"Club foot" and Under-run (low heels)
RF lateral view Before
RF Lateral view After
RF frontal view Before
RF solar view Before
RF lateral BEFORE trim you can see the high heels and long lateral walls causing a steep "clubby" foot. VERY steep toe angle of 60 degrees! This causes a poor attachment for the coffin bone. This would have been the foot that recurrent lameness would have occurred. The heels and bars were very long causing the long lateral walls to flare excessively and the heel was starting to fold under. It would have eventually collapsed into an underrun heel. After trimming, the toe angle is close to 45 degrees and the hairline is close to 30 degrees..
RF Frontal view After
RF solar view After
Left foot of same horse is under-run
LF lateral view Before
LF lateral view After
LF sole view Before
The left foot has long bars and heels too but this foot is more under-run and less "clubby" than the RF. I find this is very typical that one foot is more contracted with a higher heel while the other is flatter. You can see the quarter crack in this wall forming all the way to the coronet. What pushes the lateral wall out? Long under-run heels and long bars! With the vertical rasping on the lateral walls, I will look for the tubule growth to realign itself in the proper direction. When the tubules are aligned, there will be no crack in the wall.
LF sole view After
Under-run feet
Many people falsely believe that "all TBs need shoes". I believe this comes from the fact that some TBs do indeed have thin skin and fine haircoats which translates into weak hoof horn. Just like some people have hard fingernails and some people have soft thin fingernails. I do believe it is in part genetic but I also believe that the horn can be strengthened through good nutritional support and detoxing the liver. Shoes however, would not improve the horn quality. It would just confirm what everybody thinks about TB feet.
This Left Front before trimming shows a folded under heel with bars that are curved in an S. Heel quarters are flared out and white line in the lateral walls are stretched. Sole is of poor quality. One thing that I would say positive about his feet is they're not very contracted and with the coffin bone tipped forward and all that bar under the foot, i don't think he was feeling any pain. This is due to lack of blood flow from excess horn.
Under-run LF before
Under-run LF After
Another TB with one club foot and one flat foot
This rescued 20+ yr old mare will never have front feet that look the same nor will she ever be totally even in her gait due to joint adaptation. But she had made a tremendous improvement in her over-all condition and feeling of well-being. She has delighted her owner by going from a nervous, distrustful timid mare to now being a sassy healthy horse. Its hard to "fix" these kinds of foot problems and it would be a whole lot simpler if people would learn what causes these situations in the first place.
There was a veterinary study I read a while back that showed that TB's with short heads and necks were more likely to develop a club foot. Due to the fact that they have to put one foot back and one foot forward, they tend to develop this habit which causes the feet to grow disproportionately.
There was a veterinary study I read a while back that showed that TB's with short heads and necks were more likely to develop a club foot. Due to the fact that they have to put one foot back and one foot forward, they tend to develop this habit which causes the feet to grow disproportionately.
Before first trim
After 3rd trim
