If Your Horse’s Feet Could Talk

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article gives horse owners a glimpse into the methods used by one experienced veterinarian to monitor the feet of his clients’ horses. Your veterinarian might have developed his/her own special way to follow the normal/abnormal foot, or you might be looking for a place to start a program to track your horse’s foot health.

It has been said that more than

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This article gives horse owners a glimpse into the methods used by one experienced veterinarian to monitor the feet of his clients’ horses. Your veterinarian might have developed his/her own special way to follow the normal/abnormal foot, or you might be looking for a place to start a program to track your horse’s foot health.

It has been said that more than half of all lameness in horses is the result of pain within the hoof or is associated with the consequences of improper hoof wear. When you consider the size of a horse’s foot in relation to his body mass, it seems incredible how much weight and concussion this structure can withstand. The average horse supports almost five times as much weight per square inch of foot surface area as a human and can move almost four times faster!

Human athletes are very particular about footwear that is not only very specific to their sport or application, but also that fits the individual athlete perfectly. Any defect in the shoe, or how it fits, is quickly reported by the athlete to the coach or trainer so an immediate remedy can be sought.

Now imagine the equine athlete; he/she cannot speak and describe pain or discomfort. The owner’s or trainer’s ability to detect a problem is a function of experience (seeing other lame or painful horses) and ability to observe the horse during movement. When you consider the ability of a human to detect problems, it must also be remembered that this can only be done accurately at the walk and slow trot. After the horse begins to move faster than about seven miles per hour, the images begin to blur and changes in foot flight become more difficult to detect. What this means is that typically for lameness to be noticed, it must be evident at the walk or slow trot

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Written by:

James K. Waldsmith, DVM, is the owner of Edna Valley Veterinary Medical Center, Inc., which operates The Equine Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

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