Performance Hoof Care
Week 1.
This module tackles an aspect of the performance pillar within the Mindful Barrel Racer Framework.
As your horse’s caretaker, you are their health advocate. While the farrier is the professional, it’s up to you to have enough knowledge to advocate for your horse.
In this module, we hope to help you gain an understanding of how important your farrier work is (whether barefoot or with shoes) to the soundness and wellness of your horse. It doesn’t matter how fancy the shoe is or how straight the nail line is if the trim is not balanced.
The balance of the hoof impacts how your horse travels and how it stands and carries its weight almost 24 hrs of a day. It has a direct impact on its posture and therefore soundness and longevity. Injuries and imbalances above the hoof can also change the hoof balance from the top down. In this first conversation with Murray, we talk about opening up the conversation with the farrier so he or she knows you’re open to hearing any changes they might see or feel that can indicate unsoundness or imbalance.
Week 2.
This week Murray will take us through a trim on one of his customer’s horses.
Murray bases his hoof mapping off the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization mapping protocols. You can access their free download on mapping HERE.
There are many ways to trim and shoe a horse and this is what Murray has found to be most effective for the horses he works with. It keeps them moving as they were made and keeps their feet in check when done on a regular schedule. Everything he does is for the soundness and efficient movement of the horse.
In a future video I ask him if he would do the same if he was just trimming (not shoeing). Some might be wondering that because he does trim pretty short. He won’t be this aggressive on a horse that he is trimming (without putting a show on after) but that does make it harder to get them to have the ideal breakover and not run forward.
He is working towards the ideal hoof pastern access and studies have shown that trimming balanced around the center of rotation from the underside creates that from the bottom up.
This second video is of the same horse, but the hind foot that hadn’t been shod previously but is now being prepped for a shoe.
If the hoof pastern angle (HPA) is not ideal, it is either broken forward or broken back. Even when a horse is trimmed balanced, may end up with a broken hoof axis by the time they are at 6 weeks. For high-performance horses and those with previous strain injuries, a shorter trim cycle might be ideal so that they never get too far out of alignment.
The image is from this article: The hoof pastern axis and its relevance with Sarah Logie AWCF
Week 3.
This week Murray went over some images we had of previous hooves and a couple that were submitted. We talk about finding the center of rotation on a few more examples and looking at the hoof pastern axis. You’ll see how it’s important to also assess the underside of the hoof and not just look from the side or the top. We also discuss conformation and how it can influence hoof growth.
Week 4.
In week 4 Murray talks about heels and how it’s not of benefit to leave them to “stand a horse up”. He talks us through balancing a second horse and then we have a look at Squiggles hind hoof. Because of her crushed heel, he decides to put a wedge pad on her. He will explain this in the video and then you’ll see the “after” photos. The real after will be in 6 weeks when she is due to be reset.
Here is a link to an article on negative palmar angle and shoeing the hind where you can see some x-ray images of when the coffin bone isn’t at a supportive angle. This is something that is more common than you’d think once you start looking around at hooves and how horses stand under themselves.
Visit the Q & A from June 30 for some answers to questions and please join us live on the July 15th Q & A if you have any questions for Murray.
There was a question asked about hot shoeing and Murray did a video with the answer HERE in the FB group. In the comments, there was also a question about how to soften hooves which is answered in the text.