Small hooves, big horse
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pegzak
Hi All!
A few months back, I acquired a ten year old quarterhorse that has the small feet, big muscles and refined head favored by those who show in halter. He had very underun heels, migrated forward hoof capsule, and terrible deep thrush. Now, the thrush has been healed, and his hoof shape is much improved, but has a way to go. My worry at this point is that his feet still appear to be a bit contracted, and the new frogs growing in are narrow. I feel that the horse needs to grow a good frog and digital cushion, but my farrier insists that his is impossible, because the horse is too heavy for his feet, and his weight is crushing the frog/digital cushion area. (The horse is not fat, but is muscular.) He says that the horse will only get worse, and will eventually have to be put down. Is this true? Has anyone here dealt with a horse that has this kind of hoof problem? I was hoping that with a good trim, padded boots, and proper, careful exercise, that this horse could eventually grow some strong feet. He is not lame now, and loves to run in the pasture, and seems to enjoy short trail rides. He's a good horse and I want to do the best for him. Any advice? Thank you! Peg |
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Do you have radiographs with navicular views? Can you post hoof photos? Does he land toe first? The problem you describe is almost the norm in the QH to some extent. I once asked Dr. Bowker if it is possible for these horses to regenerate the digital cushion. His answer was no. However, I think it should be possible to get a normal upright heel and robust frog if you can come up with a way to elevate the heel to the proper position with a compressible support at the frog and heel while keeping the horse in boots or adapted sandals so that the toes can be dressed back weekly.
At the very least you should be able to keep the horse at his current level of comfort with meticulous hoof care. -- Dr. K |
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Hi Peg,
This is a fairly common issue but it can be fixed, it will just take a lot of perseverance and targeted trim changes to accomplish. The overall size of his feet will never be proportional to his body size as he is genetically programmed to have diminutive hooves but you can rehab them to be as strong and healthy as they can be, with robust frogs and better digital cushions. Making sure his diet contains all the building blocks for optimum health will also be needed. Contracted heels usually mean the horse is landing toe-first, which is never a healthy thing. You need to trim, boot and pad him in a way that makes him able to land comfortably heel-first. Getting the entire hoof capsule "pushed back" under the leg is also going to be needed to turn the situation around. Because his conformation likely has a lower palmer angle as part of the genetic programming, once you fix the problem you'll need to remain vigilant not to let it slip back in the future. If you'd like some actual trimming guidance, you'll need to provide a full set of hoof photos (all four feet) so we can see where things are and where they need to go. here's the link to what will be needed: https://ecir.groups.io/g/main/wiki/1472 -- Lavinia Jan 2005, RI Moderator/ECIR Support |
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Just anecdotally, I have an 18yo 1100-1150 lb Paint with small coffin bones relative to her muscle-bound build. Fortunately when she came to me, she still had healthy digital cushions. For comparison, her coffin bones are smaller than those of my 975 lb TWH. She arrived poorly shod with terrible long toes and horrible horn and sole quality. Both were thin, chipping and flaking away so the farrier just kept growing toes longer to have something to nail to. I’ve also heard from my trimmer that once the digital cushion is gone, it’s gone forever. Dr Kellon and Lavinia are better informed about whether that makes a critical difference long term and whether your horse can be comfortably ridden once the diet and trim are fixed. Those pieces were a year and a half project for my mare and took close attention to minerals AND vitamins while feeding tested hay. |
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Good for you, Cass! To get her to the point she is now sounds essentially like getting her back to the point of being ridden. No surprise the fronts are more problematic than the hinds. That's where most of the weight is borne. You have already answered the question about whether there is the potential for long term comfort and even riding. Question: Has a negative palmar angle in her fronts been corrected? Eleanor M. Kellon, V.M.D. Equine Nutritional Solutions Equine Cushing's and Insulin Resistance On Tue, Oct 11, 2022 at 2:56 PM Cass in NorCal <cbernstein@...> wrote:
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Dr. K |
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pegzak
Thank you Dr. Kellon and Lavinia for your replies. I am encouraged that with proper trimming and boot/pad support that I have some hope of maintaining this horse in comfort.
Yes, I did get navicular x-rays. The good news is that there does not appear to be any bone deterioration, although there is a small amount of sidebone present on both front feet. I got the x-rays at the suggestion of the farrier. For what it's worth, I did have a vet watch this horse on the lead line at a walk and trot, and she said that the horse is not navicular. He does appear to be landing heel first.
