08/21/2024
I've been working with an old paint gelding with a long founder history. He's a sensitive fellow; can't tolerate noise from the anvil or grinder. Even nailing a steel shoe bothers him.
His front hooves are sensitive, especially the left fore - the hoof in these pictures (click on photos to see uncropped).
For the first 5 months, I used a square-toed breakover shoe on his fores to reduce toe leverage (top picture). As seen here and in Monique Craig's book "A Modern Look at the Hoof", this style shoe can cause the toe pillars to bulge forward (10 o'clock and 2 o'clock positions), narrowing and pulling forward the back half of the hoof.
Then, for the next 9 months to the present, I've been using a plastic shoe with full caudal support to engage the back half of the hoof (bottom picture). The results so far are fun to look at: check out how much more hoof is on the ground in the heel area! Beefy heel areas are a key to success.
The horse is a little more comfortable, shoeing is no longer a struggle, and I look forward to some other improvements!
