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. |