He is on a balanced diet, as are my other two horses.
I would love to send in pictures of his hooves and have your opinion. My farrier is coming next Wednesday, and it would probably be best to send pictures after the horse has a fresh trim. So, I will try to have pictures in by the end of next week!
Thank you for your comments; I really appreciate it!
Peg
2002
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Jill B
Hi Peg,
I have the exact same horse. We are 3 weeks past the worst thrush I've ever seen in him. It doesn't matter what we've used to engage the frog (pads, anti-thrush pads, heart bars, etc), if his frog is covered he is guaranteed to have thrush within 2 weeks. Every single time. Not sure whether it's because his feet "sweat more than usual" or what. His feet and body sound just like yours though, but he's at -1 angle. My farrier now has him in wedge eggbars and trimmed down the plastic pads with the frog triangle to fit inside the eggbar to engage the frog without crushing it, while keeping the heels elevated to the proper angle. The pad can be popped out to clean the foot and soak as a thrush preventative each week. If you have a recurring thrush issue when you pad him up, I can send you pictures. Good luck! |
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Lavinia Fiscaletti
Hi Peg,
To get the trim tightened up, I'd encourage you to get the pictures done before the upcoming trim so that if there are changes that need to be made, you can incorporate those into the next trim. That way, you don't lose another trim cycle with things not being optimized. -- Lavinia Jan 2005, RI Moderator/ECIR Support |
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I'm due to get radiographs because it's been a couple of years. I'll let you know about the coffin bone angles. I doubt the RF is much improved.
-- Cass, Sonoma Co., CA 2012 ECIR Group Moderator Cayuse Case History Cayuse Photos Diamond Case History Diamond Photos |
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Bobbie Day
I too have the typical big QH which had very small feet. He’s around 1450# (16 hands) and when I got him he was wearing a #1 shoe! Heels were contracted and had a split in one of his front hoofs. I didn’t know about diet balancing then but took him out of his shoes and let his feet relax a bit. It’s been several years now, but his heel bulbs are beautiful and wears a #5 in scoot boots. Of course his hay is balanced which I attribute all my horses good feet to that. We used to have abscesses all the time but not anymore thank goodness.
-- Bobbie And Maggie Desi (over the bridge 7/21) Utah 2018 ECIR Primary Response groups.io/g/CaseHistory/files/Bobbie%20and%20Maggie https://ecir.groups.io/g/CaseHistory/album?id=271156 https://ecir.groups.io/g/CaseHistory/files/Bobbie%20and%20Desi |
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billie hinton
Ditto to what Bobbie posted. Our QH came to us at age 2 (we thought he was 3 soon to be 4) shod, working under saddle with western pleasure training, and his hooves (and gaits)were tiny. We took him out of shoes and mostly out of work and let him grow up a bit. A couple of rides a week we encouraged him to move in his natural gaits. Over time his gaits and his hooves were bigger and while his size (close to 16 hands) warrants bigger hooves than he now has, he doesn’t look unbalanced when you see his feet.
PSSM and other sensitivity issues were discovered and we manage them, so things aren’t always perfect, but the size of his feet did develop with time and a different care than he had before coming to us. Billie in NC |
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pegzak
Hi!
Thanks to Bobbie, Cass and Jill for sharing your experiences with your horses. I am now hopeful that I can provide this horse with some level of comfort long term, and possibly improve the strength of his hooves from what he has now.
Special thanks to Dr. Kellon and Lavinia, for sharing your knowledge and experience with this kind of horse, and for all the many years you have provided valuable advice to thousands of desperate, frustrated horseowners.
And, Lavinia, I took your point that it would be best to provide hoof photos pre-trim. I actually took a series of photos yesterday with my digital camera, but was unable to get the photos from my camera into my computer. I don't know if there's something wrong with my old camera, or the connecting cable, or the photo software, but it's not working. Unfortunately, hurricane Ian smashed us pretty good, and the camera is pretty low on the list of things that need to be fixed. Maybe someday I'll get it going again; at the very least I will then have a set of photos documenting where he is now to compare with where he is six months from now. Thank you for offering to take a look at the photos anyway. I appreciate it.
Peg
2002
Florida
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Peg, Can you send from your camera to your e-mail? Eleanor M. Kellon, V.M.D. Equine Nutritional Solutions Equine Cushing's and Insulin Resistance
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Dr. K |
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