|
|
Member
Posts: 16
| Hello!! Needing some help here. I have a horse that has been off for the last 2 years due to no heels/contracted heels. He had a pulled tendon & suspensory ligament that required him to be off for 2 years along with the heel problem. I am wanting to bring him back out this year & have heard there are shoes that can help this problem along with keeping pressure off of his tendon & suspensory ligament. Also, I kept him wrapped with poultice every other day for 6 wks. What can I do to help him come back out as far as shoeing & leg wraps, etc? Thanks in advance for everyone help on this. :) |
|
| |
|
 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | Do you have pics? |
|
| |
|
 "Drank the Kool Aid"
Posts: 5496
 
Location: Iowa, LA | BAREFOOT! Read this thread!
http://forums.barrelhorseworld.com/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid... |
|
| |
|
boon
Posts: 1
| My mare is very flat footed with basically no heel. We put wedged shoes on her. They also have wedge pads you can put under regular shoes that help. I buy mine online from EDSS. They made a world of difference in keeping her sound and have also helped her grow her heel back. |
|
| |
|
  Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
 
Location: ND | Do you have pictures?
I agree that in most cases I would keep the horse barefoot as that allows you to work on the feet more consistently. If shoes are the best option for a particular horse I tend to go with natural balance. |
|
| |
|
 Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4553
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | If you need support try Equi Pak to raise the heels. You can do the entire hoof or a partial. This would allow you to add support a little at a time or make full heel to strengthen the tendons. |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | Generally a horse with no heels has enough frog pressure to avoid contracted heels.... What condition are the frogs in? |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 16
| UGH!! Sorry, no pics. Hard for me to get them this time of year. I have kept all of my horses barefooted for almost 10 years now. I think they do so much better, but when this horse was diagnosed almost 2 years ago with a pulled tendon & suspensory ligament I was told to leave him off for 6 weeks & keep him poultice every other day with a couple of different linaments & wrapped. I have turned him out every since & had him back last year & the vet said egg bar shoes & I'm just not a big fan of those. I've had a couple injury themselves with those on. Anyways, I had my farrier to look at him & he said to give him another year to let the heel have time to grow out. The heels are doing better but still not much of a heel. Just needing advice & suggestions on what experience others have had with this & what to do to help him come back out. Other than that, he is as healthy as my 6 yo.....& he's 21....lol. Thanks for everything. :) |
|
| |
|
Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | It's really hard to say much without pics. What most say is no heel, is simply underrun heels. And to deal with that I like to rasp the heels back to the widest part of the frog every couple weeks and keep a strong bevel on the toe. |
|
| |
|
"Drank the Kool Aid"
Posts: 5496
Location: Iowa, LA | SaraJean - 2014-01-27 10:13 PM It's really hard to say much without pics. What most say is no heel, is simply underrun heels. And to deal with that I like to rasp the heels back to the widest part of the frog every couple weeks and keep a strong bevel on the toe. Exactly! My farrier kept saying that my horse wasn't growing any heel when in fact he was but it was under run giving the illusion of not having any heel. There was another thread a while back discussing this...let me see if I can find it for you. I rasp my gelding's heels once a week and trim him every 4 weeks and the improvement he's made speaks for itself.
Edited to add: Sara this wasn't directed at you LOL I was just agreeing with you!
http://forums.barrelhorseworld.com/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=442248&posts=49&mid=6895908&highlight=&highlightmode=1&action=search#M6895908
Here is the link to that thread and Sara Jean drew a great example,too.
Edited by annemarea 2014-01-28 7:23 AM
|
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 294
| Barefoot will help. Its really important that you keep backing up the toe. You may have to trim every 3-4 weeks.
I'm going through the same thing. My gelding's angles are looking alot better. |
|
| |
|
 Expert
Posts: 1857
| komet. - 2014-01-27 7:58 PM
Generally a horse with no heels has enough frog pressure to avoid contracted heels.... What condition are the frogs in?
How does frog pressure stop contracted heels? Isn't contracted heels created from excessive growth and not being shortened enough? |
|
| |
|
Veteran
Posts: 294
| The frog pressure keeps the heels from contracting in. They are able to spread out better. I think..lol Contracting heels are usually found in shod horses. |
|
| |
|
 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1035
Location: TN | raganwells - 2014-01-27 5:04 PM My mare is very flat footed with basically no heel. We put wedged shoes on her. They also have wedge pads you can put under regular shoes that help. I buy mine online from EDSS. They made a world of difference in keeping her sound and have also helped her grow her heel back.
My gelding is the same way. 3 degree wedges, shoeing regulary (4-6 weeks on front), Knox gelatin supplement, and slowly working him up from a 00 to an 0 shoe have helped him. |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 2121
Location: The Great Northwest | Guiness - 2014-01-29 7:08 AM The frog pressure keeps the heels from contracting in. They are able to spread out better. I think..lol Contracting heels are usually found in shod horses.
