barefoot/CPL

[jac]

Some of the hitch horses over here have really big flat feet with literally a square toe!! I would go as far as to say bordering on cruelty. I noticed the change on the 2 youngsters first but the older horses are comming on. It seems to me that if the heels are allowed to grow the feet start to revert to the flatness.. mabey not but seems that way to me.. bear in mind im not a farrier but just an owner that has trimmed for years and only recently tried the Pete Ramey ideas. Its great to have farriers on here. Regards the CPL issue my vet recons its a lack of elasticity which effectivly stops the fluid being pumped back up and with the trim I had been doing ,the heels were a bit longer, which I thought closed the gap at the pastern and mabey cut down on the flex.. so I figured that dropping the heel and shortening the toes the breakover would be better.. again no science behind it .. just me trying to help a problem that is in Clydes…
John

[MuleRyder]

Jac, you are on the right track with your trimming. Toes back, heels low- 1/8 to 1/4 in. above live sole, flares removed- but don’t rasp more than 1/3 wall thickness or higher than 1/3 of the way up the wall, bevel wall to a 45 degree angle, or roll the edge. Also be sure to keep the bars lower than heel level. You don’t want active pressure on the bars- I taper them from the heel buttress down to the sole level halfway up the frog. Be sure to balance the heel heights. Looking across the bottom of the foot should be like looking across the top of a glass, nice and level side to side and front to back. This type of trim works well for me.

[jac]

Hey MuleRyder.. that was a great description and makes it plain to follow. thanks. One thing I did notice was that I seldom need to trim the bars now.. its almost as if they have become another calus… is that normal ??
John

[Big Horses]

John,
Gene Ovnicek used to live here in the valley, and has been a family friend for years. When I’m too busy to do our trimming, his nephew does ours. Here’s what his whole “barefoot trim” boils down to…
Trim down to about 1/4″ of the live sole, bevel the toe, keep the outsides nice and smooth and round the wall a bit at contact point. Same thing that’s been said in this thread a bunch of times, basically.
It sure works for us, and I’m with you, they move better and are much healthier! If we find there is a need for iron, we’ll use it, but we haven’t had to put a shoe on a horse here for the last 7+ years.
The show industry and their “scotch bottom” shoes have screwed up alot of good horses! I don’t have a huge problem with the basic shape of the shoe specifically, but have a huge problem with the way they have the shape of the shoe and hoof so exagerated and flared! Any shoe that has the nail holes more than an inch in from the outside edge is just plain abuse in my book!
Gene was one of the first to get the “barefoot” stuff going and put it out in the public. He took alot of ridicule, but stuck to his guns on what he saw in the wild horses. He’s a good man, and a master farrier, and I always grin when he admits “we did things the wrong way in the past” to people.
As far as you getting told your horses feet are too small by “show” people, that just means to me that they’re about the right size!! Like I said earlier, the show industry has screwed up lots of good horses, and their “judges” usually have never spent a day working a horse in their life. (I don’t consider running a horse around in an arena, working)
John

[MuleRyder]

I have read many articles by Gene Ovnicek, and he certainly knows what he’s talking about. I especially like his research on navicular. I agree with Big Horses, if people are telling you you’re horse’s feet look too small, they’re probably just about right.

[Author]

Posts