by Steve Karshner
A big issue that seems to keep popping up is asymmetry in the horse’s front feet. I now believe that it is a much larger problem than people have thought in the past. I deal with it all the time and rehab these feet on a regular basis, but it is surprising to me the many different conclusions that people have come to about the condition. Let’s talk about a few of them.
Some people think that it is an upper limb problem and that the fact that the shoulders are uneven or out of balance transfers down to the feet and causes the feet to grow out of balance. This then causes one foot to be larger than the other–one usually has a high heel and is dished and the other has a long toe and under slung heel, or no heel at all, and is usually larger than the other foot.
Another camp says that the condition comes from the fact that horses are left or right side dominant, thus causing one side to muscle up more and the other to become shortened in stride, again resulting in the foot deformities we see in the condition. Somewhere in all of these reasons we also have saddles fit incorrectly or positioned on the back wrong which then shortens the stride because the shoulders are restricted in their movement. Then we have the oldest of the reasons that we were all taught in Farrier school: you leave a club foot alone because you really can’t do anything about it. I wonder how many of us have actually seen a real club foot.
The chiropractor thinks its upper body problems and may be an old injury that was never treated, so we will put the animal back in alignment and hope it holds, he sees that the shoulders are out of balance but is not sure of the reason why. The acupuncturist isn’t sure what it is but thinks if you treat the area where you believe the pain is that, that will give the horse some relief and over time that will eliminate the problem. The trainer hopes he or she hasn’t pushed the horse too hard and looks to saddle fit and training practices. The vet isn’t sure what it is but thinks that maybe a little bit of rest and then exercise would help and of course a corrective shoeing might be in order. OK, I know in some of these cases I have over simplified what that profession would think or even do, but the point is, we all come to every problem bringing our education and our experience, and see the problem from our unique point of view. Well, here’s one more view from one barefoot farrier. How about this–maybe the problem starts in the feet, and when the feet are so different that they cause the knees to be as much as an inch or more out of balance, that then causes the upper limb problems that the horse then tries to overcome with muscle changes. Those changes put the horse’s skeleton out of balance, and the problems begin.
A young horse can muscle through this condition without it being noticeably lame, but as the horse gets older, balance becomes more important, and we start to see the lameness become more apparent. When the high heel on the horse has been accepted as a club foot then nothing is done and the club foot gets worse. The heel gets higher, and the long toed under slung heel on the low leg gets lower which puts the even more out of balance. Years go by and the horse gets worse and no matter how much massage therapy, chiropractic work or acupuncture you do for them they just go back to lame and no one has any idea how to make this animal better. He bobs on the high heel side, and the stride on that side shortens and shortens and you feel like your riding a pogo stick. Your farrier starts shoeing with wedges to try and bring some balance back to the knees, then pads to protect the bottom of the foot because it is becoming more and more tender, then eight instead of six nails are needed to keep the shoe on, and then finally he adds clips to the shoe because it has become so heavy with pads and nails that the horse is losing shoes in between appointments. Sound familiar? This animal is in pain and its attitude will probably reflect that fact. The horses feet are becoming unhealthy because of the restrictive nature of the shoeing and your farrier is frustrated because nothing he seems to do is helping, and you are watching your best friend slide down a painful hill that you seem to be unable to stop or change. He will probably react a lot like a horse with navicular syndrome and be very high and over reactive to anything you ask him to do.
But know this: like navicular syndrome, most of these cases can be reversed, and one of the first steps involved is boot therapy. It takes about three months to really see the changes and about eight to bring the horse all the way to good, but by the time you get to the end you will have to ask yourself, “Oh now which was the high heel and which was the low heel”? The feet will look the same and the horse will have a stride and a balance that you haven’t seen or felt for a long time, if ever. I will be putting a more detailed description of the process on our website in the coming months, but understand that the process is not difficult, but like anything else, until you know how to do it, and you are committed to the treatment, it can seem impossible. I have many clients that have experienced this transformation, and I will put some testimonials up on my site soon.
I will tell you that without the boots to get this process started, you will have a very difficult time, and you might not be able to keep the owners happy with the progress. Remember they are being pressured (if not directly, then indirectly) from the shoeing side to put the shoes back on because that is the accepted treatment at this time for this condition. So, if you fail to make believers out of them at the beginning because their horse is in pain, then you will fail. Remember as a barefoot advocate you represent us all, and that your failure is our failure. All you have to do is look to our brief history to be reminded of what a few people failing in the name of natural hoof care can do to damage all our reputations, and how it can set back all the hard work we have all done.
