The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Pigeon Toes.

5K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  AmazinCaucasian 
#1 ·
Well, my farrier is coming out today to do Duffy, and I am hoping the get some good pictures of his work and let you guys rip it apart, if thats okay.

She is very pigeon toed on the front... I want to know if the shoeing is helping or causing more issues with this.

Our farriers out here are... well.. if you find one that doesn't make your horse lame, you're doing great.

If you were shoeing a horse with pigeon toes, what would you be doing and expecting with 10 months worth of shoeing? I didn't take any before pictures, which I should have done, but her feet were in horrid condition when I bought her.. old nails left in, thrush, over grown. Urgh... horrid.

Will post pictures later!
 
#2 ·
Trimming/shoeing a horse with limb deviations requires a knowledge of how those deviations affect foot landing and flight path.

A pidgeon-toed horse (toes in) will typically have a cannon bone offset to the lateral side of the carpus joint (knee). The result is that the horse will breakover on the lateral side of the foot, flare on the medial side and tend to wing during the flight path.

So, what should the farrier do and what can one expect, as you suggested, ten months down the road?

Whether trimmed or barefoot, breakover should be eased on the lateral side to reduce joint stress. Trim for level heels and sole plane. The farrier should NOT lower one heel in an attempt to make the horse less toed-out. Additional support may be needed on the medial heel quarter (can't do that barefoot). The shoes should be heavily boxed and safed as any additional support (extra steel) means an increased risk of the horse pulling a shoe.

The horse will probably still wing during the flight path (depending on deviation severity) but landing should be relatively flat with eased lateral breakover as the foot leaves the ground.

No one can "correct" a limb deviation but we can better manage the ground reaction forces that effect the hoof capsule conformation and stress on the distal limb joints.

What can we expect ten months later? A generally sound horse able to meet its owners performance expectations with the limits of the animals conformational abilities.

Cheers,
Mark
 
#3 ·
Wow Mark, thanks for the indepth answer!

I'm well aware that no amount of farrier work will get rid of the dishing. Its not a problem for me, I knew of the problem when I bought her. With muscle build up and help of the work done so far, however, the dishing has lessened greatly.

Apart from the first shoeing, where her lower legs got a bit puffy, she has never had a day of lameness. I can ride her straight after shoeing albeit I never push her hard but make it more of a leg stretch.

I couldn't get photos tonight as my farrier was around- I didn't really want to say 'Hay I'm taking pictures to make sure you're doing your job right ;)' so I will endeavour to get some tomorrow.

She does have extra steel at the back, and is ALWAYS worked with bell boots on- I have gone through five pairs simply because she over reaches due to her big strides and I'd hate for that iron to come off too.

Something did strike me as odd today... my farrier put her old shoes back on. I have to admit I thought there was a lot of wear on the toe, but I am no farrier. Again, me giving you this information is useless without pictures!

I will sort myself out tomorrow and get some!

Thanks again Mark
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top