foot? Sometimes they don't have to rotate at all for wedges to help. My mare doesn't have rotation per se, but the way her foot grows/grew the coffin bone was just a little more parallel with the ground than I like. She wasn't lame but we decided to go with the wedges (2 deg) to help the coffin bone sit a little better .... her feet are not great so we thought this might help. It has not made a *huge* difference, but she definitely is clocking better.
(I am a veterinarian, we do rads every 2nd reset)
As a previous poster said, I do recommend for the first 24 hours after they get new wedges stalling them. You do not want to go out and run that night.  |
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3314
Location: Jersey Girl | Do you mean alumininum wedges? My grey mare had them and did fine running in them. Now if you mean the rubber wedges put on most navic horses, use it if it helps your horse but not sure about running in those. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I've had better luck with rocker toes.
One mare I had was put in a wedge for a DDFT injury--vet wanted a rocker toe, farrier wedged instead. Her heels ended up crushed and we had to go barefoot to fix it. |
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 The Worst Seller Ever
Posts: 4138
Location: Oklahoma | I have one that I keep in Wedges when I am running her. I started about 4 years ago when it was suggested to me after having many pulled and sore suspensories. After time off and 2 degree wedges, my horse was sound and stayed sound. I can shoe her flat or leave ehr barefoot, but after about 8 runs she is sore and won't fire leaving. She is barefoot and pregnant right now, and I will reevaluate when I start riding her again. Vet and farrier can't understand why it works, but it does. My personal opinion is she is a big mare and really fires and pushes off out of the turn and her ankles overextend, but I don't know that there is any real facts behind that. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1028
| My good gelding is is an aluminum wedge rockered shoe to help overcome a long toe/low heel situation. I am lucky enough to have one of the best equine podiatrists in the state working on my horse, so I rarely disagree with anything he suggests for my horse. I do believe that some farriers are too quick to jump on the wedge bandwagon sometimes, without consulting with a vet who should take xrays and possibly a venogram before altering the horse's shoeing so drastically. Since my farrier is also a vet, I get to bypass that part, thankfully. |
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | My horse has under slung heels, foot grows forward - long toe and very low heel. Vets found soreness high on the suspensory. X-Rays were done and showed that a three degree wedge was needed to bring the coffin bone level. There are several types of wedges and I prefer a bar wedge pad over a shoe. I feel the wedge shoe has too much grab and puts frog pressure further away. If you do wedge, give them weeks to adjust. This horse was also sore in his rear heels, would have swelling pasterns to fetlocks at times. He is under slung behind too and kept himself sore. He wears 2 degree bar wedge pads on the hind feet. No problems after the problem was taken care of. |
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Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
Location: Woodstown, NJ | 2H~QH - 2014-12-23 9:44 AM SmokinBandits - 2014-12-22 4:21 PM Thank you for all your replies. Hmm, I just don't know if my horses need them. My one guy was not having any soundness problems until he got the suspensory injury. May have just been a bit of bad luck. We were stepping up the pace of his training. The other guy was never lame but often stumbles. This has been going on for years. He grows a long toe. He definitely has an underrun heel. X-rays were inconclusive. Nothing blatant as far as navicular or rotation of the coffin bone however he does have sidebone but he's had it a long time and vet said it shouldn't be causing the stumbling. I might have to just trust this new farrier. When you say inconclusive I understand there is no rotation, but what was the angle of the coffin bone inside the foot? Sometimes they don't have to rotate at all for wedges to help. My mare doesn't have rotation per se, but the way her foot grows/grew the coffin bone was just a little more parallel with the ground than I like. She wasn't lame but we decided to go with the wedges (2 deg) to help the coffin bone sit a little better .... her feet are not great so we thought this might help. It has not made a *huge* difference, but she definitely is clocking better.
(I am a veterinarian, we do rads every 2nd reset)
As a previous poster said, I do recommend for the first 24 hours after they get new wedges stalling them. You do not want to go out and run that night.
Oh boy, how do I describe the angle? The farrier was looking at the X-rays the vet took and called me in to show me. We always knew this horse grew a long toe and had underrun heels but you could see more space (I don't know how else to describe it!) in the toe area. The coffin bone was not quite parallel with the hoof. I am not sure how parallel it's supposed to be. The farrier was happy I had the X-rays because he said now he knew how much toe he could take off. And he's doing it gradually. I just feel like if we can get all these horses balanced properly with good trimming like he seems to be doing, we might not necessarily need things like wedges.
Streaky, okay, I understand--plain old steel shoes.
Fulltiltfilly, they are rubber wedges. Right now all my guys are barefoot. I haven't been riding the one who stumbles. Quite frankly, I was just going to retire him when I got the new farrier and he said "Don't give up on him--he's a nice horse! I can fix this!" And I pulled the shoes on the one who has the suspensory injury because winter was coming and I figured he was going to be laid up for a long time so he's barefoot too. But he got injected with some special stuff and it looks like we may be able to get back to work with him next month and the farrier is probably going to mention wedges because he loves them. So I was just wondering about them. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 502
| I can't believe this post! Today, my 13 yr old gelding got a wedge in the front for the first time. His front left hoof is very flat - like a pancake but he is sound on it. But my farrier thought he would benefit from a wedge. So, we are trying it. I will say I am nervous. Nice to see why others are using wedges I took a pic- I wish I could get it to load |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2937
Location: North Dakota | My horse needs wedges for his heel pain.
He is in a normal rim shoe with a 2 degree pad.
I know that farriers will do things differently, but my farrier explained to me why he uses wedge pads (with a normal shoe) and does NOT use shoes that are wedges. You lose your heel support when you do it that way. Or if you try to trim the hood itself to have a "wedge", you also lose support.
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Sock Snob
Posts: 3021
| There are a lot of things you can do to get the heel off the ground. Natural balance, pads, my guy used the pour in pad, helped stop the heal crush problem. |
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How Do You Feel About Wedges?