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  Discussion on Hoof Mechanisms
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Member:
savage

Posted on Thursday, Jan 12, 2012 - 7:38 pm:

I got these links from another forum. They can be very graphic but they are interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayEJacuoJ7I&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL_45ml-TlI&feature=share
Member:
frances

Posted on Friday, Jan 13, 2012 - 8:59 am:

Wow very interesting! Thanks Linda.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Jan 14, 2012 - 1:03 pm:

Hello Linda,
I really like the videos as they do an excellent job of demonstrating how the foot is perfused with blood. You will find our description of this and the principles of barefoot support at HorseAdvice.com » Horse Care » Hoof Care, Hoof Trimming, Shoeing Horses » The 4 Point or Natural Trim. I do disagree with some of the commentators remarks however:
1) It is not cruel to shoe a horse in the traditional manner. I have seen thousands of horses shod traditionally that were perfectly sound and happy on their shoes for decades.
2) While I do believe the coffin bone does receive support from the sole it also is suspended from the wall by the laminae. In his example he shows laminar breakage in the quarters however when you break the laminae in the front of the foot the coffin bone can move a remarkable distance away from the wall. In very severe cases where there is nearly 100% breakage of the laminae you do see radiographically the whole coffin bone DrOp away from the walls. We call these sinkers.

This does not take away from his main point however that a hoof might be at its best in many environments when walls, bars, and frog are all loaded. Some would include in this list the sole as well though to a lesser extent.
DrO
PS I will move this over to the Natural Trim article once I am sure all interested have had a chance to read this and view the images.
Member:
savage

Posted on Saturday, Jan 14, 2012 - 1:39 pm:

Hi Dr O, thank you for your comments on the videos, and I also agree with your two points. I have never seen something concerning the hoof used in such a way as in this video and wanted to share this with others that might be interested.

Thank you for moving it into the correct place. :-)
Member:
divamare

Posted on Saturday, Jan 14, 2012 - 8:42 pm:

Thank you Linda for posting these links. I had not seen the videos before although I understand they have been "out there" for awhile and there are those who have commented that the video doesn't truly show how the hoof mechanism works as it is a cross section and not a totally incapsulated, intact hoof mechanism.

So if a shod foot is working on a surface soft enough to fill the entire concave area of the foot (arena footing, peafill, etc) so that the wall, bars, frog, then the sole perhaps bear the weight of the horse, wouldn't the hoof mechanism be working properly and the shoe isn't 'cruel' as Dr. O states?

Would a shod hoof on a hard surface that does not allow for the bars, frog, and perhaps sole to make sufficient contact to flex/pump then be inappropriate? Likewise, a barefoot horse whose hoof wall is too long/tall cannot put enough pressure on bars, frog, and perhaps sole is also inappropriate for the best practicing hoof mechanism?

What then am I to make of the claim by some that the shod horse hoof wall cannot flex and thereby is 'cruel'? Is the hoof wall flexing in a properly functioning hoof mechanism? Or is the flexing done inside the hoof capsule with the pumping of the digital cushion and the up/down movement of the coffin bone and laminae I see in the videos?

Forgive my layperson ignorance...I'm trying to understand if a 'properly' shod horse who is comfortable and sound for decades, has a properly functioning hoof mechanism...it certainly would seem so.

Someone tell me what I am missing?
Member:
rtrotter

Posted on Sunday, Jan 15, 2012 - 7:51 am:

Hello all,

I just had to jump into this discussion. Some of you know my background in searching for the right nailless solution for my races horses. so, perhaps I can shed some light, here.

1) Horses are very stoic and can put up with just about anything and can also get used to just about anything as well. So, just because a horse has been in shoes and sound for many years does not necessarily mean, that having nailed on shoes is the best thing for the horse. I do think that nailed on shoes restricts that natural pumping action of what the hoof is supposed to do.

2) Vicki, you mentioned long/tall hoofwall. This is what I think is the root of most hoof problems( and a majority of lameness problems stemming from improper hoof balance), that is lack of balance and not addressing hoof problems in a reasonable time frame for the individual horse. Going 6-8 weeks(or longer) between shoeing or trimming, is not the optimum time frame to keep a horses hoof healthy. I will rephrase this a bit a working horse.

A barefoot horse needs a happy medium to keep his feet in good shape. The right amount of wear, along with the stimulus of movement, keeps the hooves in order. Because we keep our horses in environments where this is the exception, rather than the norm, we need to resort to other things to do what nature does naturally.

There are a lot of underlying issues here as well, environment plays a very important part, also what type of work the horse is doing ( or not doing, as the case may be) and how often.

Now, that said, my race mare is traditionally shod (for now anyway) and has been for the last year. I attribute this to my farriers( whom I have changed frequently to find one who will listen) ability to listen to what I need him to do to keep her that way. She races, jogs and trains every week. she is trimmed to barefoot standards, meaning balanced with a rockered toe on all 4 feet. Shoes that do not extend past her heel, so her heels stay where they are supposed to and she is completely reshod every 3 1/2 weeks, so there is never a big difference in her feet from the start of the shoeing cycle to the end.