Contracted heels are not generally found on shod feet. If they are trimmed correctly, the feet won't contract. |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 2121
Location: The Great Northwest | Guiness - 2014-01-29 7:08 AM The frog pressure keeps the heels from contracting in. They are able to spread out better. I think..lol Contracting heels are usually found in shod horses.
Contracted heels are found on horses where the toes & heels are allowed to grow long. That pulls and narrows the foot foreward. This horse may be sore in the big flexor tendon too. |
|
| |
|
Expert
Posts: 2121
Location: The Great Northwest | raganwells - 2014-01-28 2:04 PM My mare is very flat footed with basically no heel. We put wedged shoes on her. They also have wedge pads you can put under regular shoes that help. I buy mine online from EDSS. They made a world of difference in keeping her sound and have also helped her grow her heel back.
My gelding that I have had since a yearling has underslung heels. That is his hoof conformation I had to learn was just part of him. I never put shoes on him tell I had to at 5 years old. He was just foot and back sore all the time especially when using him, working on the barrels. He does grow heel put they are so thin the heel wears away going bare foot. So, he always had a lot of heel pressure. The shoes gave him some relief but the heel just turns under or just gone. He is sound now with 3 degree bar wedges and Eventers Elite with rim. The back feet are underslung too. I found too they were sore. He would abcess in the heels. He is shod with a one degree bar wedge in the rear and no abcesses. He needed a lot of help that bare wasn't going to give him unless I wanted a pasture ornimate. |
|
| |
|
The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| skye - 2014-01-28 4:40 PM
Guiness - 2014-01-29 7:08 AM The frog pressure keeps the heels from contracting in. They are able to spread out better. I think..lol Contracting heels are usually found in shod horses.
Contracted heels are not generally found on shod feet. If they are trimmed correctly, the feet won't contract.
I have to disagree with your comment. I have seen more contracted heels in horses that are shod then not.
The ways horses get contracted feet is by not enough sole dug out around the frog, the sole should be dug out about 1 1/2 inches diameter of the frog. The foot should look like a cup.
When the horse steps and puts pressure on the foot, the frog drops (weight of coffin bone pushes down, the lamania is elastic allowing this to happen). When the frog drops, the heels expand outward, this also allows the blood to enter the foot.
When the foot is up in the air, the frog goes back to its stationary place (the elastic fibres of the lamania pull everything back) the heels come back in.
If the dead sole is built up it has no elasticity so the foot cannot expand.
When you shoe a horse, the majority of the problem is most (not all) farriers are using preface shoes and are shaping the preshaped shoe some, then rasping the foot to fit the shoe. This is like putting on a pair of shoes one size too small and running in them all day, you would have sore feet, start walking on your feet differently and if you continued to wear the too small of shoes your feet would become disformed.
To shoe a horse properly you need to leave 1/8" of the shoe exposed all the way around the entire shoe. This allows the expansion and contraction of the foot to occur.
If horses feet are trimmed properly contracted heels won't happen. But properly trimming takes time and needs to still happen every 4-6 weeks. You also need to work on the sole as well. |
|
| |
|
The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| skye - 2014-01-28 4:44 PM
Guiness - 2014-01-29 7:08 AM The frog pressure keeps the heels from contracting in. They are able to spread out better. I think..lol Contracting heels are usually found in shod horses.
Contracted heels are found on horses where the toes & heels are allowed to grow long. That pulls and narrows the foot foreward. This horse may be sore in the big flexor tendon too.
Not necessarily, long toes and heels cause underslung heels, they will not always contract, but will always underslung. |
|
| |
|
The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| skye - 2014-01-28 4:58 PM
raganwells - 2014-01-28 2:04 PM My mare is very flat footed with basically no heel. We put wedged shoes on her. They also have wedge pads you can put under regular shoes that help. I buy mine online from EDSS. They made a world of difference in keeping her sound and have also helped her grow her heel back.
My gelding that I have had since a yearling has underslung heels. That is his hoof conformation I had to learn was just part of him. I never put shoes on him tell I had to at 5 years old. He was just foot and back sore all the time especially when using him, working on the barrels. He does grow heel put they are so thin the heel wears away going bare foot. So, he always had a lot of heel pressure. The shoes gave him some relief but the heel just turns under or just gone. He is sound now with 3 degree bar wedges and Eventers Elite with rim. The back feet are underslung too. I found too they were sore. He would abcess in the heels. He is shod with a one degree bar wedge in the rear and no abcesses. He needed a lot of help that bare wasn't going to give him unless I wanted a pasture ornimate.
I would be xraying the feet and trimming to coffin bone. I would also be looking at the navicular |
|
| |
Folks on-line