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Promise

Collection & a Great Canter!!

Back to Promises Setup Trim


Promise is an 11 year old paint mare whose tiny feet looked like they belonged on a 12 hand pony when we started, but those feet are just the right size five months after her shoes were pulled.

Part of the reason she has small feet is breeding, but some of the blame for her tiny hoof print can be attributed to the fact that her heels were over an inch too high. See Promises Setup Trim Page for "before" pictures.

Nina's description of her "stiff, bouncy canter" and tendency to drag her rear toes indicated high or sore heels on all four feet even before I saw her.

Promise displayed obvious symptoms of soundness problems when I watched her walk out on our first appointment. She landed toe-first on her front feet, her body was tense, her shoulder muscles were tightly bunched and she was strung out behind. These symptoms were persistent for the 2 1/2 years that she had been in her current owners care.

The fact is that Promise had several shoer's in that period and her extreme shoeing imbalances remained through all of them.

Tall Contracted Front Heels, Bone Spurs & Arthritis in Both Hocks

When we checked, her front heels were painfully high, tightly contracted, and as a result she avoided using her heels. Horses with sore heels are caught in a painful cycle. Heel pain forces them to land toe-first. The more they use their toe, the more compacted and shorter it becomes. The less they use their heels, the less they wear and compact. So the painful heel gets longer and causes more pain.

The other symptom of unsoundness was the abnormal movement in her hocks; they bowed to the sides when they were weighted. Her vets diagnosed hock arthritis and bone spurs along with weak stifles, and Promise needed Legend injections every 4 months to remain sound. When we pulled her rear shoes, we noticed that the inside walls on her rear feet were significantly longer than her outside walls. See Promises Setup Trim Page for "before" pictures

And Now? She's Sound - Almost As Good As New!

Now? She's extremely sound on all four feet without Legend or shoes. Did Promise's hoof imbalance cause her hock problems? Or was she wearing her feet this way as a result of bad conformation? Time has indicated that her imbalance was at the root of her her arthritis and hock spurs, because after the first trim, her hocks have been fine. Owner Nina hasn't used Legend since we removed Promises shoes, and Promise is much sounder and more forward than she's been in more than two years.

Promise is racing into the corner of the arena in the picture above... she's reaching well under herself with her rear feet, she's using both front feet comfortably to stop. Her back is rounded and relaxed, and her shoulder muscles are muscularly fit but not tense.

Need spurs or heels to constantly urge your horse forward? Check for Toe-First landings!

I remember having to "push my hose with my heels" guiltily, now, because this toe-first reluctance to move forward has, in the past, had me muttering angrily about the horse I was riding. Frustration, had me snapping "Pick up your feet!!!" and prodding my horse forward with every step...

Now, when I see people who have to ride with spurs, crops or who have to push their horse forward at each stride - I want to cry for these creatures whose pain and discomfort is so poorly misunderstood by the owners who often cherish them. Sound horses with saddles that fit love to move... if your horse won't move? Please get help figuring out why, and don't accept the easy answers!


Above: A shod Promise tries to canter in October 2005 Above: Promise canters easily five months later in March 2006
The" Before" picture above shows poor Promise trying to canter... she's strung out and her top line shows poor development. The pictures to the right and below show a sound fit horse, moving eagerly and comfortably.
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Linda Cowles Hoof Care
Serving the greater SF Bay Area & Northern California
Copyright 2008 Linda Cowles
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