Is this the optimum solution, probably not but, from a cost effective, work amount related perspective( until I can find or develop another solution, which I am working on). This is what it has to be.

All the best
Rachelle
Member:
divamare

Posted on Sunday, Jan 15, 2012 - 10:54 am:

Rachelle, what type of shoes does your race mare wear? Steel, aluminum, etc. Are the shoes special in anyway? How many nails? Are the nails placed traditionally? Or are you gluing the shoes on? I know you have been trying to figure out the best footware for a working horse for quite some time so I'm curious what you have determined is the best option at this point in time with what's currently available on the market. Diva mare you may recall went barefoot 2 years ago this month after wearing shoes most of the year for 8 years or so (at her former owner's barn). She has since grown a new foot, has much better hoofwall, is no longer slightly contracted, and has decent concavity. However, she is still a tenderfoot, thinner sole. She has a pretty good hoof environment and is rarely in mud. Her dry lot is 1-2" #12 stone on top of honey combed Equiterr flooring. This allows the stone to fill the concavity and stimulate the digital cushion and keep the drylot free of mud. The round pen and arena are sand/clay mix. She is not turned out into the pasture for long periods of time when it is really muddy.

There may come a time this year that hoof protection other than boots is needed and I'm trying to figure out what will be the best option given what's available at this time. I have an excellent barefoot trimmer and have access to a farrier who will listen. I just need to be able to tell the farrier what I need (and convince my trimmer to stay with me if she flips when I say I may need to put on shoes this summer for a period of time...haven't crossed that bridge yet.)

The videos posted above illustrate very well how the digital cushion pumps up and down, pumping blood throughout the hoof capsule. It is interesting to see the laminae stretch down and spring back with the pumping action. As Dr. O mentioned, we are only seeing the laminae action of the quarters. I assume the same stretching down and spring back of the laminae occurs between the toe pillars (11:00 to 2:00 on the toe/front).

This layperson is having a hard time visualizing the hoof wall itself flexing (and wondering how the shoe is restricting the flexing if it isn't flexing?). I do understand how a nailed on shoe could be jarring to the entire bony column especially while pounding on a hard surface. And of course I need to understand the working hoof mechanism if I am to make the best decision I can about footware. The eternal question.
Member:
rtrotter

Posted on Sunday, Jan 15, 2012 - 3:08 pm:

Hi Vicki,

My mare wears aluminum up front and steel behind. She is shod as simply as I can, while still allowing her to be able to grab the racetrack and remain balanced in her gait as she maneuvers around the 1/2 track turns. I use baby nails that are about 1/2 the size of regular nails and side clips behind that reduce the amount of nails I need to use.

She is very sound, she wears nothing to race except a pair of tendon boots and of course hopples. She does not hit her knees, does not get on any lines, does not require any headpoles or gaiting poles to keep her straight. IMHO, keeping her feet in good condition and balanced in shoes and out of them has gone a very long way towards maintaining her longetivity as a racehorse. She's been racing since she's 2 and is now 7, has required no vetwork in order to race, has never had a needle in any of her joints for any reason. Again, I attribute this to proper footcare as her bony column has been in proper alignment all of this time. Etc.

For your footwear problem, I would try and stay away from nailed on shoes as it does not take much to take all that work you've done over the past several years and mess it up in one or two shoeings. This is what I found out when I finally did have to resort back to shoes. My mare started out with what I would consider an almost perfect foot and within 2 shoeings, we had long toe, low heel setting in again and we went up 2 shoe sizes in the process.

I have tried just about every nailless option on the market and a combination of some of them. I have had good but not perfect results with some of them. All of them requiring some sort of modifications to work for my purposes. I decided to design my own based on my own experiences and what I know from what other people have told me that they needed. I am now in the patent research(which has been completed) and application phase of the idea and design and I am working with a patent attorney. So the answer to your problem may come sooner than you think and you will not have to put nails in your horses feet or clunky ill fitting expensive boots to be able to ride her.

Now to the visualization of the hoofwall flexing.
A horses hoof is at its most contracted state when it is not on the ground, because of the nature of the hoofwall itself, the hoofwall is very flexible because of what it is made of and it is made to expand when it comes in contact with the ground, all the hoof structures have some contact with the ground in a balanced barefoot horse, thus the entire hoof is used and acts like a pump pushing the blood back up into the horses legs and thus into the rest of his body. When you put nailed on shoes on this same horse, the foot is held in the non-expansion form whether the foot is in the air( horses are shod with their hooves off the ground, thus in the contracted state) or its on the ground. It can not expand as it should because the nailed on shoes hold the hoof in the same position and thus does not allow it to expand on contact with the ground. The shoe itself also prevents the other hoof structures (frog, bars etc.) from being properly used.

I hope I've explained this visualization well. Sometimes it tough to communicate what I see in my mind with the words on the paper.

Rachelle
Member:
lilo

Posted on Sunday, Jan 15, 2012 - 4:01 pm:

Very interesting discussion! Lilo
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