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Horse
Savvy
Ranch
Cindy Schleuss, Owner
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The shoeing process
Before
After
So here is what we did. On the left front Sam Durham (farrier) widened the base of support on the medial side of the hoof. On the right front he widened the lateral side of the hoof. Why? For a hoof to be balanced to the body, it should line up with the two widest points of the knee. Never should the hoof just point straight forward because we think it should, it should point forward because the column is pointing forward (or the bone alignment of the leg is straight forward). Sam shod the hoof to the bone column it supports. How to tell?
Take a look at the support of the shoes from behind. Look at the left front first. Basically, the medial side of the hoof should have the same shape as the lateral side of the hoof. The other piece to notice is the points of the shoe. The point of the lateral side of the shoe is pointing straight back to the hind hoof while the point on the medial side of the shoe is pointing straight to where I was standing. The right front is the opposite, the point on the medial side of the shoe is pointing to the hind hoof while the point on the lateral side of the shoe is pointing to where I am standing.
Before
I learn something new all of the time. Here is a shot of the left front hoof from the underside. Sam showed me how the medial wall was being compromised as a result of the lack of support. The darkening of the medial wall is what he pointed out to me. Look at how shiny and pretty the lateral wall is. Both sides should look the same.
Before
Left front reshod only
I find it fascinating how the horses stance changes as the base of support changes. What has happened here is that the right front is now showing the lack of lateral support. The coronary band now looks higher on the medial side, and the toe itself looks longer than the left. So why does the coronary band on the left front look angled as well? Sam explained that the medial side of the hoof wall was being pushed up into the coronary band because of the lack of support and that it will now drop down.
To compensate for the difference in how the hooves grow, Sam shod each one differently. On the right front he put the shoe out in front of the toe so that the toe could grow to match the length of the left one. He also gave that hoof the lateral support it needed. On the left front Sam set the shoe back so that the toe will not grow too long and gave it the medial support it needed. Both hooves were shod to align with the knee.
Right front
Left front
What made this shoeing job the most challenging was the right hind. With the shoe on the hoof, the medial side of the hoof looked higher than the lateral side. But once the shoe was removed, Sid changed his stance and the lateral side suddenly looked higher than the medial side. This makes it very challenging for a farrier to know what to do. Why this is, is because the bone alignment of this leg is not straight. That is, there are two lines running through this hoof. What I mean by this is that if I run a line from the middle of the hock to the ground it will pass through the hoof on the lateral side, and if I run a line from the middle of the pastern down, it runs through the middle of the hoof. The problem is that there should only be one line from the middle of the hock to the middle of the hoof. How Sam addressed this was by lowering the lateral side of the hoof and then aligning the hoof to the hock.
Before
After
After
After removing shoe and before trimming
Movement
After shoeing before bodywork
Shows more length of stride
After first bodywork
Shows more flexion of the joint and more engagement from the hind end
Most of the first bodywork was removing tension from Sid. His muscles were tight and hard. The best way to explain why there was so much tension is to talk about how a body stays stable and balanced to the ground. Horses have this incredible ability to use sensors to help them place their hooves safely to the ground. They also have the ability to rotate the leg so that the hoof will land as balanced as they can get it to the ground. The issue lies in the changing of, or controlling of, how the limb hits the ground. This action builds tension because the body is consistently re-balancing itself to the ground. By reorganizing how the weight distributes through the leg onto its new base of support with the bodywork, the brain sensors will acknowledge the new feel and the leg will move different.
Before
Before
After
After
From this point Sid will learn how to correctly posture his body. I will help him get more arc in his neck as well as change the angle of his hind end so that he will have the ability to "sit under" more.
Point of the shoe
Sid
All photos by Julie Colt
Movment Therapy or Training Correct Posture
To retrain a horse to properly use its body requires understanding of what correct posture is. Here I am using a lunging caveson to assist me in showing Sid how to arc his neck. I am not using it to get his head down. The head came down because he arced his neck. In order for the arc of the neck to happen the base of it (C4 to C7) must push up into the top of the neck where the mane is. Once that happens, the top of the neck (C3 - the atlas) will round.
Day 1 of movement therapy
Day 1 of movement therapy
The lunging caveson I use has large foam pieces between the horse's nose and the metal. I am not going to pretend that I formerly trained in the use of a lunging cavason; I am in the process of learning and do find it to be a useful tool.
Day 1 of movement therapy
Day 1 of movement therapy
Day 1 of movement therapy
I chose the next two views to show the difference between when Sid is closing his throat and when he is opening it. Menolo Mendez explained to me that if a horse closes its throat in motion that the air way gets blocked. This lack of oxygen causes tension which shows up in many different ways.
Closed Throat
More open throat
On this first day Sid lunged fairly well to the left, but did not want to relax his neck going to the right. I chose to stop the movement therapy and work on releasing more of the tension in his neck.
