No Foot No Horse
- Sortia Rotter
- Aug 20, 2023
- 2 min read
Although this saying dates to Shakespeare, there is a modicum of truth behind the words. The saying itself highlights the fragility of the animals and the fact that the horse's entire weight is loaded onto its feet most of the time so changes to this can be catastrophic to our animals. The horse will adopt abnormal gait patterns for several reasons, one of which is long-term changes in the hoof or limb that mechanically changes the limb function. A large portion of this is due to the hoof's shape.
Now I am not claiming to be a farrier or have anything to do with farriery – so by all means talk to your farrier!
Within the hoof, you can have several different conformations, such as broken back, broken forward, normal, and flared to name a few. These will change how the weight and ground reaction forces are felt through the horse's limbs during work whether that be ridden or otherwise. Broken back conformation means that the hoof is at a more acute angle than the pastern whereas broken forward is the opposite. A broken back hoof pastern angle (HPA) puts more stress through the deep digital flexor tendons and distal interphalangeal joint, whereas a broken forward HPA puts stress through the suspensory ligament due to the angle of the fetlock joint in comparison to the hoof. In many of these cases, corrective shoeing should be used to help compensate for the stress created by poor HPA on soft tissues in the limb. Corrective shoeing will also help to ensure foot balance in all aspects is regained and reduce the likelihood of injury.
As such ensuring that your horses HPA and hoof balance is optimal will go a long way in maintaining the animals ridden career and comfort in every day life.
References:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16536388/ - Hoof growth between two shoeing sessions leads to a substantial increase of the moment about the distal, but not the proximal, interphalangeal joint.
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