I’m still in the process of drawing some diagrams that hopefully will explain the process step by step, but I’m a farrier not an artist so the diagrams are actually harder for me to draw than the actual treatment is to do. When you start on an asymmetrical horse he will probably be shod. The shoes are pulled at the end of a shoeing period and the games begin. When you view the foot from the side you will notice one of the feet is larger than the other. The large foot will be long in the toe and the heel will be following the toe forward and will be crushed and under slung, due to the fact that the center of gravity of the foot is not coming down in the middle of the coffin bone, but further back in the heels. This is the foot that is so hard for everyone to get heel to grow. People think if you let the foot get longer that the heel will get higher, but that is not the case. If the foot grew straight down then that theory would work, but it doesn’t– it grows forward, with the angle of the hoof wall, so if you let the foot go, the toe will go forward and so will the heels. When you look at this foot it looks like the bulbs have moved forward right behind the heel and now you have this long area between the bulb hairline and the back of the heel. That area is where you are going to have to move the heel back into.
It’s nice to have a lateral radiograph of the foot so you can gauge your depth and see how much toe you can bring back. But when you see the x-ray you will see that only the hoof capsule has moved forward and you have plenty of room to bring that toe back and back those heels up into what has seemingly become bulb. I recommend trimming the horse every two weeks for the first month and then every four after that. Subsequent trims are simply a continuation of taking heel and bring back toe, until you have the center of gravity back in the center of the hoof capsule.
Believe me, you will be able to see the change in the balance in the foot almost immediately and the foot will look like it’s under the horse better, where it belongs. OK, so that takes care of the low leg foot.
Now let’s address the high leg which is high partially because of the high heel but remember part of the imbalance in the knees is due to the fact that the low leg is much lower than it should be because of the under slung heel. What we are going to be doing is trying to get these feet to meet in the middle–lowering our high heels and building heel on our low heel side. The high heel foot or the clubby foot is dealt with much like you would deal with a foot with contracted heels. Most of these feet are high heel, contracted, and have a frog that has atrophied, sometimes to the size of your little finger. You want to take as much heel as you can but if you don’t feel comfortable about taking the heel all the way down to the level of the frog the first trim, then cut a frog support pad to fit inside the area between the heels to make frog contact.
The taking of this heel will tighten up your deep digital tendon, so do a flex test on the joint to make sure you have enough room to lower it. Read the bottom of the foot as well. If the sole in the heel and bar area is cheesy or disconnecting with the live sole plane (wanting to “let go”), then you can probably lower the heels safely. If it’s hard and callused (obviously bearing weight) you will probably want to bring the heels down slowly. With the frog now making contact with the ground via the frog support pad, the heels will slowly expand and the frog will start growing and expanding along with the heels.
Remember in the end what we are really doing here is leveling the knees and the shoulders because the feet will grow the same and will be the same size if they are supporting the weight of the front end equally. It will take some time for the bilateral balance to return to the front legs and it will take time for muscles to develop equally on both sides, but you will start seeing the benefit of the new balance almost immediately. While bringing these horses back it helps to do neck muscle massage when working them in the round pen. It seems to relax the neck muscles and allows them to lower their head and relax more. If you are working on a horse that has had an obvious or not so obvious tendon injury on the high heel or the clubby foot side, be careful. If you think its possible that the tendon is to damaged to stretch you might not want to change the angle on that foot, you could do more damage than good if you try to stretch a tendon that has been that scarred.
Remember in the end what we are really trying to do here is balance the knees and shoulders so apply your boots accordingly. You might want a thicker pad on the low leg and a thinner pad with frog support on the high leg. When you have the horse’s knees close to level then you can start letting him exercise out of the boots, by this time you will be building very noticeable heel on your low side and your high side will start keeping its heels in check. Before each trim as the progress continues you will see that you will need to take less and less heel on your high side to bring the feet and knees into balance. Until next time remember… No Hoof No Horse.
Steve Karshner and Chance
About the author
Steve Karshner has his natural hoof care practice in Tehachapi, CA that specializes in the rehabilitation of navicular and foundered horses. You can learn more about his rehab center at http://stevekarshnernaturalhoofcare.com or drop him an email at skarshner@aol.com.
