Lexington 94

Treating the poor quality hoof and thin walled horse

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Summary english

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Poor quality hoof shod with a leather pad - We've placed the nails in the strongest parts of the wall.

This thoroughbred poor quality foot became rather good after several shoeings

Thoroughbed foot. Quarter clips shoe fitted with nails driven in the strongest parts of the hoofwall.

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To correct the balance, the shoe would ideally be placed "where the foot shoul be".

Before trimming: what an horrible balanced foot ! After trimming hereunder

Same foot as here above after trimming and shoeing.

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"Horses with poor quality hooves are surely one of the most regular difficulties encountered by farriers

1/ THE CAUSES OF THESE PROBLEMS ARE NUMEROUS

As a result of a shoe broken away.
Shoes applied with no respect of the shape of the foot and too much wall rasped off as a result (shoes too small).
Shoes not allowing the natural foot expansion.
The growth of the wall and the foot expansion are also dependent on the temperature and the relative humidity. Growth and expansion are decreased by cold and or dry conditions. The newest part of the wall is the heel and it's the most elastic region, aiding the foot expansion if an adequate moisture is present.
A horse can also be shod too young. At 2 years old or even younger the growth of the horn is severely reduced.
If the feet are over trimmed and/or the nails driven too high, the horse will be cramped and will walk with difficulties. He will need at least a fortnight to allow some growing of the horn. If this horse is re-shod after a period of 6-7 weeks, we will be obliged to nail on the shoes in the old holes, otherwise the wall would become a "strainer". This is a common cause of the flared hoof.
We compound the problem if we apply a hot shoe on an already too short hoof. In comparison to the warmblood horses, the thoroughbreds have a relatively thin wall, but even with a big hoof it's always preferable to keep the wall as strong as possible.
Shoes smaller than the wall perimeter and not extending beyond the wall and the heels will provoke a pressure outside the shoe, which makes a real weakening of the wall. We may consider that the shoe is a part of the ground taken with him by the horse. Therefore, the foot must work naturally and comfortably on this support.

Our experience has shown that nailing the shoe at the outside of the white line or with a backward orientation of the blade is harmful for the expansion of the foot. You know that the foot expansion works like a pump calling in and throwing back the blood. This obliged circulation feeds the foot. No movement means no growth, and this adds even more to the contraction of the horn case. This indeed reduces the foot area. A smaller base increases drastically the pressure by unit of area.

This can be clearly demonstrated by the physics definition of pressure:
Pressure is the ratio of Weight to Supporting surface. ...
in other words we can say that P = W/S. The pressure is inversely proportionate to the supporting surface. This means that a reduction of 20% of the bearing surface creates an increase of pressure of 20% per unit of area.

Conclusion: As the hoof is small and the shoe is narrow, the pressure is greater on the wall and external edge of the sole.

2/. NOW CAN WE PREVENT THESES PROBLEMS ?

Never over trim the foot.
Always respect the thickness of the sole, especially with a flat foot.
If the direction of the wall is splayed out, trim and somehow modify the wall by light rasping (be sure not to weaken). This has to be done not higher than the place you want the nails to come out.
Take the care to keep the feet as clean as possible to allow them to breathe and avoid an excessive dryness which slows both the hoof wall growth and expansion.

3/. SELECTING THE PROPER SHOE

Wide or narrow? Thick or thin? Punched fine or punched coarse?

This depends on the thickness of the wall. Preference will be given to a wide web but not too thick a shoe. The goal will be to give a real support at the plantar wall surface, the white line and the external side of the sole. Besides this, never forget to give enough trimming to allow the foot expansion, this as well by its own elasticity as by its natural growth. (Garniture & filet d'argent)

If the wall is weak or chipped out we'll have to provide quarter clips which will maintain the wall and help to secure the shoe with less dependence on the nails. The role of the clips is to maintain the wall, certainly not to oppress it. They can also be used to prevent hoof wall expansion, but only in pathological cases such as sidebone formation, distal fracture, etc.

Keg shoes have the nail holes in a fixed position but we can always add some. Having 6 or 7 possibilities in each branch will make the nailing-much easier.

In the case of a weak sole (flat foot, etc.), a leather pad can be placed. This will preserve the integrity of the plantar structures and will help by giving a smoother support. We have seen that the shoe has to be applied larger than the outline of the foot. This is to allow foot expansion. When we use a pad the shoe has to be even larger and the nail holes coarser depending on the pad thickness (3-5mm). The clips will also have to be higher in proportion to ensure a secure keeping.

We take care to discharge the frog from the pad to allow a good working. It's also important to secure the pad by 2 rivets placed in each heel. We favor leather and in some cases woolen pads but not plastic.

A pad can also be used when we can't get a full and reliable landing contact of the foot on the shoe.

As the weight of the shoe should accommodate a nail that is the proper size for the foot, in certain cases we can also do the job with an aluminum shoe. The advantage is obviously its light weight which permits us to enlarge the shoe. For example; a foundered foot needs a light, thick and wide web shoe to protect the sinking sole.

4/. SHOEING THE HORSE

When the shoe is shaped we apply it lightly on the foot: this is really important when hot shoeing.
We always use the lightest nail possible and we attempt to nail in the strongest parts. In some cases it will be unavoidable to nail in the toe area and even in the heels if they're healthy and the quarters are damaged.
When finishing we make the clinches square and strong and we just rasp the excess of pad. We don't rasp the wall (dubbing) but just clean it and we finish the beveled rim properly.

5/. TIME BETWEEN SHOEINGS

After a period of 6 weeks it will be a necessity to examine the condition of the shoeing. If it seems feasible we'll wait another 2-3 weeks to allow some growth before proceeding to a new shoeing. We'll get a stronger and healthier foot with a normal growth.

The Goal - End of problems!