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Steve McQueen -
13 year
old American Saddlebred gelding.
this
photograph was taken in May 2002, 10 months after Steve came
to live with us. |
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Stevie came to
live with us in September of 2001. He was very well loved by
his owner who knew he needed more in the way of hoof care,
than what was being offered to him. He presented a AAEP level
2 lameness at the walk, and level 4 at the trot and
canter. Steve had a history of moderate to acute lamenesses
for the previous 6 years. He had been on stall rest for much
of that time. He had a history of atrophied and bleeding
frogs with on and off acute abscessing. |
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Steve came to us wearing egg bars. His frogs were non
functional, with severely contracted heels. His hoof length
was 6.25 inches, and when we removed his shoes, his feet
measured a 33 degree hoof angle.
“Steve had a severely broken
back hoof pastern access and his hoof wall grew forward
almost horizontally out of the coronary band.”
The frog had
zero contact with the egg bar shoe. His heels were run
forward to what should have been the widest part of his
foot. He was well shod in a traditional sense, the previous farriers recognizing that the foot needed to be shorter, but
limited by the lack of sole depth.
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We began with a Natural Balance trim to his sole plane, and
that brought the heels back to the frog buttress. Steve was
initially shod with a 3 degree wedge pad and Aluminum Natural
Balance shoes, set back to achieve appropriate breakover. Then
we nippered off the excessive dead toe, undercut the rest
with a rasp and top dressed the foot back.
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This
shoe is set around the parameters of the coffin bone, not
the severely distorted hoof capsule. |
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We had to continue to bring the
heels back to the frog buttress, and diligently set our shoe
back to achieve optimum break over, and removed even more
excess, distorted toe.
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This is not
an attractive foot by most people’s standards, however once
the 3 inch lever was removed off the front of the toe, it
began to function in a more normal manner. Horses don’t get
this degree of distortion overnight. Likewise, heeling is a
process that takes time. Steve’s heeling began once
we dealt with the severe distortion at the toe. This picture
is far from the final outcome, but you cannot even get on
the path to healing until you deal with the distortion. |
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As you can see from this
radiograph, Steve has a severely broken back hoof pastern
access and was walking on his navicular bone. Despite those
challenges, he started to improve once we delt with the
distortion, and eliminated the lever from out in front of
the coffin bone. |
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Further
gains were made by grooving the dorsal wall below the
coronary band and adding a wedged shoe, to improve
hoof-pastern axis, still following Natural Balance
parameters. These pictures were taken in the Summer of
2003. |
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The use of wedges on horses
that have poor hoof pastern alignment, isn’t always the
right approach. How much wedge a horse can tolerate can
only be decided by watching the horse move and see how he
accepts the amount of wedging that you are offering. Once
again, every horse is different. |
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Our
daughter Laura, took Steve back into the Pacific Northwest
Saddlebred “A” circuit Show Ring.
Laura and Steve ended the year with 2
championships in Western Pleasure in the Snohomish County 4H
division, and also the Jr. Exhibitor Highpoint in Western
Pleasure on the Saddlebred A Circuit. |
Steve needed all the right ingredients each and every time
he was shod in order to stay sound. Natural Balance farrier
science provided those ingredients. It is simply looking to
mother nature to determine what’s different in our domestic
horses.
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Gene Ovnicek’s wild horse studies have taught us that Natural
Balance is not just a way of shoeing, it’s about
understanding healthy foot function, and providing the
appropriate support package that helps each horse achieve
this, for every shoeing. Sometimes that’s an EDSS system,
sometimes a NBS shoe, sometimes a Reverse shoe, or Double
Nail Pad system, or a squared toe Eventer. I look forward to
the day, that what we currently label as “Natural Balance” is
someday just simply referred to as good horseshoeing. Labels
create division, and unfortunately that division comes at the
horse’s expense. |
